New year - God's Work first!

The team members.......

It is 2017 and a brand new year! What a way to start the new year by starting on the right path of the year with God's work. I have learnt over the years that when you embark on your very first plan to honour God by doing His work, you'll be alright for the year! Amen! I have learnt through realities and hard times in life that no matter how much you pour out whether in your energy, your time, your resources, your sacrifices or even your finance for God, you can NEVER ever outgive God because He will bless you abundantly and exceedingly bountifully. We have a great BIG hearted God! Amen to that!

The water that flowed in water pipes due to illegal logging..

Coming back from the latest OA Community work had been the most satisfying one indeed and it involves the effort to equip the OA village with clean water from a waterfall source. Water is such a precious commodity and sustenance to this OA community and to see the Christian community not having water supply due to prejudice, oppression or even harassment are such known fact and it is a real heartache to me. I am so proud and happy of the OA Christian community for steadfastly holding on to their faith and enduring whatever difficulties that were thrown in their path and yet they persevered and their thoughts are still for their community as a whole. Like I always say, I pull no punches on what I am writing as facts are facts. With abundance availability of corrupt practises, bullying and sometimes threatening and scare tactics, it is no wonder that the OA community suffered in silence and praying for the heavenly intervention to look into their plight. 

 

The murky water from the water pipes at our rest house

Over the past few months including recent months and developments, illegal logging activities had put the OA community at Kg.X ( I shall leave out the kampong name for fear of backlash and other unfair treatments ! You will never know what evil doers and twisted individuals can do to rape the lands of the OA community! ) in such a dire state and need for clean water.  Though the people had protested against illegal logging not too long ago, the loggers are at it again , this time bring so much damage to their main water source, polluting the water and even flowing out unchecked waste into the water system. 

Murky water....gosh......

The team from City Community Church ( CCC ) Melaka had earlier carried out reconnaissance of the water catchment location and planning earlier in December, 2016 but we were only able to go back to the community with further plans and initial works recently due to our own work commitments, festive seasons and spending time with our family members. Despite the festive season and holidays, the hearts and minds of the core team members ( Edwin, Errol and myself ) were on the water of life cause. I guess, I must be honest that this cause is in my head all the time and so are the rest of the fellas as I could not fathom not having clean water in our pipes for 10-12 years. How could the hearts of men could be so evil and wicked to do that to another fellow human being? It is not a religious thing or a racial theme! It is about providing basic amenities in water, electricity and food for ALL irrespective of colour, race, creed or faith! Basic needs, people! Basic needs! The OA community are human beings with basic needs. 

The MMC young heroes....

It is horrendously wrong to sideline or purposely withold the basic amenities due to the community through prejudices. Does any religious teachings teaches us to discriminate , hate and kill fellow human being whether through our direct or indirect actions? I believe the greatest hypocrites are the so-called religious people who hide cowardly behind thick curtains of religious falsehood and spew hatred, trickery and false hopes to the community. 

Moving the water pipes....

That Saturday, upon arrival, our first-hand experience of the water condition in Kg.X broke my heart. I was utterly disgusted, felt repugnantly repulsive and angry ! The bottle of water produced by Pak P who was using the water from the illegal logging area produced teh tarik pekat with about 1 cm of sediment of red earth, mud and silt at the bottom of the water bottle. Pak P further informed that there are days whereby waste such as rotted tree residues, oil and repulsively smelly water would flow from their own initiative water pipes. ( Yes, they had to resort to find their own resources and pipes as water pipes from so call Govt. Dept mysteriously stopped at a few houses away! Makes you often wonder how evil some people could get, right? ) Anyway, it was only later in the night that I truly understood what Pak P was saying about the water as the water that flowed to our resting place was also oily, muddy and dirty! It was heartbreaking for me as I pondered upon the countless number of men, women and children who would suffered and contracted diseases from these contaminated water supply due to illegal logging! 

The poly water pipe carriers....

We arrived at the water source....

Errol & me working at the water source....

Moving forward to the positive side of the trip, this time , we had a team of young people comprising of 4 young men and 2 young women from Manipal Medical College joining the team. They are Peterson Tee, Joshua Yon, Joshua Khoo , Khai Hern a.k.a Ezekiel , Lydia Gan and Belicia Chee. Young, vibrant, bright and inspiring young men and women. I must admit that I have my reservations if these city slickers would adapt to the kampong lifestyle and ways but they proved me wrong on all counts by being friendly, comforting, bright and blended easily with the people. Sure, they ain’t as fluent in their BM ( acceptable BM they learnt from school lar! ), they had a punch in their hearts and their minds. They gave a good account of themselves by being helping with the team in carrying the water pipe roll, fixing the water fittings and contributing ideas to make the trip to the jungle worthwhile. Sure, they have their antics on leeches hunt and what not but these are truly one group of fun loving young people with a great burning passion in their hearts to help the OA community.

