Alutok Adventure 2025

The photo of Alutok village graced the front covers of both my biographies, one in English (Departure Points) and one in Malay (Anak Panah). It's been on my bucket list in the past few years to revisit Alutok village since my first visit there in 1996. I had planned to do so next year in July, the 30th anniversary of my time there, but God had other plans. I was invited to speak in two sessions of the Central Ulu Tomani cluster of churches. I probably preached 4 or 5 times during my first visit there starting Friday night until Sunday morning.

This time the service started on Saturday night and finished the next morning on Sunday. It was good for me just to speak for two sessions nowadays since the travelling time of more than 5 hours each way with a stop overnight in my wife's village took a toll on my energy. During Saturday night's service, I could still feel my head swirling due to the motion in the car from four and a half hours' drive from Tambunan to Alutok. 

We stopped over in Tambunan town for lunch and by 1pm we drove to Keningau where we stopped for another half an hour (I had a cup of coffee) and by 3.15pm we reached Tenom town and I saw the chairman of the central committee waiting for me. We spoke briefly and he was clearly delighted to see me after so many years and we shook hands twice as we parted ways with him leading the way to Alutok.

We reached the village at 4.30pm with clear blue sky as we passed by several landslips and thankfully there was no rain throughout the weekend. The weather was fine and the road journey was smooth under the circumstances. I learned that the road was paved only in 2023 as previously I had to walk on foot for 90 minutes from Bakuku to Alutok in 1996. I was also told that internet came only last March about 6 months ago and the Alutok village is now accessible by road and also online. 

The night meeting started at 8pm sharp after 7pm dinner. I could not eat much after a long day's journey but consumed enough to keep my energy level up until I preached at 10pm. I preached for 37 minutes, basically a sermon expounding the theme given to me based on 1 Tim 4:12 and the five traits found in Timothy illustrated by three heroes of faith in Daniel, Joseph and David. I spoke on being gentle and persuasive in words, in our behaviour, love, faithfulness and purity. I felt the message went really well as I could see about 350 worshippers listened intently. The night service just at 11.30pm as there were still more events after my sermon. We had midnight supper and we went up to our room and slept at 1.20am in the morning. The leaders told me that they fellowshipped until 2am and probably went to sleep at 3am. 

No wonder at 7.30am in the morning there was no one to be seen at the dining hall. I already gotten up at 5am, and by 6.30am I was hungry. I saved up a small piece of cake the night before and it filled my stomach before breakfast at 8am. The Sunday service started at about 9.15am and this time there was a bigger crowd of about 450 people from the four surrounding churches. I preached at about 11am for 48 minutes and again people listened in rapt attention. By 1.40pm I was saying goodbye to the two deacons who carried the hamper and also a bag of rice and they loaded that onto my car. Another 5 hours' drive took us back to Tambunan and by the time we arrived, it was dark. I thought to myself I would rest for a while before taking my dinner but I slept through the night until 4.30am the next day.