Christmas in Lawas

This is sort of a belated Christmas posting.....dedicated to Ms TMK...

Lawas is a small town strategically located between Kota Kinabalu, Labuan & Brunei, therefore this town is quite developed. Majority of the people are Lun Bawangs who are staunch Christians, so Christmas meant more than Santa or presents for these folks.

I went to a village called Kampung Long Tuan to celebrate my 2008 Christmas. This village is about an hour away from Lawas town, the road to the junction of the village was tarred but the road from the junction to the village was not that good, so it was a bumpy ride thereon.

Church services started days before Cristmas on daily basis, i went there on Christmas eve for a service.

The Pastor used bahasa Lun Bawang and sometimes Bahasa Malaysia to preach so non Lun bawang can actually understand the sermon. Besides that, there were presentations put on by the village youths which i think was quite impressive.

Since the road back to the place we stayed was quite dark and slippery, we went home before the countdown. On top of that, we need to be in church again the next morning for Christmas service. The young ones also were too sleepy to celebrate Christmas countdown.

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On Christmas day, we went again to the church which was located about 500 meters from the village.

Since the service started early in the morning, many just brought their breakfast with them to the Christmas service.

This is the Christmas theme which meant ' Christmas is God's gift for mankind". By any chance it was wrongly interpreted, please let me know!

The Lawas MP, YB Datuk Henry Sum Agung also attended the service. What impressed me most was the YB arrived much earlier that many of the villagers and actually stayed until the service ended. For the record, he also attended the Christmas eve service. The YB was very friendly and approachable, no big hoohaa on his arrivals. The Peninsular YBs shld learn a thing or two from YB Henry!

While there were many fans.....stand fans, wall fans but its still hot & humid in the church due to too many people, youngs ones needed additional fans.

Some even left with less clothes after the service.

After the service, the youths will just hopped on any vehicle to the village where all the houses were.

The houses in Long Tuan were huge, i was told this village was one of the most successful & properous villages in Lawas. The people were really blessed there. I believe they reaped what they sowed!

I knew that Sarawak layer cakes were famous for the taste but i never knew that they can make an art out of it, the cake was so nice that i just put a piece in my hand and admired it, too nice to eat!

In short, it has been an eye opening for me celebrating Christmas in Lawas in 2008, the people were very friendly, from their YB to the ordinary folks. The food and cakes were finger-licking-good! It was sort of a faith renewing trip for me when i saw these God fearing people love & faith towards God, its just refreshing!