Mission trip to Rumah Nanggai

Sorry for posting this so late. In May, I went on a weekend mission trip to Rumah Nanggai with a team of nine others from Grace Methodist Church. It is approximately 360km from Miri, just before Selangu on the highway to Sibu. so it's somewhere in between Bintulu and Sibu. Along the way, we passed by long stretches of oil palm plantations, and even logging depots where they send the logs down the river to their intended destinations. I've never been so far away from Miri by land before and was very excited to visit a long house.

This was the first time GMC visited a long house in this area, and we were invited by Rev Norah to join him in reaching out to this particular long house. There were nine families staying in the long house with about 45 people, 30 adults and 15 children (including teenagers).

Outside the Rumah Nanggai long house

Spacious interiors. Above is the common corridor outside the rooms

When we reach RN, it was almost 2pm and we had a simple lunch of local veg, wild clams from the river, and wild boar meat. After lunch, we had a short rest and I took the chance to explore the long house.

Water tank at the back of the room of the host family,
Important to fill it up in case there's no water supply

Cats at the back of the long house
They grow their own pepper

Then it was time to get down to do the Lord's work. We started with the children's ministry since most of the adults were at work. After warming up with a few action songs, we had a colouring contest followed by a nutrition talk and a session on dental hygiene.

Then we set up our "barber shop" along the corridor, where Amy and Jacqueline offered free hair cutting services. That was very popular and quite a number of the children and even one adult had their hair trimmed.

Hanging out with the kids

Some of the group sat down with the adults and chatted with them. Through the dialogue, we found out a couple of issues the Ibans were facing and asked if we could pray for them. They said yes.

Soon it was time to prepare for dinner and Duan and Angeline quickly went to work.

Wild bamboo shoot before it was cooked

As the kitchen had limited space (coz the host family were also in the kitchen), some of us drove a minute away to the stream to have our evening bath. It didn't rained and the stream was very shallow, up to our calves. But we managed to have a nice refreshing and cold bath.

One of our group members found this heart-shaped rock at the stream

We went back and had a sumptuous dinner: the same lunches dishes, fried cabbage with ikan billis and carrots, fried egg with Chinese waxed sausage, and roast chicken and char siew which we had bought at a coffee shop along the way to RN.

Word spread to a neighbouring long house that we were screening a film show (on Jesus Christ in Iban), and they also joined us after dinner. We sang a few songs of praises and the Ibans also sang and even did the actions with us. Teck Choon and I shared our personal testimonies about our relationship with God. And then we screened the film show.

For the trip, I wondered how will I communicate with my smattering of BM. But during the show, a young boy W, who was sitting next to me asked me a few questions about Jesus Christ. With the help of David who was sitting next to me, we answered his questions as simply as we can, and softly so we would not disturbed the others. I wondered whether W understood the love Jesus had for us. When it came to the cruxifixion part, W whispered to us, "If I was there, I will surely defend Jesus Christ." Wow.

After the night programme ended, we had a quick devotion and shared our learnings with each other before retiring for the night. We slept on the clean floors and even though there was the symphony of snores, we had a good night's rest and slept every well. Perhaps we were tired.

On the next morning, we woke up and had a simple breakfast before packing our bags. Some of us distributed goody bags of rice, a tin of biscuit and some necessities to each family. Then we all set off for church. Some of the long house folks followed us too.

The church is a simple building and ladies sat on one side when the guys at the other. David, Duan and Angeline led in a session of BM/Iban songs. While I didn't understand the sermon as it was in Iban, I quietly gave thanks to God for the opportunity to spend time with the Iban folks. God was already at work amongst them and four families had indicated they want to convert to Christianity. I praise God for His grace and love for the Ibans and also prayed that Rev Norah will be able to follow up with the families, and we will be able to support him whenever he needs help.

After the service, we realised one of us left something at the long house and we drove back to get it. Whilst waiting, I got out of the car and walked to a patch of grass that I had noticed when I first arrive at RN. I wanted to check out the bright pink flowers. And when I reached the flowers, this was what I saw - one of the bunches of flowers looks like a heart shape. I smiled knowing that God's love is upon this place.