Dear brothers and sisters,

I am very proud to introduce to you a disciple of Jesus as my weekly reflection. He is simply extraordinary. I should know him earlier and serve with him earlier. Please get to know this brother and be encouraged by him and inspired by him like I do.

Joseph Tan
I came to know him a few years ago at Miri District Methodist Badminton Competition. He attracted my attention when he cheered for Grace Methodist Church’s team. He was our opposing team. Then, we met again at Soon Hup National Service Camp for Form 5 leavers when I preached. On the way there and came back, we joked and we became good friends in Christ. This is brother who loves his wife who is Mandarin speaking. He is very much English speaking but he sacrificed for his wife (who is very committed to serve at Yi En Methodist). He tried his best to serve there. He is willing to be equipped to serve and he even came to attend GMC leadership training. He told me his desire to do mission.

Board of Evangelism of Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference started to make disciples of the Penans at Ulu Belaga in 2009. Last year, I invited him to come along. We did a mission survey at Long Malim. It was about 10 hours of long drive from Miri, making up 6 hours long dangerous journey on timber roads. We responded to go because the Penans there told our teacher missionaries (5 at Ulu Belaga Shin Yang built Penan long houses) to go there to teach their children. I lead the team and brother Joseph was one of the team members.

During the trip to several Penan long houses, I was encouraged by his service to the Penan children. He simply loved the Penan like I did. He sang and played with them. He taught them alphabets and numbers. He cut their finger nails and washed their hair. He spoke Bahasa Malaysia with them. He surveyed Long Malim Penan long houses with me. He was touched by their needs for the gospel and education. The Penans were semi-Christians as lots of them (adults) claimed to be Christians but they were not baptized. They welcome us back to teach their children and adults the word of God.

I believe Brother Joseph heard the heart cry of the Long Malim Penans. There are about 100 of them there but they are isolated from the nearest school and timber camps. They built their own simple long houses and live on rice. Brother Joseph told me he desired to go back to that long house again in 2010. I remembered his promise. I believe he prayed much about it and he successfully mobilized Yi En Methodist to do it.

In fact, after that mission survey we served together in reaching out to a rural school and we met for coffee to talk about future mission. He called me out to talk about it. I also helped him to link with others in mission to the Penans. We really became good friends in Christ because of mission.

Just now, he called me to update me on Yi En Methodist Church mission! That call encouraged me to write this weekly reflection! As he updated me with his church 3 monthly mission trip to Long Malim, I was so touched by his excitement to do mission. He shared with me that he even mobilized his wife and only young daughter to go there. His commitment is serious and not lukewarm. He is not entertaining me. He caught the vision of Jesus. It was very tough to mobilize church members to go but he has done it 2 to 3 times. He said that they had gone there 2 times this year and they will go again September and December. He knew the urgency as that area will be flooded soon and the Penans need to move away.

God used Brother Joseph to stir Yi En Methodist brothers and sisters to do local mission. He was so encouraged by God’s healing upon a Penan who was down with malaria disease in the last mission trip which happened a few days ago. The Penan was weak and lied on bed and requested for prayer. He assured him of Jesus healing and the Penan was able to join their meeting the next day. I believe Jesus used their hands to heal the sick Penan. He called me just now to share with me the presence of God with them. I can understand how God uses him to mobilize Yi En church members to do mission.

On top of all these, Brother Joseph shared with great excitement that the Penans there even built the toilet using the material provided by them. Eventually, the Penans even built a ‘bungalow’ for the mission team to go back and stay there. You see how the Penans love mission team to go back there!

May Brother Joseph Tan’s good example encourage us to make disciples of the indigenous people of Sarawak.

A Faithful disciple of Jesus,
Pastor Law Hui Seng
(10th June, 2011, Miri)

Posted by Teresa Han