Saturday morning, when I drove into the church parking punctually at 9am, there was no sign of other cars. I was a bit worried that my fellow "missionaries" had already happily departed for Jasin since I had only confirmed my participation with Sarma and Kee Ming the previous Sunday. While I was thinking what to do in case I had been accidentally left out, I saw the couple entering the office. So I quickly caught up with them and learned that I was actually the first participant to "report duty".
After awhile, other young adults also arrived and seemed to be surprised by my presence. I guess they either considered me to be a lone ranger, which was true in some ways, or they assumed that I was only interested in mixing around with the Calvary Care Home (CCH) gang. I used to be acquainted with the young adults by emails and in person when I first attended their cell meetings two years ago. This time, I took this opportunity to have fellowship with them again.
We left with two vans. The drivers were Joseph L and CW who used to fetch Vietnamese to the church service with the same vehicles.
Our first destination was Selandar. We stopped in front of a well-furnished centre instead of a remote village house as we had imagined.
Pastor Joseph Boon Chai from Kampung Jus Church was having an English class with Orang Asli children. He used the direct method to introduce vocabulary by question-answer and asked the students to repeat individually while showing the object they were holding.
Most of the older children were paying full attention and actively participated in the lesson. One of the younger boys was sitting on the floor so motionlessly that he did not even turn his head one inch when we caressed his hair.
Later we noticed another boy who also hardly had any facial expression and realised that the two boys having the similar blurred look were probably from the same family!
After all the children presented orally, they were required to write down the sentences on a piece of paper. That was when we intervened to guide them.
Among all the young adult tutors, Charlie was definitely the youngest in heart.
While helping them to spell words, I also began to befriend several of them and leave my trademark trace--spider face.
The next activity was singing.
Some of the adults partnered with the children to accompany the song by gestures. Sarma who was yet to have a child with Kee Ming due to their theology studies was already full of motherly love.
After the children went to other rooms to do some exercise, Ps Joseph shared with us the situation of the Orang Asli in Melaka, Pahang, the difficulties his pastoral team faced, their prayer needs and their desire to have more committed workers to serve this community. After handing over a love gift to bless their ministry, Kee Ming led us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who were living in this part of Melaka.
We were blessed with chicken rice for lunch. After my one-week weight losing programme, I was confident that I would not break the small wooden chair while sitting on it... Three girls who were not too shy to talk to me in Mandarin told me that they studied in a Chinese school.
After the meal, the boys could not wait for their food to digest and started to play football. Their field was filled with grass that was not mown like the one at CCH. Yet, they were having great fun kicking the ball to one another and chasing after it.
I was hoping that some international football stars would be born out of them when they suddenly turned the game into rugby! A boy who happened to be Ps Joseph's son was holding the ball and the rest rushed to him and piled their bodies one after another onto his. The poor thing who was lying upside down on the grass in tears almost suffocated and took at least ten minutes to recover from his trauma.
I kept playing with Ps Joseph's chubby daughter in a red dress when she was alone. Joseph of the young adults group, who usually saw me with the CCH children, teasingly asked me with a Chinese proverb if "I had found a new lover". Actually I was just attracted by her doll-like face and lovely curls.
Having such loving and caring parents,
she will always have a lot personal attention, unlike the CCH children.
It was time we moved to the second place.
May the Lord continue to send out labourers into His harvest ( Matthew 9:38) in Selandar.
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