Sarawak Mission Trip : Sarikei (Day 1)

It was time to set out and soar into the skies and travel to the place that we have been planning and praying to go, Sarawak. Preparations were made before hand to go for this trip. Packing was one of them. I had to really pack wisely, roling up my clothes to save space and keeping them in sealed paper bags. It was fun yet it took me more than I would have to pack my clothes.





We were now on our way to the airport. Some came all the way from Malacca to send us of (Thanks Pas. Joanne), while some seniors had to endure waking up early to send some of us to the airport (Thanks to Brendan, Nicholas, Thomas and Agnes) while my parents took me and my sis from Seremban. (Thanks so much!). It was time to leave.





This would be my first trip on AirAsia airlines and it was quite interesting to see the difference with that of MAS.



As we were goin there, I had one of the most frightening experience on an aircraft. The plane entered a thick cloud and suddenly the plane plummeted for a second. We had entered into turbulence. I could feel my entire heart drop and it brought shiffers to me especially for someone who have a fear of the dropping effect. Thats why you don't see me on any roller coasters. However, I thank God that we reached safely and was quite pleased with the landing though I expected worse.

The ground was wet. It had just rained in Sibu. We quickly made our way out as Pastor Paul was already waiting for us. He had arrived at 8am and was waiting for us since then. We had arrived around 9.45am. Imagine what time he had to wake up to travel from Sarikei to pick us up. There, we met the cute Roland which I had heard so much about. We even have our yahoo groups name after him. He was adorable as you can see from this picture.



We met Dennis who came in a van to pick us all up. Besides that, the ang mo pastor, Pastor John that we had heard off also arrived. We made our way to a nearby restaurant to have breakfast and made our way to Sarikei which was a two hours drive from Sibu. The roads between these two places were just single lane roads. This apparently were the highways of Sarawak. I can see why there is not much of a need to build such a costly road as the traffic here is very minimal. One of the interesting thing along the way was sitting a ferry to cross Sungai Rejang. Apparently this is the only mode of transport to connect to the other side of the river. There is a flyover constructed beside it but it seems quite run down. The project has long been abandoned but have recently been revived due to congestion especially during Gawai. I heard that one can wait around four hours to a day to cross the river. Imagine that.





We reached Pastor Paul's house thereafter where we met his wife and her mother together with their adopted child. It was quite a spacious house. A double storey cornet lot houses. Pastor Paul had recently moved here after receiving his posting as the general superitendant of Sarikei. We spend the later part of the day getting our things organise while I had some spare time to prepare my message. I had not been able to finish preparing it as I had just got some materials that would help me with it. Besides that, we had some time to go through our presentation, especially our dance which we had forgotten most of the steps due to the long break after the last practice.

After dinner, Pastor brought us to visit the biggest pineapple in Sarikei. We had thought that it was for real but soon found out that it was a monument. We had a taste of Sarawak pineapples and boy, were they sweet. No wonder Sarawak is famous for their pineapples.



The nearby pier that would bring one to Sibu and even to Kuching. Quite reasonable for its fair. Less than RM10.



We also manage to catch a glimpse of Sarikei town. It was rather small and it reminded me alot of Seremban town due to its colonial like shop houses. Most of the shops were already close by then but we manage to go to one of the biggest shopping complex in Sarikei. It isn't something that you may find in big cities like Parkson, Giant or even Tesco. It was just a multi storey kedai runcit with Chinese techno music blasting through the air.

After the tour, Pastor decided to stop by one of his church members house who was said to be in critical condition. Akun, had been diagnosed with nose cancer. As we entered the house, there were many people who were there visiting the house. Relatives, friends and even church members was there. The place was very still. There was hardly any discussion going on except faint whisper that could be heard. We went there and just sat there most of the time. There seem to be a sense of heaviness in the house. We began to pray for the family, lead by John. As we return home that night for our daily discussion, many of us had a sense of heaviness in the house. It was said that many who had came to visit him especially his relatives were mostly non Christian. They had not visited him for a long time and only made their way here when they heard that he was near death. A picture of an old woman whom I had seen at the house was in my mind throughout the whole night. I was wondering who this woman is and she seem familiar, someone whom I had seen in pictures from the last year's team.