IT was quite unbelievable when Glenda messaged me sometime in July to say that she and husband Tony Jevans had made plans to come back to Sibu. It would be Tony’s first ever trip to Asia. Excitement was in the air especially for Glenda way before she landed in Sibu airport on 10th Oct, 2018.
Upon arrival the feeling of nostalgia began. Imagine what Sibu was like 49 years ago! Almost everything has changed for her. There was hardly any building that she could recognize. The Hoover house that she used to stop by is now Hoover square. Liling Residence for lady missionaries, where she used to live and had Iban language training (before being sent to Kapit to work as a nurse in Christ Hospital) is now where the Methodist Message office is. Only the Summers Memorial Building in the Methodist Secondary School compound remains more or less as it used to look……
“Oh my gosh, it only takes 3 hours to go up to Kapit by express boat? It used to take us the whole night by motor launch!”
Glenda came to serve as a missionary nurse in 1966 as a young graduate. She was in Christ Hospital, Kapit for one and half years, one year in Nanga Mujong Clinic and one year in our Methodist Church Clinic in Bukit Lan. As a new nursing graduate without midwifery training, she took courage to deliver babies when duty called and circumstances were unavoidable in the mid 1960s.
With so much to revisit and to reminisce about we made immediate plans to cover Sibu, Bukit Lan and Kapit in 10 days. Colin Chieng Kindly took a day off to drive us down to Bukit Lan on 12th Oct. 2018. Glenda had nostalgic feelings as she recognized the staircase of the house where she lived. The clinic downstairs was no longer there, but the room is used as a worship area as Bukit Lan is now turned into a nice retreat centre for various Church activities. With a sense of joy, she was still able to stand at the verandah of the former clinic house and look over and view the steeple of the Yun Nan Methodist Church.
The trip to Kapit was more dramatic and mind-blowing for Glenda. Well, our amazing God does amazing things! First of all, she was literally treated with royalty once the connections were made. Tan Sri Linggi Jugah ( son of the late Temmengong Jugah) gave instructions to his niece, Pauline Edna, In Kapit to take care of Glenda and Tony. The best hotel accommodations and other travelling plans were made.
Glenda just could not get over the fact that after taking a boat from Kapit wharf across the river, it only took about half an hour to reach Nanga Mujong. It used to take her 3 hours by longboat. When she was visiting the longhouse which used to house the Methodist clinic but now is a modern longhouse, she was met with great fanfare.
A woman just “happened” to be visiting the longhouse as there was a death that occurred. When hearing of a special orang ‘putih’ visitor, she got curious and asked around. Lo and behold, she recognized and realized that the visitor was that Glenda, the American missionary nurse, who delivered her baby 51 years ago.
The ‘dots’ which were so far apart are now so closely connected. She exclaimed to Glenda that her son is now 51 years old and that she now has 4 grandchildren. Well, as we say , in such joyous moments, “Heaven also rejoices !”
We just never know how much difference our impact can make to those whose lives we touched or just came in contact with. As for Glenda, she may never know what would have been otherwise if she had not delivered the 150+ babies during those 3 years. As for those mothers who had the privilege of choosing to deliver their babies in Christ hospital or Nanga Mujong, their lives were also delivered from the bondage and pangs of traditional birth practices. Undoubtedly they will be forever grateful.
It was another happy surprise for Glenda that same day when she found out from different women that at least 3 baby girls were named ‘Glenda’ in memory of her, in appreciation of such special and perhaps even crucial delivery! When one of the ‘Glendas’, working in KL, was told by her mother of Glenda’s visit to Kapit, The KL Glenda asked to talk over the phone. She requested to meet Glenda in KLIA airport on her transit back to USA via KL.
When returning just for a visit, it never dawned on her that she would be able to meet those whom God just sent on the way. She met up with her former assistant & translator. She also got to see Panau, her former cook, and Langkang, her boat driver, who saved her from drowning in the Pelagus rapids 50 years ago when on their way to Belaga.
Time was too short for Glenda to meet up with more who would have loved to see her. But we never know, perhaps some day, somewhere, more dots will be connected, if not here on earth then in heaven.
Meanwhile from what we can witness from her life and ministry both In Sarawak and in the USA, we can truly echo the lyrics of the hymn:
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.
In Him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord,
Close binding all mankind.
Join hands, then, brothers of the faith,
Whate’er your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me.
In Christ now meet both East
and West,
In Him meet South and North;
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth.
Judy Wong Wesley Methodist Church, Sibu