Kampung Putat Again Part 1

If you didn't already know, for RBS one of the things we did was to visit an OA (orang asli) village to teach Sunday School. We visited 3 of them in fact, and one of them was Kampung Putat. Yesterday, I had the chance to join the church's OA team to visit this kampung again, and after some consideration I agreed to tag along with two aunties (pardon the term) and my cousin :D

We followed the people from Sungei Way church, and fortunately the four people (Uncles Haw, Chris, Chandran and one more whose name I'm not sure how to spell) who drove us there were such a nice bunch.

I didn't realize it during the mission trip, but the journey from USJ all the way to Kampung Putat is actually one heck of a long ride! I estimate it to be around 4 and a half hours, driving at breakneck speed along the Karak highway. Luckily we went there in a cozy MPV, so I can't complain or anything, haha.

The minor details aside, going there this time as a church team was different from going as a mission team, just as I thought it would be. It could be that I was only there to help this time around instead of leading the a team, or that you guys were not there with me (haih~), either way I couldn't really tell. That's not to say the OA trip was horrible (just very quiet), on the contrary I actually picked up a lot of stuff both from the OA people and the adults (I don't think I can call them that for long, since I'm no more a teen myself :D) who went.

Speaking of which, one incident really got me pondering and thinking a lot about myself. It happened the night we arrived at the kampung. While waiting for the Bible Study class to start, we were suddenly called to a house nearby to pray for a baby. I didn't know what was going on, so I just followed along to see what was happening. We came to this couple, and the wife was holding in her arms what seemed to be a sick baby, with a feeding tube attached to the nose. The mother told us about how the baby is sick but the exact sickness is unknown, and had visited several hospitals to no avail. She requested for prayers, and we talked a bit about her baby, asking a few questions before praying together.

Looking at the baby, I couldn't help but to think that...all this while, it's so easy to forget that the very fact I'm alive and well is reason enough to thank the LORD from the bottom of my heart. My heart wrenched, as I saw the baby gasping for air, seemingly struggling to hold on to dear life itself, and looked just about to give up at any moment. She (the baby) is only 8 months old, and cannot even so much as to mutter a word, and yet there she laid in her mother's arms, suffering for reasons unknown even to us. I really wished, at that moment, that I could know what it must have felt like to be in her shoes. What could possibly had run through her mind? It's wishful thinking on my part, but still, what I would give to just glimpse a little into her soul and mind..

I have so much to be thankful for each and every day that I breathe through, but unfortunately I find that my actions often betray my deeper intentions, one of ignorance and indifference to the world and the people around me. How am I thankful for the blessings in my life when I always hunger for material things? How am I grateful for what God has given me, when I seem to crave wasting away my time chasing after silly errands? RBS had popped open the shell of my own comfort zone, but I find myself now unwilling to step out of that very same shell...