Mount Murud? Me? No ... Yes, you can .. I don’t think I can.
That was last year at the prayer convention in Sibu.
In my heart I was also wondering why do I need to climb a high mountain to hear God .. does it mean I can hear him better? That became one of my expectations.
As the time got nearer, it hit me that I had to be serious and make a decision quick! So I seek the Lord and next morning, he gave me 3 verses from my devotion of Isaiah 40 – v 4, 9, 31 (11th April as per my whatsapps to Judith).
With verse 40: 4 – what excuse do I have? So we started to look into the flights but all direct flights were fully booked. Meaning we have to fly to KK, travel 3 hours to Lawas and then 5 hours to Ba’kelalan! I would be a dead duck reaching there and expected to climb next day!
The Lord knew ... in came Pastor Patrick to our office and immediately he told us to go a few days earlier via direct flight to Ba’kelalan. He would then arranged for us to stay with his nephew Cikgu Sang. So we did that. We flew in 13th July Saturday and met Cikgu Sang’s lovely family in their beautiful homestay. Next morning we went to their church. Happily sitting there, returning the greetings of Ba’kelalan folks who were so friendly (pray they will remain such lovely people and not be corrupted by us city folks) .... until I saw the banner in front of the church for the SIB theme 2019 – Isaiah 40:3. My tears just flowed. Later in the afternoon, when we were sharing with Cikgu Sang (wonderful worship & also SIB church leader) about their theme in connection to Isaiah 40:4, he said ... Oh, the theme for the prayer camp is Isaiah 40:9
Forgive me Lord, for my little faith
The D-day arrived. It took me almost 8 hours to reach the church camp. It was only by God’s grace and depending on his promise that I could make it. I had 5 lovely angels (Judith, Esther, Eric, Wilfred and dear hubby) who accompanied and helped me. Praise God for their love. Was it tough? Yes, it was. It was the hardest physical thing that I had ever done in my life! Cikgu Sang said every time at the end of the journey when people compared their shoes, the locals’ were so much cleaner. So when I started the journey, I wanted to keep my shoes as clean as possible. When it got tougher and tougher, putting my foot to the next step was already a hassle, the Lord showed me the footprints in the mud .... “follow me” and that was what I did. Each step I nailed the names of my family & friends to the cross of Jesus for their salvation.
Did the Lord speak to me in a louder voice? I went up with a blocked ear, did he whisper to me? Did I hear his heart beats up there? Did I see visions like some were reported to have? No, nothing much extra ordinary happened but I had a wonderful time immersing myself in the joy of worshipping our God. We just waited upon the Lord and felt his embrace. Even though much of the worship was in BM (with limited vocab), I didn’t automatically switched off as usual but was able to immerse myself worshipping, dancing with him and was so at peace with joy. Later I found a little white feather on my jumper. There was another one on David’s jacket and Raymond also found one later, too. There was no white birds flying around – only black swiftlets or a butterfly.
One lunch time both David and I were led to stay back in the church to fast and pray. We went to the side of the building and while praying with our eyes closed, we suddenly felt so bright – the sun came out and shone upon us. It was just like what the 5 IBUs who came and prayed for us in Ba’kelalan. They told us – a bright light shining on us.
Return journey – it felt harder than going up even though I made it in shorter time of 6 hours 45mins. Indeed God was faithful when he promised mountains would be made low because when climbing down, both David and I kept asking ourselves .. wow, did we climb up these high steps on our way up?! As usual, there were many angels we met along the way – the 85 years’ old uncle who chaperoned me all the way till almost reaching point, the young girl and father who appeared out of nowhere to share hot sweet tea to give me strength,Judith who refused to leave me behind, Wilfred/Eric who came back and so many more.
Yes, my God is amazing. Creator of the mountains, hills, valleys .... and he truly show himself to speak to me through his word. I pray that I will remain obedient and faithful to his calling till the day he says .. Good, faithful servant
Will I encourage anyone to go? Yes, it’s a must for once a life time experience
Will I go again – NO! ... unless the Lord calls
By: Aileen Tan
(Footnote: Cikgu Sang mentioned that he was happy the theme was also confirmed by someone outside of Ba’kelalan)