Sibu, Sarawak

In the past 4 months I have visited places and countries with names all starting with S. I went to Singapore, Seoul, South Korea and now I am in Sibu, Sarawak to represent my College at the Methodist Theological School's 18th convocation yesterday. It was held at the Masland Methodist church that seats 1,000 people and the church was almost packed. Incredibly the service lasted just 1 hour 40 minutes with the sermon preached in English and translated into Chinese taking only 30 minutes. I wonder how long my own graduation service will last this coming Saturday.
I am expecting it to go on for 3 hours seeing that we have 240 people receiving scrolls of various sorts from certificate in ministry (extension course, 190 participants) and 50 more with diplomas and bachelor in theology. My time in Sibu is well spent with all the faculty taking turns to take me out for meals. I really appreciate the Chaplain and his wife who accompanied me for early breakfast, and joined me at a Bahasa service at SIB Bethel. SIB in Sarawak is now known as Borneo Evangelical Church (BEM), the name of our parent mission organization that started the work in Sarawak in 1928 and moved on to Sabah in the 1930s. It was great to get to know the church pastor from the Kenyah tribe and he told us of the current revival among the Penan tribe, one of the few remaining groups in Borneo to be evangelized. After the service, another faculty member took me for lunch and I was grateful for the fellowship with him for an hour or so before being taken to Sibu airport.