By Mathew Benson and Pauline Chang
This is the story of six city dwellers venturing into the bushes seeking spiritual nourishment with nature.
Early on a bright beautiful day, six members of the Creation Justice Commission (CJC) of the Diocese of Miri, set out from Miri and Bintulu on the 2½-hour journey to Bukit Doa at Tubau. There, they were met by Msgr Joseph Ding, with his trusty parang and cangkul, who would lead them on their journey of prayer up the mountain.
The CJC also carried a mission with them – to plant six Engkabang saplings in pursuit of the Diocese’ ProtEC5 mission to plant 1000 trees this year. The Engkabang tree belongs to the Meranti family; a hardwood tree, prized for its lightness and durability. The Meranti has been extensively logged and now it is increasingly difficult to find Engkabang trees in the wild. It is now placed under government protection. Planting Engkabang trees is the CJC’s symbolic gesture of regeneration of our rainforests.
Bukit Doa (in Holy Cross Parish, Sg Asap) was designated a pilgrimage site, a place of prayer and contemplation a few years ago. With the help of the parish and local community and donations from visitors, a wooden base shed, a small rough chapel, acrylic Stations of the Cross, a walkway and some cement steps were built. Our gratitude and thanks to the folks who hauled the wood, the cement, the Cross and everything else all the way to the top. Any assistance to the parish for the Bukit Doa pilgrimage site will be welcomed.
As these 6 intrepid city dwellers soon found out, the Way of the Cross up Bukit Doa is arduous but fulfilling. The vision to construct a decent chapel and proper paths all the way to the top of Bukit Doa indeed feels like a bridge too far, especially with the more and more regular occurrence of landslides due to extreme climate events. But with God, nothing is impossible.
The pilgrimage in pictures
