Mission Trip 19-21 June

The past 5 days in Kota Kinabalu has been a blessed time. The 18 of us from Malacca boarded the Air Asia plane to KK and what a joy to see Paulus and Sis Helga waiting for us outside the airport. We have so many luggages and one van was needed to fit just that. We arrived in Grace Point for lunch and the journey to Terintindon began. The ride for the first 2 hours was good but as we crossed the bridge, the tar road turned to gravel road with stones and dirt. It was a 1 an half hour bumpy ride.

We were welcomed by the pastor and villagers as soon as we stepped off the van. The condition of the village was nice and not as bad as my previous mission trips. They have water and electric and the church was well structured with comfortable musical instruments.

As soon as we had our first meeting, I headed off to put on my clown make-up.
It has been ages since I last make up and I surprised myself that I did a good job despite
no practise for at least 2 years. I told myself, Jesus this is for You. I'm not working but this is Serving you, I want the kids to see a clown for themselves. My usual half an hour makeup time became nearly one hour as I meticulously painted my face.

I was the center of attention and the kids had never seen a clown before. Since I used to work in major shopping malls,kids in the cities are very familiar with clowns. They will request for balloon sculptures whereas the kids in this village has never seen a balloon sculpture before.

The next morning a young boy held on to a inflated balloon like his little treasure. I asked him to give it to me and he refused. I didn't want him to bite and choke on the rubber. I have never seen city kids treasuring an inflated balloon in such a way. My heart melted and I made for him a new one and more kids came.

The kids in the village are warm and waiting to be close to us. Many children hugged me especially the girls and the boys were well behaved. They will listen to instruction and are very much attentive.

The children's Sunday School class rooms are without much facilities and they do not even have a single colour pencil for the children to colour. How I wished I have the money to buy for each child. Nevertheless, I had fun teaching the children Action songs and Acting out skits and mimes for them. I asked who wants to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and all hands up.

We prayed and I commit the kids to JESUS.
Indeed, my mission for the whole weekend was touching the lives of children. I didn't really participated in the adult sessions. The children are running around without any activities and I decided to take out my pump and balloons. I had at least 50 kids surrounding me each wanting a balloon. At least I tried to maintain the quietness for 45 mins.

I enjoyed seeing children singing along with the adult worship and it also saddened me that the kids are not treated as gems. We want to see kids as future leaders and they are the one who will be future leaders and pastors of the church.

What a weekend to commemorate Dino and my first year wedding anniversary. Serving Jesus together is our desire and we are going to serve and worship Him all of our lives. We had a fun time eating and relaxing at Tanjung Aru with the gang. The 2 extra days in Sabah has been a holiday for us both and we enjoyed every moment in Sabah.