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Viewpoint from Paul Juby for 29th August 2014
Hon Vice President, The Boys' Brigade, Malaysia
Member, Thurne Methodist Church
I like mountain top experiences. At the age of ten I climbed Mount Snowdon with my parents. Then no more climbing for sixty years.
I was a rubber planter in Malaysia going to Malaysia at the age of twenty. On Penang Island teenagers led me to Christ – my first spiritual mountain top. Following that I started a Boys' Brigade Company, the second in the whole of Malaysia. Since then I have seen a Godly miracle, today almost 10,000 members with the movement also going into four neighbouring countries. A bit like the biblical mustard seed!
Then came physical mountain tops. A friend challenged me to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South-East Asia at 13,500 feet. I like challenges even though I was seventy years old and with two artificial hips!
A year later a climbing party was organised of youth leaders from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. We assembled at the base and had an open air prayer in Cantonese. I was heartened to hear my name showing their concern. It was a tough climb. Climbing through clouds to a wonderful scene. Looking down on clouds then on jungle to the sea. A great experience. So great I climbed the mountain three times. There was a spiritual mountain top feeling climbing with younger Christians, climbing and singing Christian choruses, and the unbeatable Christian fellowship in the evenings.
My third climb was a disappointment. At 11,000 feet I found I could not climb further. It was like an invisible wall, I would become breathless. I told the group to go to the top that I would be alright. On their return we all climbed down, I was able to do that. Back in the UK I had a check-up. The cardiologist diagnosed a silent heart attack up the mountain! The Lord put up that invisible wall, I was as thankful as this is another example of Godly help. I can still be active, I can still climb spiritual heights although the physical ones might be a little restricted. Each year I return to Malaysia thankful for all that the Lord is doing. Praise Him!
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