We again sang songs just for the heck of it and we were driving on tracks and untarred roads again. dust was everywhere. freda and yi lin were trying to cover their face from the oncoming dust attacks while bernice and i were facing the “facial treament”. though the many fun time, we only travelled for less than half an hour when we reached our next village, Kampung Soronsob. a sign made by a trackter wheel states the name of the village and the houses there were all cemented stilt houses.

we stopped in front of a yellow house just like the rest and a man and some women came out to greet us. ps tom had a chat with our driver who was apparently the assistant head of the church. the man who came out of the house also greeted pr tom and the rest of us. turns out that the man is the pastor of the church and he was the former pastor of SIB Tagaroh. he moved out of there to pastor the church in this village about 3 months ago. we would be staying in his house which is the house that we stopped in front of. we put our bags in the living room , took the stuff that we need for practice, and went to the church which located on top of a small hill.

the church was quite big. it was quite sometime since we saw a big church so we were a bit relaxed. we sat down on the front pews and rested while pr tom and the pastor talked. a lot. after talking, the pastor went out so we started our practice. the pastor dropped by again during our “heart” drama and i garrentee i could’nt stop smiling and laughing the whole time.

after practice we went back to the house for lunch. at the dinner table, the pastor told us we could speak in english. the reason? because he wanted to learn. wow. not a problem for us. so we started joking all in english. this pastor was also quite a joker. he made alot of jokes that made all of us laugh everytime, kinda like aaron. but he was cool and stuff. he also played some music during lunch. the songs were all the vbs soundtrack that the SYM team did last year. he was the pastor then and he really liked the children’s camp so much that he copied the soundtrack into his handphone and plugged it in for us to hear while eating. yi lin, freda and i were singing along to some of the songs. wait, freda? yeap. turns out after her sis did vbs last year, she copied the songs and played them at home and taught freda all the steps. cool huh?

during lunch 2 cats were walking around. the pastor rears them and they recently had 3 kittens. they were being kept upstairs. so after lunch we went upstairs to relax. the stairs were located at outside of the house so we kinda had to get out of the house to go up. the first thing i noticed when i got upstairs was the tv playing. i was like, that’s a tv. what’s a tv again? and how do u work a tv? seriously, i haven’t seen a tv in 5 days so i was a bit “out” i guess….? it was playing GMB concert music so it was nice to hear christian music in a different language for a change. the kittens were there on the couch and every1 was happily playing with it. they were so cute; they kept climbing up and down u and their claws, well, werent so shy to stay in their paws.

the pastor changed the cd to one of a guy named nick vujicic. he is an incredible man who is living his life as a testimony unto God. he was born without arms and legs and he still praises God for everything in his life. the video shows of how he lives his life and a sermon that he gave to a congregation in america. i tell u, the things that u might think is impossible for a guy in his in posistion to do, he can do it. the pastor then took the kittens into his room and dint come out for some time. i was watching the video intenstly until, it felt better to stretch my legs towards the tv and my head on the floor…man it feels so good to lie down like this…oh my eyes are so heavy…i’ll close them for a while….maybe i can listen while closing my eyes…

the next thing i knew, the tv was off and someone had woke me up with some of us just waking up. i woke up finding the pastor sitting down on one of the couches looking and smiling at me. man that was embaressing. but then it was time for devotion so we went downstairs to get our stuff. after devotion, we prayed for Kg Lampada since we didn’t have time to do so when we were there. we also prayed for the pastor here and the ministry that we were going to do.
after praying, we were given time to relax and bathe. those of us who needed to hang our clothes were given hangers and pegs to help us. it did feel like home for a change. around that time was also the exercise time for the villagers. the youth and parents all came to the vollyball court in the middle of the village which is also across from the pastor’s house. since the house had a varendah, those who were waiting for our turn for the bathroom watched the ppl play sepak takraw and badminton. even the pastor went to play with them. its kinda like pr tom playing cs with us sometimes. haha.

after an hour, the pastor went to check on the villagers and there was a big commotion at the house opposite our house. appearntly the villagers managed to trap an eagle and they gave it to us to eat. we all so excited about the eagle that we took alot of photos with it. its dead btw. the pastor then plucked some of the feathers and gave them to us as a surveniour. i still have them in my house and they serve as a reminder of what i had encountered there. the pastor then announced that it will be cooked just to let us try how it tastes like.

