Page 22 - Malayan Story
P. 22
MALAYAN STORY
For all that, it was still a shop house attached to a whole group of others, and with a common
verandah on to the street. The walls between were flimsy and far from soundproof, so that if a baby
in No. 6 woke up and cried in the night, the people in No. 1 at the other end were awakened too.
From my own experience of sleeping in shop houses later, I know that it is possible to hear the
person in the house next door turn over in bed or snore in his sleep. The street noises too were
impossible to shut out, and often a loud speaker suspended at the street corner made the night
hideous with its loud music and singing.
Talking with Winnie and Marjorie over lunch and listening to them discuss with Percy some of the
problems they faced in Church work, gave me a deep admiration for these single girls living alone
under such conditions. They had to identify with their community, so if there was a police search in
the middle of the night, they had to be prepared to get out of bed as their neighbours did, and allow
their house to be searched. If the village was put under curfew, and that could be for as long as 23
hours out of 24, they must be prepared for that too. It wasn’t easy.
After lunch we walked along to where Dr and Mrs Pearce had set up a clinic in another shop-front
house. They were old friends from China days, and Dr. Pearce had been the school doctor at Guling
where our three boys had been at school between 1948 and 1950. We were warmly welcomed and,
after giving them the latest news of our children and catching up with what theirs were doing in
England, they showed us around the simple little clinic. The main doors opened into the reception
room which was about 12 feet wide by 18 feet long and had benches placed around the walls where
people could sit. Bright Christian posters adorned the walls so there was always something to catch
the attention. The only other furniture in the room was a table where Gospels and tracts were spread
out. Leading off the reception room was a small consulting room with a desk, dressing table and
examination couch. There was a small dispensary attached to this room.
Dr and Mrs Pearce worked together as a team as she is a trained nurse. Apart from the work in the
clinic which was also their home, Dr Pearce visited sick people in their homes and in the Old
peoples’ Home run by the Government. He also worked with a Chinese Government midwife when
she needed him. There were Government Hospitals in some of the adjacent cities, and a doctor and a
hospital in a nearby Palm Oil Estate, but among the 5,000 population of Cha’ah itself, there was still
plenty of work to keep the doctor busy.
They were happy when they had only about 20 – 25 patients in the afternoon and perhaps 10 in the
morning. They looked on each patient as one who was brought to them by the Lord for a purpose,
and their constant prayer was that they would be kept from having so many patients that they could
not attempt to meet the spiritual needs as well as the physical needs of each one. They longed that
God would bring them to the people whom He knew would respond to the Gospel message when
they heard it. For this they prayed as they worked. As we looked and listened, once again my heart
was filled with admiration for a couple who had served for many years in China already, whose
children were at the same stage of life as our own four in Australia, and who could have earned far
more and lived far more comfortably had they gone into practice at home. Instead, for the sake of
Him whom they loved and served, they lived simply and frugally in new village conditions in
Malaya.
The afternoon was hot and steamy as we started off again northwards. The jungle seemed to press in
on us. We passed the town of Segamat without stopping and before long a sign post indicating
another New Village attracted my attention.
22
For all that, it was still a shop house attached to a whole group of others, and with a common
verandah on to the street. The walls between were flimsy and far from soundproof, so that if a baby
in No. 6 woke up and cried in the night, the people in No. 1 at the other end were awakened too.
From my own experience of sleeping in shop houses later, I know that it is possible to hear the
person in the house next door turn over in bed or snore in his sleep. The street noises too were
impossible to shut out, and often a loud speaker suspended at the street corner made the night
hideous with its loud music and singing.
Talking with Winnie and Marjorie over lunch and listening to them discuss with Percy some of the
problems they faced in Church work, gave me a deep admiration for these single girls living alone
under such conditions. They had to identify with their community, so if there was a police search in
the middle of the night, they had to be prepared to get out of bed as their neighbours did, and allow
their house to be searched. If the village was put under curfew, and that could be for as long as 23
hours out of 24, they must be prepared for that too. It wasn’t easy.
After lunch we walked along to where Dr and Mrs Pearce had set up a clinic in another shop-front
house. They were old friends from China days, and Dr. Pearce had been the school doctor at Guling
where our three boys had been at school between 1948 and 1950. We were warmly welcomed and,
after giving them the latest news of our children and catching up with what theirs were doing in
England, they showed us around the simple little clinic. The main doors opened into the reception
room which was about 12 feet wide by 18 feet long and had benches placed around the walls where
people could sit. Bright Christian posters adorned the walls so there was always something to catch
the attention. The only other furniture in the room was a table where Gospels and tracts were spread
out. Leading off the reception room was a small consulting room with a desk, dressing table and
examination couch. There was a small dispensary attached to this room.
Dr and Mrs Pearce worked together as a team as she is a trained nurse. Apart from the work in the
clinic which was also their home, Dr Pearce visited sick people in their homes and in the Old
peoples’ Home run by the Government. He also worked with a Chinese Government midwife when
she needed him. There were Government Hospitals in some of the adjacent cities, and a doctor and a
hospital in a nearby Palm Oil Estate, but among the 5,000 population of Cha’ah itself, there was still
plenty of work to keep the doctor busy.
They were happy when they had only about 20 – 25 patients in the afternoon and perhaps 10 in the
morning. They looked on each patient as one who was brought to them by the Lord for a purpose,
and their constant prayer was that they would be kept from having so many patients that they could
not attempt to meet the spiritual needs as well as the physical needs of each one. They longed that
God would bring them to the people whom He knew would respond to the Gospel message when
they heard it. For this they prayed as they worked. As we looked and listened, once again my heart
was filled with admiration for a couple who had served for many years in China already, whose
children were at the same stage of life as our own four in Australia, and who could have earned far
more and lived far more comfortably had they gone into practice at home. Instead, for the sake of
Him whom they loved and served, they lived simply and frugally in new village conditions in
Malaya.
The afternoon was hot and steamy as we started off again northwards. The jungle seemed to press in
on us. We passed the town of Segamat without stopping and before long a sign post indicating
another New Village attracted my attention.
22
