Flames of revival burning in Sarawak

In 1928 remarkable revivals began among the Lun Bawang people in Borneo which are still impacting lives today. Here is part of Bishop Hwa Yung’s account of this amazing move of the Spirit given at the recent Lausanne Congress in Korea.

In 1928, the Borneo Evangelical Mission (now part of OMF International) sent three Australian missionaries to Sarawak in Borneo. They set out to reach the indigenous people there.

The colonial authorities welcomed them, but prohibited them from going to the Lun Bawang people, who were then living in the mountains.

At that time, this group, numbering 3,000 to 4,000, were plagued by a high mortality rate caused by rampant alcoholism, violence and widespread diseases.

Head hunting and inter-tribal wars were a thing of the past, being now prohibited.

Instead, drinking rice wine became a favourite pastime. It was said the men were drunk, the women were drunk, the children were drunk. Only the dogs were sober.

The colonial authorities were determined to minimise contact between the Lun Bawang and the other tribal groups and to let them die out.

But amazingly, in 1933, the gospel came to the Lun Bawang from across the Indonesian border through missionaries working in Indonesia.

This brought about major change in the lives of the Lun Bawang and led to a people movement in which the whole tribe was Christianised.

It led to a mission breakthrough among other tribal groups in the Sarawak interior as well.

… story continues