Ever since a family friend told me about the great revival back when I was very young, I have always wanted to experience and visit the prayer mountain called Mount Murud. In 2019, it was when God called me and made it all possible to do so. Leading up to the trip to Mount Murud, I became more and more anxious of the experience I was going to have. I questioned my ‘city boy’ self if I was able to survive the “interesting” environment I am placing myself into. I questioned if I was going to experience God. I questioned if I would make it up to the church camp and the summit. I questioned this, I questioned that, I questioned a lot and have little faith in stepping out of my comfort zone. That was where I realised I needed to be like Queen Esther. Queen Esther abandoned her comfort zone and stepped out in faith to fight for her people.
Easy is not how I would describe the journey from Lepo Bunga to the church camp where we stayed, and from the church camp to the summit. In fact, it is way on the opposite end of the scale. During the journey of no turning back (because if you turn back, you got no transport back anyways) the only thing on my mind was to do it for God. And it was only God who is able to give me strength to reach my destination. I was then reminded that most of the time, I do many things in my own strength and I should now depend all on God and always seek him and thank Him for his providence. It is very easy for us in our worldly world to forget about God, to neglect him and only seek him when we are really in need, but that was a great reminder that I should “in all your ways submit to him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:6.
During my time at Mount Murud, the journey from the church camp to the summit and back was where I was reminded of a few things. Firstly, God’s ways are greater than our ways. The route to the summit was one that is swampy and difficult. It was like I am playing hopscotch all over again just that I was doing it on branches with far reach. During one of the far reaches, I have forgotten about the limitation of the track pants I wore. There and then, I heard the last thing you would want to hear whilst being away from your wardrobe; the sound of the splitting of pants. After the ordeal, I continued with a high conscience as if the whole world was looking at my splitted pants. At the same time, I questioned God, “Why must this happen now? How am I going to the summit and down again?” I also prayed hard to God to find a needle and thread so that I can fix the embarrassment. We were one of the last to arrive at the summit, and brother Michael Kho followed right after. Brother Michael Kho was the “Doremon” in our group where he came well prepared with everything. So, the obvious choice was to ask him right away when he was seated what was in his bag that he carried. I was disappointed to find out that he only brought a change of shirt, water and food. But something led me to ask him: “You did not bring any pants?”. He replied: “Not in my bag. BUTTT... I am wearing TWO!” After he gave me his pants and everything was settled, I was reminded that God is good. In my mind I have only asked for a thread and a needle, and he provided me a full pants from an angel.
Secondly, I was reminded about God’s protection and love towards me. After the sermon at the summit, everyone left at the same time. And us being tired, we were slow. Where there was any area to have a firm footing, we would let the fast people by. During an occasion I did that, I jumped off a rock and landed on the mud. And I felt that I could not move forward after that. I looked down onto my shoes and realised that a tree root of about 1cm diameter impaled through my shoes. The first thought that came to my mind was “My Toes!”. However, I did not feel any pain. And thought that it was my adrenalin taking into effect. After freeing my shoe, I wiggled my toe to find out that it was completely fine. Till this day, I do not know how the root did not injure any part of my feet. I was blessed to have this experience of God’s protection over me.
The experience of this retreat is one that is memorable. The amazing team and wonderful people I met along the way. This trip really shows that God is so big and He is everywhere. I would like to encourage all of you to experience this journey at least once.
Written by Eric Ting