One early morning, while her family was asleep, Tikah* took out the pills she had hidden. There were about 30 or 40 of them. Looking at these pills that had been stored for a long time, she took a breath, calmly took out a glass of water, and swallowed the pills one by one. Then waited quietly for death. This wasn’t her first time trying to commit suicide, but she had always failed. This time, she hoped to succeed. Instead, she became nauseous and vomited the pills she had swallowed. She felt depressed and she didn’t understand why God wouldn’t let her die. At that moment, in another house in the village, her aunt, cousin, and pastor were praying earnestly for her. They had prayed from night until the early morning. Ever since Tikah became (felt) despaired due to an arranged marriage, they often fasted and prayed for her.

Tikah grew up in a J* village. She started attending Sunday School at the village church when she was eight. Her parents disapproved of her going there. To them, Christianity was an alien religion that conflicted with the traditional religious values of their people. But she persisted, and they felt helpless about it.

Tikah finished her primary education and helped in her home since then. Then at 18, her parents betrothed her to the son of a village bomoh, hoping that she would stop going to church after the marriage. He was not a Christian, but her family would pressure her just as much as she resisted them. Whether using soft and hard tactics, they failed to make her surrender. The bomoh even threatened to stop performing magic to heal her family if she did not obey.

The bomoh demanded monetary compensation from her family. And, if Tikah had married someone else, she would have to pay even more. Tikah had no money for this. She thought she would be fine by remaining unmarried for life. But her mother begged her bitterly because she was sick and had often gone to the bomoh for healing. Conversely, her father severely criticised the church, believing that all this was caused by the church. He even took an axe to the church door. Continuously pressed by her family, Tikah could not see a way out. Apart from praying, she felt powerless to do anything for herself. She began to doubt God’s existence and became desperate. In the end, she decided to kill herself, to die and not implicate anyone. She cut her wrists, but failed. She took pills, but failed. Out of options, she ran away from home to live with her aunt who believed in the Lord and escape from that nightmare.

Tikah’s aunt and cousin were devout Christians. Although their family was not well off, they never lacked anything. At her aunt’s house, there was peace Tikah had longed for. She was convinced that God saved her from her multiple suicide attempts. Therefore, she availed herself be used by God. Because Tikah only received primary education, she neither know how she could serve God, nor had the opportunity to do so. The village church was small, only needing one pastor and no other paid staff. She did not have a stable job, so she would farm at her aunt’s vegetable garden and collect forest resources to earn a living.

A few years later, Tikah’s mother’s illness became more serious. Her father and brothers blamed her for the illness, thinking her belief in Jesus had offended the gods. Tikah wanted to take care of her mother, but she didn’t want to go home, so she moved into a house in the village with her mother. As she cared for her mother, their relationship recovered. Her mother gradually opened to the gospel and allowed others to pray for her, but she could not give up her relationship with the spirit world.

In 2019, with the encouragement of the church pastor, Tikah and her cousin participated in the Oral Bible Storying workshop organised by Wycliffe Malaysia. This workshop would last for two years. Participants would translate more than twenty Bible stories into their own heart languages, return to their villages, and tell these stories so that the villagers can know God. Tikah’s family opposed her participation. They still wanted her to leave Christianity and marry the bomoh’s son to continue to receive the bomoh’s spells for her mother’s healing. In addition, they hoped that Tikah could work in a nearby town to help support the family during the two years. Tikah reflected, prayed, and finally decided to attend the workshop despite her family’s protests. She believed that joining the workshop could lay a foundation for her future theology studies.

Workshop participants practice using props to tell stories.
Photo credit: Irene Chen

In the first workshop, the shy Tikah lowered her head when singing, praying, or sharing. Her voice was soft, fearing that others would laugh at her. She felt selfconscious and unworthy of speaking up. She viewed herself as humble indigenous girl with low education, but still looked forward to the next workshops. Not only could she meet girls from the same ethnic group, she could also learn Bible stories about Jesus, including Him casting out evil spirits and healing people, and Him telling the parable of the sower and the prodigal son. Every story she learnt made her know more about Jesus and God’s salvation. She also learnt that her identity in Christ was precious and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. She became more confident, proactive in learning and sharing, and dared to stand in front of the crowd to share her testimony and pray for others. She used these stories to teach the children in the church, and she led church members in spiritual practice. Despite her family’s opposition, she even led her younger siblings to Sunday school.

A few days before the fourth workshop, Tikah’s mother was hospitalised and had to undergo surgery. After the operation, she fell into a coma. Tikah was immediately blamed. Her father and brothers accused her of neglecting her mother while attending the workshops. After Tikah took care of her mother in the hospital for a few days, she went home to rest. She kept praying for God to heal her mother, hoping that her family could see that God heals and they would believe in Him. Instead, her mother passed away. She was condemned at the funeral by her family and relatives. She did not defend herself, but silently endured the unfair accusations imposed on her. Thankfully, with the company of her cousin and the prayers of others, she did not collapse.

