On a Journey

There are all kinds of videos on YouTube or TikTok. But one type that I like and watch occasionally or on a binge are videos of travel or driving long distances like truckers in the States. Although there is nothing much to see, it is the journey that counts. There is calming effect just to see the road ahead of us. USA is such a vast place of 50 states, like 50 countries joining together to form one Federation, though it is not called as such in the USA as their Constitution is quite unique how the federal authorities have huge powers whose head is the executive branch of government vested in the President himself (or herself, maybe one day) and states having their own governors and legislatures respectively.

But the journey is what counts. I always see myself on a journey. I might be in Sabah, a big State relatively speaking, 100 times the size of the island of Singapore. I could easily drive 10 hours and I would not reach the farthest place, perhaps in Kunak or Tawau, the South-East of the State. But I am on a journey, a spiritual journey of faith. "Follow Me", Jesus said and He has commanded me to follow Him. Even the latest move from my former Seminary just only after one year was done in obedience to the Lord's explicit command to me from LXX Proverbs 24 "Prepare your works for the departure...Follow behind Me..." 

Sometimes I feel I might be still preparing my works for another departure. This time from Sabah to another place or country. It is exactly a month ago that I went back to the village that provided the front covers of both my books ("Departure Points" by God's grace is available in the Harvard University Library, USA) and the Malay version of "Anak Panah". Sadly, the man in blue in the front cover passed away a few months before I could return to the village and I gave a copy of my book to his daughter who is her 40s. One generation passes and another generation arises. 

Praise God that many youths are still in church. Yesterday, we had to take 10 extra chairs to fit 126 adults in one small shop lot unit and 37 children were downstairs following Sunday school. After my sermon I had to instruct the families to go down to fetch their kids so that they could be together when the certificates (Sijil Penyerahan Anak) were given after the sermon ended. I managed to pray for another couple with their two kids dedicated to the Lord in His presence and the presence of His children. 

I am on a journey. I don't know whether my early wishes to serve a Western or European people is just my own desire or could it be the Lord's will. For a quarter of a century I have served cross-culturally with the tribal peoples of Borneo using Malay, the national language of Malaysia. Perhaps it is time I serve another nation, another people, at least those who understand English, the lingua franca of the world today.