Mrs. Nathalie Means widow of the late Dr. Paul B. Means, one of the pioneer missionaries who was instrumental in the planting of the Sengoi mission in Malaysia was present at the official dedication ceremony of the Dr. Paul B. Means Memorial Library on Monday, 17th March, 1981, at the Sengoi Methodist Workers’ Training Centre in Kampar, Perak.

Dr. and Mrs Means were missionaries in Singapore and Malaya from 1929 to 1939, and they had written a book, entitled ‘And the Seed Grew’, which is about the Methodist Missionary work among the Sengois in Malaya/Malaysia, during the past fifty years. Mrs. Means has recently been working in this region for the past six months, putting the final touches to this fine piece of work.

This missionary couple first learned about the evangelisation of tribal people when they were posted to Medan, Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, in 1927. A Toba Batak pastor, Rev. Lamsana L. Tobing, told them about the marvellous transformation of the Toba tribe by the Rhenish Mission. Later, Dr. Means accompanied Rev. Carel Hamel on several trips to the Asahan jungle, where the Methodist Church had opened work among the Simalungan tribe of Bataks and he was greatly thrilled to see the effects of the Gospel in certain villages and became deeply concerned for those who had not yet been reached in the vast jungle of Asahan.

This concern for tribal people developed while in Sumatra and when they were transferred to Singapore at the end of 1929, they discovered that there were tribal people in the Malay Peninsula also. The opportunity to meet these tribal people came when Rev. J.J. Kingham, a fellow missionary, invited them to accompany him on a trip to Kuantan, Pahang. They located a man with a rowboat to take them down river to the place where the aborigines lived. When they came to a small clearing where a single house on stilts stood about eight feet above ground, they found it deserted, the occupants must have gone into hiding when they heard them coming; but the Sengoi women had evidently never seen a European woman before and their curiosity overcame their fear and finally two of them crawled through the waist-high grass to have a closer view. When Dr. and Mrs. Means returned to Singapore from their exploratory trips to Pahang, Dr. Means proposed to Bishop E.F. Lee of the Methodist Church a plan to open work among the Sengoi; many people at that time felt that the tribal people should either be ignored and allowed to live in their pristine and innocent state of nature or be left to be absorbed into the Malayan complex of cultures and civilisations; on the contrary, Bishop Lee was anxious to have government approval for this philanthropic Christian approach to the neglected tribes of the hills.

The general objective of the programme was to bring the blessings of the Christian life in its widest and deepest implications to the tribal people who had been living in physical and spiritual darkness and ignorance.

Alexander Simanjuntak, a Batak Christian worker, who was a hill tribesman from Sumatra had volunteered to go as a Christian missionary to work among the hill tribe in Perak. He planned to start a school programme, by which he would have a real opportunity to make contact with the Sengois, and help them to meet some of their basic needs.

First Sengoi Evangelist
The first school was officially opened on 21st October, 1930 at the 16th mile Pahang Road, with only three pupils. Similar schools were opened in other areas later on. Alexander introduced a pleasant Sengoi youth, Bah Prah, to Dr. Means. Bah Prah had accepted Christ as his Saviour and Alexander felt that he would make a good evangelist if he could have proper training and suggested it to Dr. Means. Later Bah Prah went to Singapore where he was given Bible instruction and Mrs. Means coached him in his reading and writing. He was also invited to speak at church services in Singapore and after a period of three months he returned to his settlement to serve his people.

Newspaper Controversy
Shortly after the Methodist Church celebrated her 50th anniversary in Southeast Asia, a special article appeared in the Straits Times, Singapore, about the Sengoi Mission and the good work the Christian missionaries were doing, inspite of the deeply-rooted customs inspired with the native religion which embraced animism and demonology, the fear of disease and death. A strong reaction to this article appeared shortly afterwards, accusing the missionaries of interfering with the “real children of the jungle”. Probably the best answer came from the government enthnographer, Mr. Noone, who expressed appreciation at the way the Methodist Missions operated.

“And the Seed Grew” traces every major phase of the Methodist Mission’s endeavour to educate and evangelise the tribal community in this part of Malaysia. According to Bishop T.R. Doraisamy, Bishop of the Methodist Church in Malaysia and Singapore from 1973 to 1976, “hardly any name associated with the Sengoi work has been left out. The student of missions will look at it as a case-study and identify principles, motives, issues, philosophies and theologies in action. The Methodist Church owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Paul B. Means for their example of Christian obedience in the planting of the Sengoi mission.”

Pelita Methodist
May/June 1981