Water

Have you ever wondered and felt blessed that there is clean water running out of your water pipes each day? I must say to you that there are still places in our country whereby some communities did not even have water pipes running through their village and here we are running gallons and gallons of precious water down our pipe shutes each and every day without a care in the world. Isn’t it ironic that water in its purest essence is the most important sustenance for life itself? I am appalled that there are still communities and villages in our country who still do not get their clean water supply because of their faith beliefs and even pure evil discrimination. What attraction is there if one does the very opposite of the very faith one is trying so hard to get the community to embrace? Where is the beauty of such faith if one practises favoritism, unfairness and evilness? God is watching and God remembers. 

Anyway, last Sunday, I considered myself blessed to be in a team of great people to track for water source for an OA community village who had not had clean water for the past 10 years. I guess, only God knows their trouble and the silent pain they had to endure all these years. To me, I noted that the OA village and community consisted on the older folks, the middle aged and the young ones. It is extremely sad to see the young ones live like that. I really felt a tug in my heart every time I see their living conditions minus the clean water supply. About 20metres away, two families of different faith had the luxury of having piped water supply and two water tanks installed in front of their houses while another 6 houses whose occupants are different faith are to be neglected? I shudder at the evilness of men.

I found out that the community only water source is the bottom valley river and far too many people had been using these waters to wash clothes, bathe, clean themselves and drink the water. It saddened my friends and I upon seeing and realising their plight. So that day after service, the five of us ( Edwin, Gilbert, Errol, Josephine and myself ) together with our OA friends, Pak Panjang, Pak Yee, Ibu Leha, Tos and Rudi made our way to the nearby jungle to source a suitable water source to flow to the OA community village.

I must say to you that being 51 in human years, I do cringed at the thought of hiking up undulating terrains as the body can be quite fragile at this age. I could almost hear the creaks, tweaks and little butterflies in the stomach as I armed up for the hike. Looking at my fellow hikers, I just prayed that I would not collapsed in the middle of the hike to find the much needed water course and source. Earlier I was told that it would be a 2.5km hike and it would be quite easy. In the OA terms, quite easy and 2.5km can sometimes meant differently as it would easily stretched longer and the terrain is tougher for us, the urbanites , than for the OA people.

Anyway, equipped with a real burning desire to reach the water source and to see what could be done , we started out our journey through the oil palm plantation and cutting through the small creeks and rivers as we made our way further into the plantation. It started out fairly easy grounds and then it started to go uphill and then downhill and then up again. Thirty minutes in to the walk, we had to wade through big fallen tree trunks, fire ants, leeches , spider webs and sharp rattan plants. Though the creek and river crossing were interesting enough, the rain during the night earlier made the grounds slippery, wet and some beautiful natural environment for leeches. Well, as far as I was concerned , leeches were the least of my worries. I was more worried if I could withstand the long walk but I was surprisingly surprised that I could still walked on. I am ever so thankful the One Above for giving me the strength. Maybe the burning anger in my heart for the unfair treatment and the fiery desire to find a good water source were the motivating factors for me.  I know right from the start that the Lord will sustain me for if not Him, I would have fallen flat on my face as we walked on in the rather undulating and wet terrain.

There were so many incidences when I fell flat on my ass and the falls can be quite painful but I am thankful I was not hurt at all. Maybe a bruised pride for falling on my ass and for being not careful but I am most blessed that all the years in Royal Rangers Ministry had helped equipped me with the knowledge to fall gracefully and not hurt myself and for the endurance too. Honestly, I was more afraid of falling and mistakenly grabbed the rattan plant for support which could quite a painful experience. In fact that was what that happened. My scariest nightmare happened when I slipped, fall and mistakenly grabbed hold of a cut rattan tree. The thorn and spike tore in to my right hand last two fingers and it bled! I quickly rushed to take out the thorns and ensured that no thorns were left inside the fingers. That was one painful experience indeed! As we reached a river crossing, I quickly washed off the mixture of mud, dirt and blood off the right fingers. Praise God, everything is okay and I could continue my journey without any hitch thereafter.

But I must say that from here on, I felt as though my stomach, lungs, heart and spleen exchanged places so many times that I do not seemed to care which part is at which position anymore. tiredness soon crept in but not a waning spirit to locate the waters. Sure, it was tiring but as we pressed on, there was a purpose in our hearts that day. So, I pressed on and so did the rest. Along the way, Ibu Leha stopped us in our tracks and exclaimed happily that there was a patch of wild mushroom right for picking. We helped out in picking out the wild mushrooms for our friends. Ibu Leha explained to me that these wild mushrooms bloomed only once a year and they tasted real good. By the time she finished telling me, her young daughter had already picked out about 2 kg worth of wild mushroom. I helped Pak Panjang cut a small length of creeper plant so that he can fasten his patch of wild mushroom and he kept them lodged between some trees opening telling me that he will get them on the way back.

As we walked further on, there was another patch of wild mushrooms and Pak Panjang told everyone that we should pick them on our way back. This was agreed upon and not too long afterwards there was another patch of wild mushrooms hidden behind a big tree and Ibu Leha praised God for a bountiful harvest of wild mushrooms. For me, I am just so amazed that the jungle could provide such sustenance for these simple folks. Then Tos, Yee and Ibu Leha also picked out some leafy plant which Tos explained that the leaves could be eaten as a cooked dish. It was really very interesting indeed and I was really impressed with their skills at survival.

After some arduous trek and negotiating some rugged terrain, we finally arrived at the water source. What a beautiful clear water sight indeed! Every ounce of tiredness and pain that had crept in due to the trek were immediately diminished and dispelled as the cool and cold water was splashed on my face. It was truly refreshing. The team then brainstormed on how best to extract water from this place with the ideas input from everyone. It was just such a beautiful natural sight and I am so blessed to be alive to see it, actually.

 

We did not stay long as the golden rule of being in the jungle is to get out as early as possible as it gets dark quite easily. So, following a lifelong traditional lifestyle, we parted the place after we have had enough view of the place. On the way back, we picked up the wild mushrooms and leeches along the way too. To be honest, I realised that the leeches had had their feast with our blood that day. Anyway, after coming out from the jungle, I was glad that everyone made it out good. It was a good 5km workout for all of us and  as we did not want to soil Edwin’s car, we walked another 0.7km to our resting place that day.

Prior to that, we spoke to Pak Panjang, Pak Yee, Ibu Leha, Tos and Rudi that we would try our best to get the water poly pipes, accessories and fittings to channel the water to the community. There was such a hope on their faces and I really felt their anxiety. I guess, in many ways, a lot had been promised to them but things just did not start for them. At that moment, I really wish I had a magic wand to get the water apparatus to equip this village with water. There was just so much anticipation and hope on their faces as we spoke to them on our desire to channel clean water supply to them. I felt their heartbeat so much on this matter. Silently, I prayed that God would enabled us , His people to get the works done for this community.

As I bathed and washed off myself after the trek, there was still a few leeches at my feet. Although there was a trail of five bloodied trail left by the leeches but it didn’t bother me at all at that time. I had to use handy plaster to stop the blood trail but the trip itself was worth the blood spilled to the jaw of the leeches. I am not unduly worried of the leeches bites and so on. I knew GOD had a real purpose for us that afternoon - to flow clean mountain water to the OA community. I pray that GOD's purposes will be fulfilled upon this OA community!