After that, Tikah moved back home to live with her family. From both the pain of losing her mother and the accusations of her relatives and friends, Tikah was sad, angry, and depressed. She was disappointed with God and the world. Why did these things happen to her? What did she do wrong? Why couldn’t God make her life easier? Would it be easier to give up God? She didn’t want to pray or get close to God. But the pastor and her cousin often visited her, accompanied her, and asked church members to pray for her.

After more than a month of settling down, Tikah slowly came out of her grief. She decided to attend the fifth workshop. In that workshop, she listened to the story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus. After hearing the story, she shared her thoughts. For her, the most moving part was that although Jesus knew He would resurrect Lazarus, He still cried when He saw that everyone was sad. This made Tikah believe that Jesus understood her pain of losing her mother and cried with her. She also said that there are many pains in life, which are inevitable, but if there is God, there is peace. Tikah burst into tears as she said this, and the pain that had been suppressed in her heart for more than a month were finally comforted.

Last year, Tikah and other translators completed fourteen oral Bible stories. These stories will be used in villages of the same language group for evangelism and discipleship. Tikah now has a job in the secular world, but she can still count herself as instrumental in these translation works to bring Jesus into her village!

*Names of people and places have been changed to protect identities and locations.

Many members of the Mansor* family were baptised in March 2022 in their village, but their journey of faith was not so straightforward. At first, Tikah’s older brother, Apok, was adamantly against Tikah attending the church and even the Oral Bible Storying workshop. He claimed that these were the reasons why their mother passed away in 2019. Tikah’s younger brother, Shahril*, had always wanted to attend church with Tikah, but was afraid because of the family’s opposition to Christianity.

One night in 2020, Apok was drunk and had a dream. In his dream, he saw an opened door with bright light coming out from it. He heard a voice saying, “Follow me.” He woke up from his dream not knowing what it meant, but he could not forget it.

Not long after that dream, Apok attended a funeral in the village where he met the village pastor. There, the pastor shared the gospel story with Apok. Apok felt that the dream was somehow connected to the gospel story that was shared to him, so he went home and asked for a Bible from Tikah.

As he looked through the Bible, he became interested and told Tikah that he wanted to attend the village’s church service that very Sunday. Tikah was more than shocked to hear that!

Apok attended the church service that Sunday. After the service, he approached the pastor and asked her about his dream. She explained that Jesus was that light and He was asking Apok to follow him. Since that very Sunday, Apok has been faithfully attending church. He has even been helping in the maintenance of the church, such as fixing lights.

Tikah is thankful to God that He has listened to her prayers. She will continue to pray for the salvation of the other family members.

Our J* language project translator, Limah*, debated whether to visit her grandniece in hospital in Kuantan. The 5-year-old child was suffering from leptospirosis and was in a critical condition. She was unconscious, and her doctors had given up hope. Limah felt that the Lord had been urging her to visit the child at the hospital to pray for her. Despite being financially tight, she listened to God’s urging. There, Limah prayed for them.

While still at the hospital, Limah called Tikah*, another translator, to arrange for Tikah to visit the child’s parents. Tikah agreed, and she walked to their house to meet them and pray for them. During Tikah’s visit, she told a story she learnt from the Oral Bible Storying workshop. It was the story of Jesus healing a bleeding woman. Focusing on how Jesus heals, she hoped this story could show them that God is almighty and that He heals in response to faith. The child’s parents responded positively to the story, and the child’s father even stated that if Jesus healed his daughter, he will follow Jesus and be baptised.

Not long after Tikah’s visit to the child’s parents, the child miraculously recovered from her illness! In response to this, the child’s father was baptised this year along with Tikah’s brothers!

The older brother of Pastor Rohaya, our J language project’s collaborator, used to attend Sunday school when he was young but hasn’t attended church since then.

One day, he went to the logging site to work as usual. As we was cutting a big tree, the tree unexpectedly fell down towards his direction instead of the opposite direction. The tree fell so quickly that he could not avoid it in time, and it actually hurt his neck. However, he felt a hand that pushed him aside so that it could not injure him further, although his neck was very swollen. Still, he went to see a doctor to be safe.

The doctor who treated him was amazed that Pastor’s Rohaya’s brother was still alive despite the tree falling on his neck, but he was not hopeful that he could survive the night. The doctor advised that he should be transferred to a bigger hospital for better treatment of his severe condition.

When Pastor Rohaya heard the news, she and her family went to the small hospital. Pastor Rohaya prayed for her brother’s healing and asked her brother to believe in Jesus, and he did! They prayed the sinner’s prayer that very day. After that, he was transferred to a bigger hospital. There, the doctors there treated him. They told him that was fine, and could be discharged that night itself! It was a miracle!

Pastor Rohaya’s brother is confident that it was God who saved him and healed him that day. Right after his accident and healing, he attended church again, and has been attending since then. In fact, he was among the men who were baptised this year!