Bantu Niah and back again...

"We all want to talk but we don't know how to speak," Ribena, a woman from the church in Bantu Niah commented to me while my YWAM outreach team was visiting an Iban long-house. She said many people are excited to talk and share with us, but they just can't find the words in English to express it.

Long-house which our outreach team visited



The feeling was mutual. I longed to speak Iban or Malay in that moment so I could share a laugh, cry or just talk more about our common faith. But praise God that despite the language difference I could at least sense a comradery between us YWAMers and those living in the long-house.

  

We came to Bantu Niah (about one-hour away from Miri) to visit an evangelical church and some of its members who live in one of the long-house communities. The long-house itself was part of several similar dwellings in which dozens of family live. The wooden homes are built on stilts with a single, main common hallway on the second level. Off the hallway are separate 'apartments' for each family. It is very simple living.

Our mini-church service was held in the main, shared hallway in one long-house. About 40 members of the community took part in the service. We sang a few worship songs in Malay, with us YWAMers attempting to follow along using song sheets. The good thing with Malay is that it uses Roman letters and sounds exactly how it's spelt. Unfortunately that doesn't mean I know what it being sung or said. Tuhan is God. So that's good enough to know which songs focus on Him.  One of our team members delivered a short message through an interpreter about God's faithfulness.  Heads nodded along to the message once it was interpreted.

Lots of "village food" including rice,
chicken, greens and pumpkin.

And then it was time for the feast! The pots and other containers with the food were placed down the middle of the hallway, almost like a giant dining room table. As guests we ate first - rice, chicken cooked in bamboo with tapioca leaves, pumpkin/squash, and this amazing local green cooked with egg.

During the meal we all sat on the floor, which was planks of wood covered with thin linoleum. I sat with four young boys with whom I had been beside during the worship service. They themselves rushed over to sit with me during the meal to chat. Well, chatted is an overstatement. We joked with each other using sound effects and hand gestures to explain what we were trying to say. Plus one of the boys, Nathanial, spoke enough English that we could ask each other simple questions.

Little admirers: Peter, Nathanial, Gregory & Valentino

 I overheard one of the little boys joking that I was a "pretty girl", likely one of the few English sayings he knew. So cute. The four of them were very excited and eager to get to know us visitors. One boy, Peter had a cut on his right hang. I wanted to pray for him but not knowing how to ask I didn't do it aloud, but silently asked God to heal whatever had happened.

Before leaving that night I along with two other YWAMers prayed for woman in the community who is pregnant. She is expecting in June.  I think several of us YWAMers enjoyed getting to know these lovely people from a culture so different than our own. Yet, we are somehow all the same.

That night my YWAM outreach team stayed in a small inn. It was quite comfortable and far more comfortable I'm sure than staying in the long-house, which had been one of the earlier suggestions. Then it was up early the next morning for a 7:45am breakfast at the church that invited us. Green bean bread, fried eggs and bee hoon (skinny noodles with egg, shrimp, chicken and greens). Oh yes, and coffee!

More than 100 people ended up packing into the second floor room that houses the church above other business in the community. It was such a blessing and spiritually moving to take part in the Malay worship. I cried at the overwhelming sens of joy I felt to be part of another culture's praise to God. It is so thrilling that God made us all. He loves us all, and delights when we can come together in His name. So powerful. Even though I didn't know what was being sun or prayed, the passion and love shone through. Celine (one of the women with whom we've gotten to know through the church in Miri) led worship as well as translated the sermon by one of our YWAM team members.

Then after the service I along with some other YWAMers had the chance to pray for the churches leadership team. And guess what? Most of the leadership group is comprised of women! My excitement over that fact was quickly quenched when I was told that the women take the lead in the church because few men in the community are Christian. Many of the women are married to men who still practice the traditional, animistic religions or other faiths.

Again it was time for more food. By the end of our trip, the Bantu Niah group had fed us three meals, paid for our hotel accommodations and then gave the group a cash donation to help by for our travels. I have never experienced the gratitude and generosity I have witnessed here in Malaysia.

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There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 (NIV)