Living with Aliens

Hi all, its been quite a while since I posted anything for this blog, however, I thought that I would like to share this article, produced with permission, about the experiences of a missionary from Sarawak, Borneo. Some of the language and terms used here are Sarawak localized. Be encouraged.

Living with Aliens
Rev. Lenita Tiong, Bintulu

For years I have been living with aliens, but actually I was the alien. The Khmer word for foreigner is "boh-re-teh". The older folks however use the word "barang" which mean French as the only foreigners they knew were the French who colonized Cambodia from 1863 till 1953. I was called "barang" by my first landlady.

As a "boh-re-teh", I was well respected as I lived in a big house and drove a car. At the market, I represented economical advantage and so I was addressed "madam" even by hawkers who know only two English words "madam, buy buy." In the Christian circles, I represented the church leadership and so with the ecclesiological and academic status, I was the "neak krew" (female teacher) and I received "kow-taos" every where I went.

Local Yet Live With Aliens

But now, back in Sarawak, I am a local, but I still live with aliens. At first, they were the Indonesian maids in my brother's house in Miri. I was "kakak" to them. In a house of two maids, one teenager, an elderly ailing lady and this kakak, we had to be a family. We had meals together and I bought treats (ice cream, chendol, kuehs etc) for all. What mum ate, we all ate together. Initially, the maids insisted that the fruits and treats were only for "nenek" since they were given to her by her friends. One maid even cried when she shared with me about her first employer who insisted that she ate in the kitchen only after the family had eaten.

I took all to the beach and my sister commented that I "spoil" the maids. My response, "I spoil them so they can spoil mum." I realized then that I reflected one with an ulterior motive for caring for the maids. My love was not unconditional. Now that we are in Bintulu and live in a big house in an Iban community, we are aliens and yet locals. The neighbors know my parents as "uncle and auntie Cina" as we are the only Chinese family in this community. I am merely "anak uncle or anak auntie". A few ladies call me "madik Dicky", identifying me as Dicky's sibling. I have become a commoner, with no social standing and no more "kow taos".

But word somehow got out that there is an alien in the house and last week a group of kids stood outside the kitchen window and saw Kosal, my Khmer helper. They stuck their tongues out at her and went "neh-neh-neh- neh-neh-neh". I was shocked that even kids would know how to treat foreigners differently. Living with foreigners allows us to see how racist we all can be. Like a mirror, we see our true inner self. Unlike the kids who would shout and stick out their tongues, we are more sophisticated in our reaction and disguise our true feelings well.

Another Experience With an Alien

This week, I took a whole set of documents to be photocopied. The worker at the shop was a Bangladeshi. Soon after he started copying, an original document was stuck in the document feeder. I then asked him to copy the conventional way and not to use the feeder. Then I realized that he was doing only one set when I need two. His explanation: do one and then use the copy to go thru document feeder! I told him that the copy of a copy would not be as clear. But he was already half way thru and I asked if he remembered which he had done and which he hadn't. He confidently said yes. Then I realized that he had rearranged my original documents. They must be in the right order for the submission of the work permit! What can I do but laugh! The boss then commented that the worker is always like that, he has his own idea about what to do and then passed a racist remark on his skin color. Immediately I found myself on the side of the worker and defended him.

Treat Your Aliens God's Way

As a missionary, I lived among the foreigners and the aliens, people very different from me, people who do things in ways which baffled and often times frustrated me. Now I am a local, but I still live with foreigners. They still baffle and frustrate me or is it now the other way round? They have come to our land and they live among the aliens. Do we frustrate them with our ways? I am sure we do.

As I reflected on what God wanted the Israelites to do with the aliens living among them, I realized that, to the aliens, the Israelites' ways must be equally frustrating and baffling. No work on Sabbath, not even the animals. Who had ever heard of animals needing rest? The land resting too? How odd.

And when it came to harvesting, they were supposed to leave some for the foreigners to harvest. What were the workers of Boaz thinking when their boss told them "pull out some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to pick." (Ruth 2:16) What an odd boss, not just allowing this foreign widow to pick the leftover grains but purposely dropping some good stalks for her!

God's love for the foreigners and aliens is truly out of the norm and must have been so odd not only to His own people, the Israelites and I am sure to the aliens who lived and worked among them. God's command to His people was "Do not mistreat the alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt." (Exo. 22:21) The word "alien" is used in NIV while KJV and NLT uses foreigners and strangers. God's command to His people was to ensure that the foreigners living among them have certain rights as well as limitations. They were to be loved, treated fairly and generously and were to be provided asylum when in trouble. The psalmist went to the extent of saying that God watches over them as He sustains the fatherless and the widow. (Psalm 146:9)

A Question For Us

My question and thought is that for the aliens now living among us, do they find our love for God and for them odd and out of the norm? Is there a difference if our Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Chinese, Myanmar and even Cambodian helpers and workers work for a Christian? Is God's love for humanity through us obvious to them? My prayer is that it would be and so to all Connection readers who live with "aliens", let's make a difference. (The author is currently on leave and at home in Bintulu to care for her paralysed mother who had a stroke 8 months ago.)