A State of Grace

One of the things I adored about the Kelabit community is their strong faith towards Christianity. On my first day in Bario, I was taken aback when we all held hands to pray before eating lunch. Over time, I got used to praying before eating and praying before entering the paddy field to harvest that I found myself looking forward to it everyday.

In Bario, nobody works on a Sunday. Instead, Sunday mornings are spent in the church for service where everyone is dressed to the nines. It was such a pretty sight to see all our tepuqs dolled up because we were too used seeing them in their 'sawah' clothes.

During my stay in Bario,

I attended the service thrice at Bario's main church and each time, I left feeling the warmth of the Bario community. It started off with announcements regarding the Bario community. After reading of some Bible verses by the priest, followed by prayers, came my favourite part, SINGING! One of my favourite songs has to be 'Segala Puji Syukur'. When that song was played, everyone present in the church went around and greeted each other. It's beautiful to see the people of Bario joining hands to worship God. It proves that religion does bring people together.

Us singing 'Amazing Grace'
Photo credits : Uncle Julian

We sang 'Amazing Grace' in the church on our second week in Bario. I was very excited plus nervous to sing for the first time in front of a crowd, let alone in a church! But all went well, I personally think we did an amazing job. I couldn't help but to feel proud of myself and my WHEE family when Sinah Lawa came up to me and said we sang really well. Yaay to us!