Description
Revival in Ba’kelalan - Discerning God's Purposes For Today by Michelle Chan & Hwa Yung
Paperback
- Author: Michelle Chan & Hwa Yung
- ISBN: 9789671932568 / 978-9671932568
- Publisher: Canaanland
- Date: 2023
- Page: 156
- Size: 21 cm x 14.7 cm
- Weight: 220 g
The book has 12 color pages (of photos and newspaper articles) and 148 black and white pages.
The story of how the message of Christ delivered the Lun Bawangs in Sarawak from becoming extinct as a people back in the 1930s was first told in Shirley Lee’s book Drunk Before Dawn (1979). God has continued to work His gracious and wonderful purposes among them through various revivals, culminating in the fourth, which was reported in the New Straits Times in December 1985. Today the Lun Bawangs are one of the strongest components of the Borneo Evangelical Mission church in Sarawak. But, for some inexplicable reason, the full story of the revivals has never been adequately told despite numerous attempts made.
In November 2023, the churches in Ba’kelalan will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1973 revival. It began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the churches there on the evening of 10 November. That was the second night of the visit of a team from Bario, where revival had broken out some weeks earlier. This book tells the story of what happened in 1973-74 and again in 1984-86, during which times God manifested His awesome power and glory to His people. And it leaves us with the question of what God may be saying through all these wonderful things to the church in Malaysia. The Ba’kelalan story invites us to discern His purposes together.
From the Foreword by President Bina Agong, BEM/SIB Sarawak:
“I experienced the 1973-74 revival when I was six years old. During the 1984-86 revival, I was already in my late teens and had the wonderful privilege of being personally involved and an eyewitness of some of the miraculous occurrence. All of this impacted me deeply and resulted in me offering myself to God as a full-time minister. As a first-hand witness, I am able to testify that what Michelle Chan and Hwa Yung have written are valid and accurate. This book will go a long way to strengthen the faith of readers who know God and are seeking to grow deeper in their faith and understanding of God’s awesome power and glory.”
Authors:
Foreword:
There have been various attempts to write and document the events and miracles that happened amongst the Lun Bawang people in Ba’kelalan during the revivals of 1973–74 and 1984–86; however, all were unsuccessful. In February 2011, I was approached by Hwa Yung with his intention to write about the revivals and their impact in Ba’kelalan over the years. From then on, we met from time to time and kept this objective in our prayers. Now, at last, through the grace of God, our dream has become a reality in this book.
The authors bring an extensive background of Christian ministry and experiences to this project. Michelle Chan has
worked many years as a journalist with both Christian and secular media. Hwa Yung has a rich background in church
leadership and theological education within Malaysia and in international circles. Both of them are involved in the prayer ministry in their own churches as well as at the national level.
Furthermore, Hwa Yung has supported and helped to find sponsors for the prayer ministry of the Borneo Evangelical
Mission, Sarawak.
With this background, the authors have been able to produce an invaluable account of the revivals in Sarawak and Sabah, which began with the coming of the Borneo Evangelical Mission in 1928 and was first recorded in Shirley Lee’s book, Drunk Before Dawn. This time, the focus is on the revivals in Ba’kelalan during 1973–74 and 1984–86. The authors, especially Michelle Chan, made a number of visits and interviewed many eyewitnesses of these revivals. They further checked the facts carefully to verify the authenticity of the reports to ensure that this is an accurate testament of God’s amazing revelation of Himself and His wonders.
I experienced the 1973–74 revival when I was six years old. During the 1984–86 revival, I was already in my late teens and had the wonderful privilege of being personally involved and an eyewitness of some of the miraculous occurrences. These include the miraculous fire at Mount Murud in July 1985, as well as the supernatural appearances of the fireballs above the Buduk Nur football field on 15 July 1985 and at Buduk Uned on 25 September 1985. All of this impacted me deeply and resulted in me offering myself to God as a full-time minister.
As a first-hand witness, I am able to testify that what Michelle Chan and Hwa Yung have written are valid and accurate. I have read the book with deep appreciation and have learned much from it. This book will go a long way to strengthen the faith of readers who know God and are seeking to grow deeper in their faith and understanding of God’s awesome power and glory. As you read it, I am confident that God will bless and enrich your life.
