Dinner with Pastor Paul Landing and the Mission to Sarawak

Many of us from the mission team that went to Sarawak had the opportunity to meet up with Pastor Paul Landing last night. He had gone to Penang to attend John van Tonder’s wedding, and had stopped by in KL for one night before flying back to Sarawak today. Pastor Paul was the pastor of a small SIB church in Julau when we went to Sarawak for the mission trip. He was our contact there who arranged for our accommodation and traveling. He brought us all around Julau as well as to remote villages in the surrounding area. I will always remember him as a very dedicated, humble, and sometimes cheeky pastor who lived a simple life. We still kept in touch once in a while, but we had never seen him in person ever since we came back from the mission trip in April last year.

So we managed to catch up with him during dinner at Restoran Talipon, and find out about God’s ministry in Sarawak. Pastor Paul is now the district superintendent for the SIB in Sarikei, while Pastor Kanyan is the pastor in Ijit. Roland, Pastor Paul’s firstborn son, is now in standard one, and he is actually attending a Chinese school!

Pastor Paul came together with three other friends of his – Pastor Pudun (the pastor in charge of the BM service in Subang AOG), Pastor Along (a new pastor working with Pastor Paul), and Pastor Sinawant (another pastor from Sarawak). We all listened intently as they shared about the wonderful and miraculous things that God was doing in Sarawak. There were accounts of amazing miracles; of people being healed, of people having visions and prophecies; and of people speaking in other tongues. It was great to be able to hear these accounts from people who experienced them first hand. Pastor Pudun shared with me about his love of reading and I promised to bring him to Pustaka SUFES one day when we were both free!

This morning, I couldn’t help looking back at the pictures we had taken during the mission trip. They do bring back a lot of fond memories. I will always remember the long boat rides in the midst of beautiful forests, the times when we had to get off and push the boats in shallow water, the heart-warming hospitality of the Iban villagers, their unique style of cooking, and the cicadas that invaded the church every night. Most of all, I will always remember the friendships forged and the many lessons we could learn from the pastors there, who were willing to give up so much to serve the Lord and the people. It was not an easy task being a pastor in Sarawak. Due to the lack of manpower, most of them had overwhelming responsibilities. They had to travel alone to remote villages for long periods of time and spend weeks away from their families. They had to know how to steer and control longboats and maneuver through treacherous rapids. They had to attend and care for people who were suffering from extreme poverty, diseases, demonic attacks and much more. I remember being totally humbled and in awe of what these pastors were willing to sacrifice and go through for these people. Only the love of God can enable a man to remain so faithful in such a task, and it is for their love of God that I will always remember Pastor Paul Landing and Pastor Kanyan.