It’s been a long holiday for someone like me, who’s currently unemployed and waiting for my posting. I’ve been taking up part time job as a tutor, and spending my time here and there with my friends, and learning some other knowledges to past my time
I received messages from the group message in Whatsapp one day. It was from Sarawak Mission Team. The dates for our next mission had been decided. A part of me was pretty excited and also worry. I am not so sure why, but the thoughts of missing out the dates of announcement of my result was pretty worrying to me. I just want to stay at home and wait for it. The person in charge of this mission personally messaged me too, and I really hesitated to give an answer to him. I said no, initially. But then this thought came to mind : “Why should I stay in my house worrying about things that is not even worth to be worried for? What can I get from that?” The next day, I grabbed my phone, and asked him again whether they still need people to help out in the mission. “Yes, we need more people. Your participation in this mission give a sigh of relief to Dr Daniel because he can assigned to some tasks that he’s worried about.”
I was glad I made the right choice. I get to learn more things from Dr Daniel again in the mission. Worrying about unnecessary thing in the house was definitely not a wise decision after all. I texted my friend, and we both joined the mission. I booked my flight the same day I said yes to the mission. My journey started in Lubok Antu, Sarawak from 18th-23rd of April for the second time.
On the first day of our mission, we took our time to go to the small hotel located in Lubok Antu, and rest. On the 2nd day of the mission, we went to Engkilili. We were told that this long house accepted our last minute request as the previous long house cancelled. It was a tough day for Pendy to go out the whole day and search for replacement until around 11pm on the day before we reached Lubok Antu. We treated 102 patients over here. I made a lot of mistakes clerking the patients and giving out medications, and that made me feel out of place the whole time, thinking I am not good enough for Dr Daniel to assign me this job. Every medical knowledges that I had obtained for my past 6 years came rushing in to my brain. I felt so thankful that Dr Daniel corrected me every time I made a mistake and never failed to teach me every time I ran over to his station and ask although he is full on his hands too. I felt so grateful to God that He lead me to this team and gave me a chance to learn again. It was pretty hectic on the 2nd day, but we ended it well.
On the 3rd day of our mission, we visited Nanga Teluas. Everything went on smoothly today. The people had been so good to us. That include the food and their hospitality too. This long house has greater number of people compared to the previous long house. In this long house, we treated 166 patients. Everyone worked hard and we ended today pretty well too. In our night meeting, we’ve discussed on all the flaws we’ve been noticed along the mobile clinic and came up with ideas to correct it. We realized most of the patients kept asking us about spectacles and Dr Tah came up to mind. The dental team have a hard time to extract the tooth of some patients. The scaling machine was not functioning initially and Dr Peter Loh, who came later than all of us came and fixed it. We discussed on other things as well and went to bed right after.
On the 4th day of our mission, we visited Nanga Delok Ulu, Batang Ai, a village way interior. We sat in the boat around 40minutes. There’s not that many patients in this long house. There were 81 patients on that day. This was the day where we had the climax of our journey. On our way back to the jetty, we were stranded in the middle of the river because of strong winds and high waves. We tried to get over to the jetty but failed to do so after several attempts. Everyone was soaked wet and cold. I remember Pastor Berson and his wife looked like they had been dunked into the river several time. His wife had to scooped out some of the water as the water get into the small boat again and again. Dr Peter Loh suggested us to stop and pray for several minutes. This time, we went with faith and get it through! We get to the jetty safely. The journey was so intense, definitely a good memory to remember by after several times serving in the rural.
On the 5th day, we went to Wong Pandak to set up our mobile clinic. Our pharmacist from Serian went back, and so is one of the helper in dental station. There were not so many patients in this village. In total, there were 96 patients. In the evening, we went to Lubok Antu SDA church to treat some patients too. There were 32 patients here. Right after that, we did our night meeting. My friend and I helped Dr Daniel to calculate the remaining drugs and packed our stuffs too. We visited Badau, Indonesia on our last day and parted.
God had blessed us with good food, hospitality and also protection along our journey in serving the people in Lubok Antu. We learned more about each other, helping each other out whenever there’s difficulties and also put our faith for the unknown in tomorrow. I thanked God for great companions and lessons. I hope I can join the next mission in future!
– D’ Dyanna Lajamin