BAGGIO'S BRAVE JOURNEY
By Christopher Quah
While most believers would only consider joining a mission trip if it is planned by their church but this is not the case for Baggio Rostin. Baggio is one of the few who would go on an ad hoc mission trip independently, all by himself. He does this as an individual and not as a representative of any church or para-church organization but as a disciple of Christ. He has an adventurous soul indeed for God. Many of these places that he used to go for his extraordinaire solo mission trips were deep in the interior of Sabah. For him to be able to do this, he said that he had to step out of many of his comfort zones, as many of these places are remote and hard to reach places and many do not even have the luxury of modern living.
Baggio is from the Rungus tribe who is well known for their adventurous and exploring spirit. He inherited this spirit of adventure and travel of his kinsmen and used them for God’s glory.
In this article he shared one of his journeys. His earliest journey which he could recalled was a few years back, to a village in Magandai; an isolated village far in the interior of Sabah. It was his first personal mission trip of sort.
“I started the journey to Magandai at dawn, around 5 am. At first I thought it would be a straight forward journey but I was wrong. The car that I was in broke down halfway to Magandai but I did not give up, though it took 5 hours to fix it. At around 2 pm I continued my journey to Magandai. I reached my destination late evening and one of the villager who introduced himself as Jabal offered me to stay in his house. Even though the villagers there thought I was a foreigner they still welcomed me but when they found out that I was a Rungus they were even more excited, since I could speak their language.”
Baggio explained that this is the hospitality accorded by the natives in most of his solo mission trips.
“The villagers were surprised to see a visitor to their remote village unannounced but they were friendly and offered me a place to stay. I settled down for the night, the next morning I proceed to help them with their chores. I remembered that it was my first time ever helping others with their chores. It was 7 a.m. when I started the day by helping Jabal to prepare breakfast. We had to prepare breakfast from the food that the villagers had collected from the jungle, such as fruits, roots, and all sort of plants. There were even some mousedeer meat. This is very different from the organized church mission trips as the villagers would know far in advance and they would have everything (food) prepared. The church mission trip team members would only focus on the preparations for whatever ministry they have come to do,” Baggio explained.
After breakfast he was taken for a guided tour around the village. He visited the houses of the villagers. He noticed that the village has a primary school, a guest house, a meeting hall, and even a protestant church.
“After the tour, I requested the host if I could be given the opportunity to help out with their local children and youth church ministries. My heart is for the young and as such, I would ask permission to do activities with the children and the youth in the village. The villagers were more than willing to accept my offer. This was my first ever solo mission trip and there I was, having to start an ice breaking session with the youths and the children. Luckily I had already planned for this, and I kept to my plan, so everything went smoothly.” Although I would drop by a target village unannounced it does not mean that I come unprepared, especially when the offer turns out to be an affirmative response such as this,” Baggio emphasized.
He then proceed to do some sharing about his life and his family background and proceed from there to ask the youths and children what they think about their own faith.
When the session ended, his mission was not over yet. He mingled with the villagers after lunch, especially the youth.
“When you spend time to talk with them, they would eventually open up to you. Since I speak their language, I have an advantage. A lot of them told me about their background, and the struggles that they faced. I gave them some advice and also prayed for them in return,” Baggio explained.
He added that he had planned to stay for some days and wanted to join the youth in their daily recreational activities. Among the common sport in the village is sepak takraw. There is also swimming as many of these villagers located near the banks the rivers.
“Bathing in the river is a bonus for trip like this, as the river there is usually free from pollution and the water is cold and refreshing,” he said.
Aside from the youth, Baggio also held sessions with the children.
“I asked them the questions like ‘who is Jesus in your life?’ and lead them to issues such as building a closer relationship with God. I used all kinds of quizzes and game activities to achieve this purpose. The children seemed to enjoy these activities. I wished that I could do more but time is always short. I also gave treats at each session, such as candy and biscuits to every child present,” Baggio explained.
Ministering in the village is actually the easy part, Baggio quipped. It’s the traveling from village to village which is hard, Baggio explained.
“I remembered that I had to visit two villages in this trip. The other village is close to this one. So, I had to leave Sungai Mangadai and to travel to Sonsogon Magandai. The only way to go to the other village is by trekking across the jungle that separates them both. Without proper guidance you could be easily get lost. I asked a few of the villagers from the first village whether they could guide me to go the other village but none had been there. Suddenly a young boy named Doddy, who had just finished his secondary school volunteered. It turned out that he did not know the way either but I have faith that I would be given the opportunity to visit Sonsogon,” Baggio explained.
“So the next day armed only with faith, Doddy and I prayed before we started the journey. We followed the route that the villagers had drawn out for us. The trail was challenging because there were a lot of hills and rivers to cross. To make the journey tougher, it rained the day before making the trail even more slippery. Needless to say, we got lost. We saw a trail and followed it and thankfully it brought us to someone’s farm. After some more directions from the farmer we managed to get on the right trail,” Baggio recalled.
He continued his story saying that after 2 hours and after crossing a river to the opposite bank, they heard the sound of dogs barking and people chatting from afar. It was a good sign that they were close to the village.
“Finally we saw our first house, 15 minutes’ walk from the river bank. They were surprised to see two weary travelers appearing out of the jungle. I took some time to talk with the villagers and distributed some sweets and biscuits to each child that I met. The villagers made us very welcomed and we visited a few houses there. Some of them offered us hot drinks. We ate lunch there. The lunch consisted of their daily food which basically what they planted such as tapioca, vegetables and fruits,” Baggio explained.
They left the village later that day with a packed dinner provided by the villagers. They headed back for Magandai, the village they had come from.
“The journey was smooth, and with the rations they villagers had prepared we had lots of energy to keep us going. We only stopped at a river to refresh ourselves. Once back, I took a little rest, and prepared my notes for the Sunday service which I was invited to share. This was an honour indeed,” Baggio recalled.
He clearly remembered the service well.
“The church Sunday service started at 9 a.m. I was so captivated with the song that the children sang and performed at the church. I still remember a few lines from the song, “never surrender, never give up, God’s miracle is working when our heart just believe…”
Inspired with their simple yet powerful presentation, Baggio delivered the word for that Sunday service in front of about 80 peoples. He spoke on “Love” the theme that was given to him. He referred most of his message to 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, he explained.
“After the service, I helped Jabal to cook some wild boar meat for lunch. After lunch I was invited to their cultural hall to witness them playing their traditional music instruments. It was very beautiful and surreal. I took photos and recorded some video clips of their amazing performance,” Baggio added.
He explained that it was the final day there for him, as he had to head for home the next day. But the next morning there was a great surprise waiting him.
“The fastest way to get out of this so called lost world is on a motorbike. Unfortunately, heavy rain began to fall early that morning and it seemed that rain would not stop for the whole day. Few of the rivers and low lying areas of the land had already been flooded making my journey home now impossible. I listened to the villagers’ advice to delay my plan of going home that day. I was in a dilemma for I have no way to contact my family back home of the change in plan and I know that my mother in particular be would be very worried for me for I had told her that I would be home by that day. Sure enough late that day I recalled what my mother had told me that when I did not turn up as promised she had wanted to call a search party to look for me but refrained, giving me another day,” he said.
But thankfully the very next day after was a bright day but the road was still muddy and slippery. One of the bravest villagers made his best effort to send me to the nearest small town which was Tandek, Kota Marudu. We took almost 5 hours to reach Tandek. From that town, I got a ride straight to my house. I reached home at 8pm. It was a tiring but fruitful journey,” Baggio explained.
He added that he hoped that this interesting experience of his would not scare those who are interested in such adventure for the Lord.
