Ministry Update: May 2009

The Sunday after I returned from Sabah, I read an article on Teachers’ Day in the Sunday Star. Yes, the teaching profession…a profession I disliked but was led into it. After all, if you have students who send inspiring sms to you, wouldn’t you be encouraged? I am… despite my short-comings, their appreciation towards this ill-equipped teacher made every teaching effort worthwhile.

I was very looking forward to the one-month stink in the interior. I was getting pretty fed-up with the complexities at work. Yea, I know. We have that everywhere we go, in every office, of every industry. Ministry is no exception. The Friday, before I left campus, it was Teachers’ Day. That was 24Apr. Yea, you may be wondering why Teachers’ Day was celebrated then. Me, too. However, I was pretty uncomfortable with that tradition. To me, ministers minister for the Lord, not to gain recognition and honor before men. I find that some colleagues are getting addicted to such recognition. Teachers’ Day become an occasion to look forward to in order to be recognized and honored. This is so “unministry.” So, I was very and extremely glad to get away from such scenario to the simplicity that the jungles can offer.

Despite the schedule change for the AirAsia flight to Tawau from KL LCCT, a half hour earlier than originally scheduled, I was glad I was able to comfortably hop onto it. It was at McD that I was held up. That place is so super popular; the staff was not exactly super efficient though. When I finally landed in Tawau, it was approximately half past five in the evening and the day was turning dark in this side of Malaysia. The first meal served here was biawak or monitor lizard. It tasted great. In fact, after dinner I dropped by the students’ quarters and found a few of them slaughtering another lizard. One of them scooped out the heart which was still pumping, oozing out black, dark red streams of blood.

I had a meeting with the local leaders the next day, mainly discussing the partnership of the local Bible Training Center and MBTS. A lot was discussed and it filled my thoughts the following few days. There are so many things to attend to, to grow this ministry of vast potential and the eagerness of the local leaders further fuel my enthusiasm.

The week of class went smoothly. Two students left but two additions maintained the status quo. I think the privilege I discovered then was that one of the new additions was our cousin and now he is here and I had the privilege to teach him Christian missions! Wow, right?! We study Introduction to Christian Missions in the morning and study English in the afternoon. But we were not able to start our English class the first week because the books were not yet ready. So, our first English class was held in the Star Cineplex, watching Wolverine. Much to my disappointment, the students read the Malay sub-titles to understand the story! It was also quite a surprise for me actually, when I discovered that to a few of the students, that was their very first time visiting a cinema. And mind you, watching a movie in a small town like Tawau was not cheap, it cost RM9 per entry!

There was a slight change to my weekend schedule. The original plan was for me to visit Serudung Baru but the new schedule had me visiting Kalabakan the first weekend. I have to describe the visit more vividly here. See, on Saturday morning I was sent to town, to Tawau Baptist Church, where Ps Madia greeted me and brought me around town awhile. At about noon, we started our two hour drive to Kampong Rancangan Kalabakan. We stopped by a restaurant in Merotai which was famous for its soup, like sup tulang, sup ayam, sup lembu, etc. We sat next to a family of cousins. When our food arrived, we gave thanks and started eating. Apparently, the family of cousins was pretty uncomfortable with us praying before our meal. When their food arrived, they sang their prayer loudly and it was quite awhile too before they were satisfied enough to start eating their food!