 

The core team at the water source....

We started out by having our packed lunch of chicken rice and roasted pork. Yummy was the word as I do need to get my roasted pork to oil all the joints in my body and all that! Hahahahahahaha…..but it was a good time of rest and fill up after some 6 hours journey on the road. We changed into our jungle gear and clothes, as I would put it, before seeing the young people spraying anti-leech, insect repellents while Edwin putting on some repellent he bought from Chinese medicine shop. The smell from it will DEFINITELY drive the leeches away! Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaa……..We gathered together, held a prayer together and encouraged one another before proceeding to the meeting point where we would meet up with the locals. We sought the heavenly blessing that day and He helped us through!

After meeting up with the local folks at the plantation clearing, we started out our journey with high spirits and great enthusiasm.The journey to the waterfall area was quite a walk with a few of us falling on our bums due to the soggy and slippery grounds. 

Good, clean and fast moving water....

There are times I noted that the grounds are extremely soft and not easy to have a grip when we walked on further. I fell on my bum a couple of times as I slipped and it is painful lar. An old bloke like me should not be falling that often as it can be quite taxing for old bones in my body! Anyway, as long as I die doing God’s will, I’ll be happy to meet my Creator! That's for sure! This time, I noted that there was a different path to the waterfall and Errol noted it too. Guess, being in the woods when we were in the RR Ministry helped us to be alert to new surroundings or path. I believe that the new path is good as it would help to shorten the length of the poly pipes usage and also for greater output of water pressure. 

As we reached our destination, the young people really helped us in getting the things done for the water piping. While a few of them helped Errol, Gilbert and myself in setting up the water catchment device, Jin Hui and Edwin tried to locate our position with various GPS devices to map out the distance and the estimated length of pipes & fixtures needed for the works. 

This is the satisfaction/reward for our hardwork - clean, fresh and fast water

Yup....the clear, clean and fast water......

These young people are magnificient......

Joshua Yon, the buff one and Peterson gave us a lot of ideas on how to fill up the pipe quickly with a funnel like contraption made by cutting out the bottom of the 1.5L mineral water bottle. I guess, in the midst of excitement and the desire to bring water to the OA community, we sometimes forget the simplest of task and these young people reminded us that there is so much to learn and the amalgamated effort between the young and old would definitely enriched the working experience. I have nothing but praises for these young people who truly worked real hard throughout our work up there. I never heard a whisper of being tired or anything negative. Lovely set of young people! 

 

 Gilbert, Peterson, Jin Hui, Joshua Khoo, Joshua Yon, Edwin, myself & Errol

When Gilbert, Errol, Jin Hui, Edwin and myself fixed the water catchment device to one of the cleft of the water pool, it was such a great sense of achievement knowing that water would flow from the other end of the water pipe. When the pressure was that good while water splashed strong, clean and refreshingly, you know for sure that you had made the right sacrifices. No one could ever replicate that feeling of joy after walking in the jungle for an hour to reach our waterfall water sources. It is just a sense of being able to provide that good water to the people that brightened up my heart a lot. Even the MMC young people were very joyful about the water as they got first-hand experience of how important it was for the OA community to have good , clean water. Thank you, Lord / Puji Tuhan for enabling us to be your vessels in doing our best to equip the OA community with clean water from your very creation, the waterfall.

 

My personal satisfaction - being in nature and with nature - I love it!~

Joy fills my heart because I know that more life could be saved from certain deaths now. It is sad to know that contaminated water could wipe out this OA community if this matter is not taken seriously as threat of water contamination and diseases are very real and evident. 

 As I sat down at the table sipping my coffee with my fellow mates, Edwin, Jin Hui and Errol, at the end of a grueling day that we had, I could not help feeling happy for our achievement that day and yet, apprehensive on the future of these OA folks who are faced with such daunting task of staying healthy and alive. I pray that God’s mercy would be upon the OA community and may they flourish under His loving hands.  

Enjoying a meal together as one big family.....

O God, please protect these Orang Asli people and their community! I pray for your hands of favour upon their lives as they continue to fight against the evildoers! Hear their cries and the weeping of their widows and family as the evildoers rape their lands and take away the very little they have. Lord, you heal their land and you bestow upon them the abundance of your grace and your goodness. May your balm of comfort and healing be upon their hearts in their grief and may joy, happiness and blessing fills their hearts in the time of rejoicing as their hearts are filled with Your love. Amen ~