11 Nov 2008. 6.24 a.m. Here in Johor Bahru, 5 hours from Kepong, Kuala Lumpur. I arrived here with the Habitat team two days ago. I am here with Tony and Patrick. Our mission: to look for partner organizations that could identify where we could start our program here to either repair or build houses with relatively disadvantaged households.
Our first contact was with Timothy Li, senior pastor of the Awe Charisma Tabernacle. We met him by the road and he promptly led us to an eatery and bought us lunch consisting of fish, fried chicken and some veggies. It was actually lunch at 3 pm. Then he brought us to his church on a hill.
His story reminded me of what Fr. Acong did in Apad, in my home province, Quezon, in the Philippines. He raised funds over a 5-year period mainly through his family and contributions from his flock. The two-story building could house 250 people during church service conducted in English, Bahasa, and Nepalese. Apparently, some workers from Nepal have become converts.
When the good Pastor, in his late Fifties judging from his youthful looks, brought us to the upper floor where his office is located, we saw in another room several members of the choir or band apparently in a practice session. Lucy, a Filipino, and her daughter and son, were there and greeted us enthusiastically.
In the meeting with the Pastor, he told us in detail how he was able to raise almost RM400,000 to build the church from the savings of the church-goers who were mostly of Indian origin. He himself is Indo-Malaysian. His next big plan is to build an orphanage at the back of the two-acre property that his church had bought out of their savings.
Yesterday, we travelled by car for two hours to a township outside Johor. The place is called Pontian. We went into one of the interior villages and met with Ken Kwan, his wife Tan Suan Chen, and their 9 children. I could not see any neighbor in this Malay village. They are the only Chinese family in this Malay village. It was quite courageous of them to move from KL to a remote place like this. With the help of some friends from KL, the couple built a house from second hand construction materials of two houses which were torn down.
Their house looks spacious enough for a big family like theirs. To survive, the family grow vegetables on their two-acre lot. Their children range in age from 16 to 6 months. Ken and his wife remembered Tony as their pastor more than 12 years ago in another place in Malaysia. They even remembered one his sermons.
It turned out Ken is himself a Pastor but without a congregation yet. How he will raise and grow his flock is still a dream. Meanwhile, he agreed to be our contact person in this remote place. He brought us to his Malay friend, who prefers to be called Boy. Boy showed us the foundations of the house he has been building for the last eight years to replace the crumbling wooden structure they inherited from their great great grandfather.
He said he would save enough and partner with Habitat in getting the house done. Tony estimates the house will cost around RM18,000. We told Boy we would exert efforts to help him and demonstrate to other Malay families how we all could work together to address their housing needs.
Then we rushed back to Johor where we met with Michael Yeo, senior pastor of the Church of Praise, and Steven, their accountant. They showed us a 10,000 sq. m. lot which belongs to their church. The piece of land is overlooking squatter communities along the Sungai Danga river. Michael says we can collaborate on building a community center here in which both Habitat and their church can manage to provide services to the families across the road, along the river. It is an ideal site for a Habitat Resource Center which can train unemployed youth from nearby communities on house construction skills so they themselves can repair or build houses for target households.
We went back to the hotel with gratitude in our hearts. Those Pastors had made our day.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment