July 2014
Village of Uma Bakah, State of Sarawak, East Malaysia (in the island of Borneo shown below)
Uma Bakah is an interior village consisting of about 1,000 souls from the Kenyah tribe of Sarawak dwelling in several extended “long houses.” A big Borneo Evangelical Mission Church (“Sidang Injil Borneo”) sits prominently at the front gate of the predominantly Christian village. In the photos below you can see the gate to the village, the Church directly behind it, and the long houses (both outside and inside view) where the village people live.
The Kenyah people live in “long houses” one of which is shown below, along with an inside view from the long hallway which runs the entire length of the long house.
The Elijah Challenge Training
At The Elijah Challenge Training we taught about 72 mostly full-time servants of God—pastors and evangelists. They had never heard such teaching before which challenged their traditions regarding ministering to the sick. All they knew of course was praying for the sick, an extremely long-standing and honored tradition in the Church. Some of them knew that Jesus had actually commanded his disciples not to pray for the sick, but to heal them using the power and authority he had given them. But since no one had ever taught them how to use that power and authority effectively, they had simply followed the tradition of praying for the sick—with of course little results.
But the first night we challenged that tradition with Scripture after Scripture from the gospels. Then at the end of the session we had people with knee and back problems come forward to be healed using the Lord’s power and authority. Servants of God came forward to lay hands on them, and every one of them testified that the pain had disappeared.
The following evening infirm people from the local congregation joined us for the session. Scores came forward to be healed toward the end of the evening at our invitation and stood in a single line at the front facing the people. Then the trained servants of God got up and marched forward to lay hands on them to heal them using the power and authority the Lord has given to his people. After the first time of ministry, many of the infirm people were healed and came to us to give public testimony that the Lord had healed them. It was a surprise even to us to see so many healed so quickly. Some testified that their condition was better, but not completely healed. These we sent back down to receive additional ministry until their infirmity was completely gone. Every one of these came back up to the stage within moments to testify that they were completely healed. There was much excitement among the servants of God to see how powerfully the Lord had used them. At the end of the evening we challenged them to use this power and authority to proclaim the kingdom of God to the lost.
At the final training session the following morning, Lucille taught them healing at a distance as Jesus did in Luke 7 for the servant of the centurion. Servants of God came forward with mobile phone in hand to call up and minister to people with infirmities over their phones.
One such person receiving ministry was very weak in bed with cancer, and had not eaten for days. As the trained servant of God commanded healing with authority at the other end, the very ill man felt heat in his body. He immediately sat up and asked for food. Another man had cancer in his nose and could not breathe through it. But as a trained servant of God ministered to him over the phone with authority, he was able to breathe again. A person with a heart condition said that the pain in his heart left as well as the constant physical weakness he had been experiencing. Pain in someone’s feet disappeared as well as a servant of God rebuked it with authority at a distance.
Armed with such weapons, these servants of God can now go forth to bring back to the Lord Jesus the members of believing families who have been deceived into converting to Islam. They will demonstrate through tangible miracles that Christianity is actually not a religion like Islam (“take your pick”), but rather that Jesus is the way, truth, and the life: the only way to the Father in heaven. The backslidden family members will repent of their foolish sin, and come back to the Lord.
Not only that, we challenged the trained servants of God to turn the tables on the enemy by reaching out to Malay Muslims who by law cannot convert to Christianity, to idolatrous Roman Catholics, and to those who believe in or practice witchcraft. Our God is the only true God, and during this present dispensation when the Church is still working on the Great Commission He is outdoing any “miracle” the enemy is capable of performing.
Our host Pastor Xystus Jock of Borneo Evangelical Mission of Sarawak
The village of Uma Bakah is about 5 hours into the interior from the coastal city of Miri in East Malaysia. On the way back to Miri following our Training in Uma Bakah, we stopped by at a town for a bite to eat. Next to the place where we ate there were various local attractions. Below is a photo of something we saw—a snake enclosed in a glass tank filled with donations and offerings given by idolatrous people who are hoping for some “good luck.” 