We arrived at the kampong and it was almost 3pm. The day was hot, really hot but the kampong houses are built on stilts. There are hammocks under the houses where villagers lie in the shade to rest in the cool of the day. Ps Evelyn was relaxing on one such hammock when we arrived. I was brought to visit the village briefly. There was really nothing much to see. There’s the super famous Sungai Kalabakan where huge prawns are caught daily and sold. And it was super dirty, filled with mud and was teh- tarik in color. I was all ready to rough it out in the village. But to my surprise, I was put up in a rest house. See, there is a FELDA scheme next to Kalabakan. There is no piped water in the village, electricity comes from generators. Only now, electricity poles are erected to connect power to the village. However, the FELDA scheme has all the privilege of piped water and electricity. One of Ps Madia’s sisters works as a supervisor in the rest house in FELDA. And it was suggested that I spend the night there instead of in the kampong. Wah, I felt so undeserving…especially when I found out that they planned to put me in the suite in the rest house. Fortunately, the reservation made was a bit late and the suite was taken up by another guest and I ended up in a deluxe room. Despite that it was very comfortable. For the first time in seven days I felt clean after a good shower. There was air-con, hot water shower, television, and two comfortable spring mattresses in the room. I slept so soundly that night! Meals were at the restaurant in the rest house, which was the only decent restaurant around. And yes, you guessed it – Kalabakan prawns for dinner, Kalabakan prawns for breakfast, Kalabakan prawns for lunch. Well, that was originally planned until I “intervened” and changed the menu for breakfast.

Service at Kalabakan Baptist Church was at 9am but the kampong flexibility saw the service began at 9.30am. With my usual short message, the service ended before 11am and everyone was surprised that it was still so early. Ps Evelyn had expected me to preach for 2 hours! No, that was a joke.

The second week began smoothly too. The English books arrived and we also started our English classes. Only to discover that half the students cannot follow the syllabus. Thus, we have to put the books aside and start from the very beginning of building vocabularies and forming sentences.

There is still the kelawar (bat) that’s not cooked yet. But it is already almost three months old in the freezer. Some say, throw it away. Others say, there’s no expiry date. Regardless, the students are on a look out for exotic meats. On our list are items like tupai (squirrel), ular sawa (python), etc They also mentioned porcupine, ant-eater, etc. Thus far, I have also tasted eagle meat. I think the saying is true that everything taste like chicken. I mean, after tasting monitor lizard and eagle, both tasted just like chicken?!

Anyway, the second weekend I went to two nearby villages. Ps Anthony came to Kiulu Baru as early as 7am to drive me to an Iban village called Kampong Kuala Nansang. The service starts at 8am. We arrived early and spent sometime at the (church) chairman’s house. I had another round of breakfast here. At 8am, we proceeded to the church. This is a small church that was an outreach of Serudung Baru Baptist Church. Service ended at about 9.45am. After a short exchange of greetings, we proceeded to Serudung Baru. Here, there are a lot of youth. Worship is led by the youth, complete with a team of four tambourine dancers. I met a very interesting character here, a 74-year old Burmese man who came to Sabah in 1956. He usually worships at the English church of Tawau Baptist Church but on this particular Sunday, decided to drop by the village. After the service, I had lunch at the pastor’s home located behind the church. We were later joined by the Burmese man together with his local friend. Mr. Winter, had loads of story to tell us, the younger folks. And it was indeed a blessing to hear stories of early church planting against the back drop of Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation era.

My next preaching engagement was at the Combined Mothers Day celebration. I was given little information regarding this meeting. Slowly, I discovered that it is going to be a huge affair. In fact, it is planned as a gathering of women folk in all of Sabah (Baptist) churches in conjunction with Mothers’ Day. I was shocked to hear that. I was not expecting it to be such a big affair. But then, it is probably scaled down to nearby churches. It’s not too practical to travel far just to attend a one-morning gathering. So, I can console myself that it probably attract just nearby churches, maybe three or four village churches will come together.

However, at a home fellowship just a few short days from the planned celebration, I discovered that there will be delegates from afar traveling all the way to Kiulu Baru for the event. Suddenly, I sort-of, panicked. I mean, I do not consider myself a good speaker and here it is, a huge affair involving a huge participation and the little unknown me, invited to address the crowd! This is really a huge honor I do not deserve.

