Mamarayou

This song is no ordinary song, I tell you.

I still remember vividly the setting where I first heard it. That was an afternoon in Kampung Marak-Parak, a secluded village faraway from the main streets of Kota Marudu. We went there on a mission trip with SIB Likas (English) during my younger days. To cut the long story short, we had to endure hours of torturous gravel roads to reach this no-man's-land with no electricity. And we sang that song with the local folks during the first service in a wooden church .

There was no transparency projector, no printed lyrics, no powerpoint, not even music instruments except for a little guitar (I think). But hey, those village folks sang it from memory! The tune was so melodious and uplifting, and before I knew it, they were dancing and sumazau-ing with outstretched hands! Man, they were sincerely enjoying every bit of the song! I thought in my heart then: wow, though they may seem like illiterate folks, but THIS must be a very meaningful song to them. I've gotta learn it!

From that day onwards, I was attracted to the indigenous churches and ministries in Sabah. I simply love the cross-culture experience that the SIB churches has to offer. At times I stick out like an anomaly in the SIB Bandar Keningau church, coz there was hardly any Chinese there. The little church would be packed with tanned and exotic-looking Dusuns, Muruts, Lundayehs, Sinos, Oms, Tators, Bajaus... and suddenly you have this bespectacled fair-skinned spiky-hair Cina-kui sitting in front.

Well, I don't care. I made some friends there.

I think the indegenous folks have a chromosome called Music in their genes. They make playing music seem so effortless. I've got this friend called Damian, who could play the keyboard, the lead and bass guitars, the drums, and probably a couple more instruments, without ever attending any formal music lesson, let alone recognising any taugeh on the 5-line bars. And he plays without looking at any scores or chords; he plays from his heart. COOL! If only I can do just a bit of that.

Just because I am hooked to indigenous churches, doesn't mean that I don't enjoy going to Chinese churches. Just that, I don't like to see a whole church full of Cina-kuis and nothing else. So boring. Don't agree with me? Well you better start to get along with one another, coz that's what's going to happen when Kingdom comes.

After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd---no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
Rev 7:9

On and off, I still want to attend Mandarin services, coz that's the language that I grew up with, and one which I can worship most affectionately. But I don't think churches should be divided along racial lines, whether intentionally or not. It is bad enough that our race-based political parties set such bad examples, making racial harmony and unity efforts nothing more than empty rhetorics. In such a setting, the churches should play the role of demonstrating to the fragmented society that racial unity is indeed achievable, and the place to start looking is at the congregation. That's what I call Light and Salt. Shame on the racist bigots.

OK, we have digressed far enough to get from Tuaran to Tawau. Now back to the SONG story. Since that memorable day in Kampung Marak-Parak, I've heard and sang the song a many more times in different services, though not understanding much of it. I tried deciphering the song by looking up word by word in my Komoiboros DusunKadazan (borrowed from Auntie Lebing). Not much progress though. Coz in order to look up a word in the dictionary, one would need to identify the root-word minus the prepositions and postpositions which comes in many forms. Not easy. But anyway, thanks to the Komoiboros, I learned a few Dusun songs along the way, enough to impress the Dusun nurses and patients. That was FUN. You may ask me, heck why not just ASK SOMEBODY to translate that song for you?! Nah, that would be too easy. No challenge.

TODAY, the mystery is finally unveiled. Pastor Bios and his team of Borneo Praise Ministry singers had the Mamarayou song all laid out in English. Whew! What a great relief. It's a feeling... like watching Vanna White revealing the whole cube-line of words in the Wheel Of Fortune, and knowing you've had the correct answer in your mind all along!

Let's sumayau om suminding to mamarayou Diya!

P/S: The Borneo Praise Ministry has produced it's first CD compilation of worship songs in local tunes, including the Mamarayou song. This ministry, an extension of the SIB church, is still in its infancy and would definitely need your support. Enough la of Hillsongs and Don Moen, not bored meh, try la some local flavour ones mah. The debut CD is sold at RM 25 each. So if you have friends or contacts who may be interested, lead them to mikestation. I can ask my contact to purchase their orders (they pay la of course).