we didn’t have the eagle for dinner but after dinner and drawing the devil patterns for kevin’s face, we prayed and relaxed for a while. we also took some photos just for fun (wait for the pics, they’re really cool!). when pastor told us it was time for service, we went to the church for ministry. when we went to the front door of the church, the congregation lined up to the door, children first, then adults. they were all greeting us in a line and all of us greeted them back. it did give a wonderful friendly feeling. the youth were all so excited abt us that they were the most enthusiastics ones there. when we were doing the drama, they all pulled out their super-more-canggih-and more expensive-than-mine-or-the-rest-of-us handphones and cameras and started recording it. after that it was my group’s turn to do children ministry so we gathered all the kids and went to pastor’s house to do ministry.

we played an icebreaker and when it was time for worship, we realised we forgot the guitar! what to do? sing accapella lor. easier for a person who is tone-deaf (yours truly) to lead the kids. haha. children ministry went on as usual until it came to craft time. i can’t help but realise that there was someone looking in the room from the window outside. i thought it was the boys outside who didnt come in but they told me it was a 12 year old girl who was too shy to come in. the boys tried to get her over but she was still too shy. it really reminded me of when i was that age, i was just as shy but i was being hostile coz i wasent ready to join a new children’s group after being pulled out from my last one. i wanted to meet her but my duty called. so i went back to help the kids with their colouring and stuff.

when service ended, the parents came to retreive their kids and kevin and nat took the remainding kids back to the church while bernice and i stayed back to clean up. some youths came knocking at the door to meet us. we got to know them and soon freda and yi lin came as well. we talked for a while then we left the youths who came to help prepare our supper to go back to the church to meet up with the rest. the other youths were praticing the songs for the next day’s (sunday) service while some of them who were dancers were practicing their steps. the music was so upbeat i couldnt help but to jump along with them.

when we went back to the house for supper, we talked with the elders of the church. supper was milk biscuits and tea. it was nice and refreshing after all the work we did. after a while the youths of the church came and we all chatted with them into the night, kinda like what we did in tagaroh. we showed them the video of the entire sym journey and encouraged them to go for sym next year. because i was at the back of the living room, i didnt realise just how much time we used just by talking. and we had to wake up at 4 the next day to get to the next church for sunday service. ah!! how could i forget! some of us had already gone to bed and i was nearly a walking zombie.

when i went to bed, i was so super sticky and i became mosquito food for so many of them. i kept walking up coz i was so itchy that i had to put my mosquito repellent on so much. thank goodness i was covered myself entirely with my sleeping bag so the mosquitos couldnt get me. muahha! take that suckers (litterally)!!! unfortuantely one of our team members got a stomach problem in the middle of the night but by God’s grace, God healed ‘em (name is kept ayonomous for a reason that this author will not get into trouble later ;p)so we were relieved.

we all woke up at 4 to bathe and we had the fastest bath we ever had. i bathed for only 3-5 minutes and we had to wear our sunday best because hello?! its sunday and we had to dress appropriately according to sym rules. i wore a long sleeve blouse while yi lin and freda wore baju kurung and bernice wore a blouse with a something like a flowing skirt. because my skirt was black, when we travel i would get dust all over my skirt and it would be very visible. so pr tom gave me permission to wear my jeans but i had to change into my skirt once we get to our next location. we had to trade our sport shoes for our nice shoes and i brought my heels with me. bad choice. why? i’ll tell u at the next post. shouldda brought my flats. haiz… oh well, too late to cry now. so we packed up everything and put all our stuff downstairs like how they were went we came.

then we had breakfast. remember the eagle? it was so kind to be our breakfast in the form of a soup. haha.

yeah i know that eagles are endangered and all that but hey, think of it this way, no 1, the eagle was stealing the villagers chickens. no 2, they caught it with a trap, no 3, this is the villagers way of life so the govorment can’t do a thing about it. satisfied? good. no? then tell me the last time u had eagle meat. jkjk…now lets continue on with the adventure.

the meat was tough coz according to pr tom, all carnivours meat were like that. gee, does that mean human flesh are like that too? dun think i wanna know that right now. the truck came during this time and the driver had breakfast with us. after the wonderful breakfast, we prayed for the pastor and his family. he is really a brave man for taking up this role of pastoring a church of a kampung that he was not born in. in spite of all this, he still manages to keep a smile on his face and make jokes with everyone. he really is a man who desires God for his church and village.

after praying for them, we got into the truck. we never had a problem with getting into the truck but this time was an exception. the girls are in skirts! so what we did was the girls got into the truck first by stepping on “strategic locations” while the guys turned their head away to avoid being “flashed” at accidently. soon everyone got into the truck and we all waved goodbye to the people there as we left for kampung no 6.

yes it's me
5:33 PM