Sibu is a town in the central region of Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. Steven and Josephine joined Michael and Eva (World Impact staff) on a short-term mission trip to Sibu to gain greater understanding and insight of the 3Ce Ministries that Michael and Gwen started in 2014. It was an eye opening and adventurous experience for us!
There are many indigenous tribal groups in Sarawak; just to name a few, the Ibans, the Lun Bawangs, the Bukitans, the Kayaks and the Penans. It’s their tradition to live in longhouses. [A longhouse is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single or double storey building for communal dwelling.] We visited some of the older longhouses in very remote areas as well as the more modern ones which are relocated and newly built. Our journey was an adventure on a small ‘sampan’ to cross the Rejang River (770km largest and longest ‘tea-colored water’ river in Malaysia) to get to the longhouses. At certain seasons, there are crocodiles in this river. Fortunately for us, these predators were not lurking around when we crossed the river!
Each longhouse could have as many as 30 plus units joined together with each family living in a unit. The longhouse has a long corridor in front of each unit which is a very conducive environment for socialisation and communal interaction. This is where they gather to eat, meet, dance and celebrate their festivals. We visited the non-Christian and Christian indigenous people living in these longhouses. They are very friendly and hospitable. They love music and dance. There is much freedom and joy seen on the faces of those living in the Christian longhouses. Alcoholism and smoking are some of the social issues faced by these people. Most of them were very open for us to pray for healing and for their various needs.
The 3Ce ministry is partnering with BEM (Borneo Evangelical Mission) / SIB (Sidang Injil Borneo) to install water filters in remote villages so they can access clean drinkable water instead of purchasing bottled water. This project has helped them to save money and the environment. The BEM pastors through 3Ce Ministries install water filters for these communities, demonstrating the love of Jesus to them by this practical support.
Interestingly, the BEM/SIB mission was started by 3 missionaries from Australia, namely, Frank Davidson, Carey Tolley and Hudson Southwell. They boarded an old cargo steamer from Melbourne in early October 1928 and headed for Kuching (town in Sarawak) via Singapore. Somehow we felt the connection in this important work.
We were privileged to travel in the new 4×4 truck funded 50-50 by CityLife and BEM respectively. This vehicle enables BEM District Pastors to visit church plants in rural areas; often traveling on long distances and rough terrains. It can be a very lonely journey which may take them hours to reach a village and requires these pastors away from their home for days. We are amazed by the commitment of Pastor Yahya and Pastor Along to serve these communities in addition to taking care of the churches and raising their young families.
On Sunday, Michael was invited to preach in BEM Kapit Church, and Eva shared in a Youth meeting whilst we shared a session at the Children’s Sunday School. Michael’s message on ‘Expanding the Kingdom with the Faith you Already Have’ definitely inspired the Kapit congregation for global missions. The Youth were encouraged from Jeremiah 29:11 and 1 Timothy 4:12 to be ready for the working world in the years ahead of them. The children were cute, spontaneous and participative.
One of the challenges faced by the Pastors is to encourage leadership among their congregation to rise up to take responsibilities to care for their community. Ministry is slow to progress as there is a great lack of pastoral staff. CityLife Life Tracks have been introduced with “Train the Trainer” and some Life Tracks (LT) translated to Bahasa Malaysia. One of the churches has taken off with great excitement and had completed teaching LT1 to many Life Groups and will now embark on LT3 in the 2nd half of this year. Many rural church congregations comprise of elderly members who have no transport access to church or LGs for LT classes. This is due to many young people migrating to town for employment and leaving the elderly, women and non-school age children in the village.
Another area of need is the establishment of support of pre-school education. We visited a pre-school which has grown in numbers, but more financial support is needed to attract Christian teachers to teach in Christian pre-schools. Some may have a passion to teach but do not have the finances to upskill their training as teachers. This young generation is our future leaders for Sarawak.
Some of the challenges and support needed:
• Prayer for the Pastors and BEM leadership so they remain focused on reaching out to the many longhouse communities.
• Prayer for effective training of Pastors to lead small churches based in longhouse communities.
• Financial support for expansion of Christian pre-school education.
• Recruiting qualified teachers for pre-schools.
Article submitted by:
Steven & Jo Yip
Short Term Team Members to Malaysia
July 2024