From the day Rev. Wong mentioned to the staff that the Kuching Ministers’ Fellowship wanted to bless the NECF staff with a holiday, the decision was then made to take up the offer. We fixed the dates and booked the air tickets (at our own expense).
 September 12: After all the waiting we finally left for Kuching (with the exception of Rev. Wong who was unable to join us). On arrival we were met by Pr. Matthew Ling, Pr. Jerry Teoh and others. We were given two vans and directions on how to get to Holiday Inn Resort at Damai Beach. We were to stay there for two nights. On the way, we stopped by a seafood place and had dinner. On arrival, we were struck by the impressiveness of the hotel and the size of our rooms.
September 13: In the morning we visited the Cultural Village near the hotel. Personally, I found this place very interesting as we walked around examining the different cultural structures. The first time I stepped into a long house, I was amazed at the simplicity of it and just wondered how a few families could stay together under one roof. We truly enjoyed ourselves at this village especially when we were at the “bottom” of this big house (under the stilts) where Yvonne and Sangan performed for us the bamboo dance with Ying and Sian operating the two long bamboo poles to the beat of the dance. In the evening, we went to another seafood place but unfortunately, many of us got bitten by hungry mosquitoes. (For the record, Sandy and another Executive Secretary were not bitten by the mosquitoes as they opted not to join us. They had nasi lemak at the Treez Café on a hill.)
September 14: We left Damai Beach after breakfast and headed back to the city of Kuching. On arrival, Bro. Ronald took us to the apartments where we were to stay for the next two nights. Later we visited several museums including the Sarawak Museum.
September 15: Our guide for the day was Bro. Ah Seng who took us to the waterfront. We had a good time shopping at the “bazaar” opposite the waterfront. It started raining and Ah Seng took us to his sister’s shop to have the famous “kolo mee”. Then we visited the Cat Museum. At night, we came out again and visited the well-known Satuk Market.
September 16: Sunday – we were ready for church. We split into two groups - one group worshipped at Calvary Family Church while the other group worshipped at Good News Fellowship. Then it was “bon voyage” as we headed for the airport after lunch.
To sum up, we had a wonderful and enjoyable retreat, being able to interact as well as get to know one another a little better. We were well taken care of by our brothers and sisters over there and were blessed by their kindness and hospitality. We thank the Kuching Ministers' Fellowship for the generous treat, and above all we thank the Lord and acknowledge that this was blessing from Him. |