The interesting part of the culture here in the interior is that while the church service was scheduled for 10am. Most arrived as early as before 9am. Even though they stay just a stone’s throw away. Yes, that included me…because I followed some students and my hosts here. So, we were at the church for more than an hour with nothing to do except staring at each other and counting flies. Slowly, guests arrived from near and far. Some traveled for less than half an hour to arrive at Kiulu Baru while others took a journey of between two to three hours to arrive. There were representatives from women fellowship of various kampong churches. I think about six or seven churches were represented. It was a simple celebration with worship, message, presentations from various delegates, a sketch from the youth, concluded by the presentation by members of the women fellowship of the host church.

I was pretty nervous about delivering the message. Especially after discovering that it was going to be a huge affair. Well, it went ok except the end. I was pretty upset with myself for a while over how it ended. I wanted to close the message with a response song and have asked the worship leader and musician whether they knew a song I suggested. Both said they knew the song. However, at the closing the worship leader suddenly went clamoring for the transparency and could not find the song to lead the congregation. Later I discovered that this hiccup was due to the cultural differences between me and the local worship team. From where I come from, I would invite the worship team to return to the stage and to lead the response song. However, I discovered that the culture here is that when the preacher asks for a response song, the preacher is expected to lead the song!

I have an unscheduled preaching engagement the following Sunday. My host, the pastor of Apas Balung Baptist Church asked me to preach and I obliged. Well, I get to recycle my message, again. That has got to be a message most used. A whole four times!

There was a Tuesday where we had a prayer meeting in the nearby church. It was quite an experience. The past few days were dry and the water tanks were losing water fast. Everyone was praying and hoping for rain. Although the previous two nights rained, it was not as heavy as the rain that poured that Tuesday night. It was like in the movies. A jeep-load of us…8 of us packed into an old jeep traveling through terrain similar to the Camel Adventure gear. The rain was pouring heavily; the lightning gave an eerie fear while the thunders roar a deafening scare. All gathered in the hall of a quiet village church, all 13 of us, when suddenly the electricity supply was cut. Well, power cuts are a norm here, but on this particular evening, it added some flavor into the meeting. We were praying in the dark…in pitch darkness. The meeting leader read from the dim rays of a torch light. It was really quite an experience…praying in the dark, against the deafening roaring thunders with lightning of terror all around outside the church walls. Wow! Sounds like some movie scene, eh?

The final week was relaxing. We completed the syllabus by the end of week three and the whole week four was spent on revision. The students sat for the final test, worked on their project papers, and even requested an English test. Some fared well while others did not. However, on Friday, we carried the classroom to Tawau town and had another round of movies. Night at the Museum 2 was not a comedy I would recommend. We went to town early as someone told us that in Tawau, there is a morning show; only to arrive at the Cineplex to find it locked. We spent about an hour playing at the nearby arcade before the Cineplex was opened. Only to discover that the earliest show was at 12.00 noon. But we already had a lunch appointment at 12.30pm, so we went window shopping, walked a lot, and went to lunch before catching the 2.30pm show. Well, this time two of the students had to return to their home village for ministry. We were treated to a fanciful lunch by a friend and we return to the village with food stuff for barbecue. There were very decent servings on the table, except the squirrel meat. When I saw it before it was cooked, it looked just like a hairier rat. Well, it tasted like…chicken. A lot of bones with little meat.

The days progress swiftly. Suddenly the slow hours had accumulated to days and weeks. Soon it was my final week here in the interior. I sent sms to close friends and relatives…to update them that I am still surviving in the tamed wild here in Sabah. I feel too at home here to actually miss Penang. While I enjoy ministry, the circumstances made me ready to leave MBTS. Local potentials must be realized. After all, each Christian must help the other to grow in the fullness of Christ. But I do know that my strict adherence may sound radical to those who champion convention. And such clash of opinion often made me appear rebellious. But hey, wasn’t Jesus a “rebel” in His days? I’m just being like my Master.

Anyway, rumblings aside…I thank all of you for your partnership in ministry. Knowing that you are with me made the journey more worthwhile. Once again, thanks for the prayers and partnership.