The Mission Task Force Prayer Group planed to visit Cheroh, Pahang, a
month ago. This was announced in the Church Bulletin for a few weeks.
On April 22, 2008, 13 CBC members turned out at the SS2 Church House.
Most had not been to Cheroh and were excited at the prospect of going
to the jungle! Some even armed themselves with Mossi-Guard, “foong yau”
and bundles of little snacks – just in case the food is not palatable!
We traveled in two vehicles to our destination.
The journey was unexpectedly quite short – an hour-and-a-half only,
much to our surprise. We met Moses Soo at the Raub bus station. From
that point, it was another ten minutes to Cheroh. The Cheroh Training
Center is built on a three-acre site, with lots of greenery and fruit
trees, not the jungle we expected! We were most impressed by a
particular durian tree – it had some fruit hanging from a branch. Moses
said we could have them but would have to cook the fruit if we wanted
to eat them! Well, we discovered, the fruiting season is in August. We
promptly invited ourselves back for a durian feast.
The main building was built in 2004. It has a sanctuary, dining hall, a
big kitchen and living quarters. It was well constructed, with air
wells that let light into the various rooms. Another building was
in-progress. That would be living quarters for the Orang Asli children.
Moses planned on selecting OA boys to stay there and educate
them at the local school. When we arrived, we saw workers hard at work
in constructing this two-storey building. There will be dorms for up to
75 children. The ground floor has a canteen and toilets. The completion
date will be in two months’ time.
Construction of the children’s quarters in-progress. The Prayer Tower is in the background.
Right next to this building is a hill. Our team promptly ascended the
hill. Just a few feet up is a Prayer Tower which looked like a gazebo.
Further up, there is a baptismal pool, big enough to be a small
swimming pool! Moses explained this will be another water storage tank
during drought for bathing. A little higher up, a bench welcomed our
team to sit and take a view of Cheroh village. The view from that
vantage point is refreshing. The air is clean. What a wonderful place
to rest.
Lunch was announced at about 12.30 p.m. Entering the main building, we
walked through the sanctuary. It was huge. Our children ministry ladies
were talking excitedly as they saw the possibility of having CBC’s VBS
here. Moses mentioned that various church groups come regularly and
sometimes, they have so many people that the floor had to serve as
beds. There was a room for old folks, too. Right now, there are only
two persons staying. There are conditions to be fulfilled if one wants
to stay there. Somehow, none of our CBC members would qualify! The
dining hall was big and airy. We were served a sumptuous lunch of
steamed kampong chicken, giblets, vegetables and turnip & carrot
soup.
After lunch, Moses showed us the plans of the Children’s quarters. He
then related to us some stories of the OA. We listened to the
testimonies of how the Lord led his team to Pahang and Kelantan. God
works in wondrous ways. To-date, about 5000 OAs have received Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior through Moses’ team efforts. The work
is not finished as there are many more OA tribes still untouched by the
Gospel. In the whole of Malaysia, there are about 160,000 OAs. That is
why Moses is so passionate about educating the OA children because they
will be the future evangelists to their own kindred. Pray for God’s
guidance in selecting the right children. Before the CBC team left, we
had a short prayer time for the workers and sang two songs. Moses
prayed a blessing for us. We are truly thankful to have our perspective
of the OA ministry widen.
View of the main building. The tall
tree is bearing durians!