Pastor Bina Agong
President Borneo Evangelical Mission, Sarawak
Preface
The first stirrings in my life concerning the subject matter of this book came about in a small attic room in Rhyl, Wales, United Kingdom, in 1999. I was attending a leadership course and shared a room with a Lun Bawang girl from Sarawak. She was my first encounter with the tribe. One afternoon, amid a sudden
outburst of tears, and without knowing why, I was compelled to ask forgiveness for what my ethnic group, the Chinese, had done to her people.
As bizarre as it seemed then, the Holy Spirit had initiated forgiveness and reconciliation between two strangers and a transaction was sealed. We did not meet again until I began working on this book 23 years later. Unknowingly, a spiritual connection to this book had been prepared through our initial
encounter more than two decades before its writing. God’s ways are strange and mysterious.
When approached to write this book, I was informed that I was the fourth person to attempt it. As the interviews began with the eyewitnesses, I discovered that there had actually been six previous endeavours! The importance of the account of the outpourings of the Spirit was gradually understood by me when I realized the gravity of the material that I was dealing with—it is sacred to the Lun Bawang people.
In earlier attempts, the compilation of the different events into a cohesive and accurate account was a major challenge. This time round, however, I witnessed various hindrances removed from the interviews, as if an invisible hand was working behind the scenes to smoothen the path to the completion of the book. Eyewitnesses in their 80s were able to vividly recall the events that transpired half a century ago. Their initial awkwardness towards me dissolved after a timely character reference was given by a travelling pastor, who abruptly disappeared from the scene as suddenly as he appeared! A key eyewitness who declined to be interviewed eventually relented. Help came in the form of a stranger—and now a friend—who volunteered to type the transcripts in order to meet a very tight deadline. Almost surely, all these would not have occurred save for the intercession of praying friends. The drafting of Chapters 3 to 7 took one month to complete. During that period, I experienced unprecedented challenges. This included having to deal with disturbances by neighbours on both sides of my house. The neighbour on one side started to harass my family, and those on the other brandished wea- pons and started gang fights that lasted into the wee hours of the morning. Through all this, I was reminded that in another case of spiritual opposition, a tree had crashed into the house of the intended victim. Thus, despite the increased level of stress, I could heave a sigh of relief that my house was still intact! The disturbances from neighbours on both sides ceased shortly after the draft was finished. Alongside this, I also experienced the supernatural presence of God. One afternoon, a sweet, delicate fragrance floated around me as I typed. When I was writing about God’s conversation with Pak Agong in Buduk Abul in Chapter 6, I broke down in tears in face of the weight of the words.
Perhaps the most obvious “manifestation” occurred during the cross-checking of the draft in Ba’kelalan one quiet morning before sunrise. I found myself pinned down to the floor in a fashion similar to that of the eyewitnesses of the 1973 outpouring. I was on the ground for 35 minutes weeping for my
sin, and only had the peace to get up when I agreed to yield to the Holy Spirit.
I also need to explain briefly how this book is written and structured. I am responsible for Chapter 1 to 7. The material for Chapters 1 and 2 came mainly from existing records, whereas Chapters 3 to 7 are largely based on interviews with actual eyewitnesses of what happened from 1973 through to 1986.
The Introduction and Chapter 8 are the work of my co-author, Hwa Yung.
I would like to express my appreciation and deep gratitude to many who contributed to this book. These include Sang Sigar, whose competent translation skills facilitated the interviews and fact-checking, and who was responsible for drawing Maps 2–5; Pudun Tadam, for his patient verification of the facts; Leong
Yoke Mee, the onsite intercessor; Frederick Foo, who assisted with the transcripts; Ong Juat Heng, who edited the initial draft; and the REVIVAL prayer group, who supported this assignment from the onset until its completion.
I would also like to thank all the interviewees who contributed through their willingness to share their respective stories and who are named in the various sections of the book.
Chua Hong Koon and Larry Lee of Canaanland Books both helped greatly in the final production stages. To all of them, my co-author and I would like to say a big terima kasih atas nama Yesus Kristus!
Given all these, it is only natural to conclude that the principal author of this book is the Holy Spirit Himself. He initiated, paved the way, smoothened the path and saw it to completion. I see myself only as a joyful scribe. May the Ba’kelalan story leave us with the same sense of awe, reverence and wonder that the Lun Bawangs experienced in their epic journey through the years with God!
Michelle Chan
Petaling Jaya
August 2023
READ MORE: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/02/malaysia-revival-bario-kelabit-tribe-borneo/
