According to a recent newspaper report, there are 132,000 OA in the country and over half of them live on the outskirts of major towns and cities. Over the last 15 years, many Orang Asli (OA) have migrated from their villages to towns for work or studies.
Some of them continue to commute between their villages and the towns, not just because of the higher cost of living in the towns, but more so because they did not find acceptance with the other communities in towns.
Some OA confess that they feel out of place in the urban churches because of the wide disparity in educational and socio-economic status. Language is also another barrier to settling down.
Generally, urban churches have not extended their fellowship to their OA brethren, not because they do not want to, but because they do not know how to. Meanwhile, existing OA churches confine their ministry within their villages and are reluctant to work with the urban churches – even with those within the same denomination – to serve their people in the towns.
Reaching Out St Peter's Anglican Church, Ipoh, (where I worship) started its first Bahasa Malaysia service seven years ago by first reaching out to policemen, many of whom were Orang Asli. The congregation grew from 15 to 70 as their relatives and friends joined in. Church leaders were invited to visit the kampungs (villages) where they came from to minister and reach out to their fellow villagers.
Soon after, another BM church was planted in Gopeng to serve the nearby villages.
To help our BM–speaking brethren – mainly OA – the churches provide transport (vans and schoolbuses) to ferry them to and from church meetings.
The Gopeng BM church even opened a kedai ekonomi (grocery shop) to supply sundry goods at reasonable prices, mainly to the OA. An OA part-time staffworker runs the shop, which is well-stocked like others, but without liquor and cigarettes.
Prices of the goods are generally 20 per cent lower than its competitors, thanks to a volunteer who buys the goods from wholesalers. Clothes and kitchen utensils donated by church members are also sold there at nominal prices.
To help the OA integrate into the church, we encourage them to join the rest at the coffee fellowship in-between worship services. When the church holds dinners on special occasions, subsidies are given to the OA to enable them to participate. We also arranged for them to join several combined-churches celebrations in the city.
At the beginning of each year, the church donates RM50 each to 10 OA children to help with their school fees. Reading materials, used clothes and toys donated by church members are given to the OA. In addition, some church members give free tuition in English for OA students, while several OA adults have been given jobs by church members.
These are just some of the practical ways the church has taken to help the OA. But we have to help the OA look ahead, and that’s where our leadership training comes in. We are training them to lead their people and be self-reliant.
(Dr Teoh has his own gynaecological practice in Ipoh. He is deeply involved in the BM ministry and currently serves as a member of the NECF Malaysia BM Commission and Chairman of the BM Committee of the Anglican Church in West Malaysia and Congregation Leader of the BM Ministry in the church.) |
