Letters from Terence Joseph are "reproduced here".
Methodism had first come to Sarawak in 1901 when Methodist immigrants from Foochow [Fukien] settled in the Rejang valley and, following the arrival from Malaya in 1903 of the American missionary, James Hoover, Methodism grew rapidly among the Chinese. There was a beginning to Methodist work with Ibans in 1912, when a Batak missionary, Willie Galung, baptized two Iban boys, and the Rev. Charles Davis, an American missionary from Kansas, was based in Bukit Lan and worked in the large Bawang Assan community on the Leba'an. Hoover was not supportive of Methodist work among the Iban and, as Davis recalled in correspondence, told the latter there was not enough work in the Rejang for two missionaries. There appears to have been no further approach until 1939 when an American, Paul Schmucker, and a Batak, Lucius D. Mamora, worked in the Kapit area and above. Terence Joseph (1964) and Andy Fowler (1976) describe a new mission at Kapit as part of their surveys of the history and results of the distinctive and liberal approach of the American missionaries.
Work by Methodists among Ibans was interrupted by World War II. Schmucker left Sarawak, and Mamora stayed with Ibans who hid him from the Japanese and their Taiwanese troops. In the years immediately following the end of the Japanese occupation the staff of the mission headquarters at Kapit undertook some evangelistic work in the Baleh and other rivers above Kapit. In 1948 an American pastor, the Rev. Burr H. Baughman and his wife Tek Lyn arrived and, with Mamora, began work in the Kapit area. They were joined by the Rev. Jaleb Manurung, and later, by the Rev. Philemon Sirait, both Bataks from Sumatra. Some of the local Iban, disliking what appeared to be a threat to their status, plotted to take Mamora's head but he was protected by a young Christian, Nuing anak Kudi, who was to become an Iban lay preacher and, after ten years experience, Kudi entered the Theological School at Sibu, where he studied for two years before going into politics.
As the Anglican Francis McDougall had done in Kuching back in 1848, first the new Methodist mission opened a small boarding school for Iban boys at Panto, Kapit, on land given to the mission by the government. During its first two years the school had about ten Iban pupils in each year.
The first group of Ibans to become Christians, as members of the Methodist Church in Sarawak, were baptized by Baughman on Christmas Day 1949, they numbered 29 persons. One of the first converts was the Iban leader, Temenggong Koh, who had earlier led his followers to settle in the Baleh. Koh lived at Rumah Rawing, the furthest longhouse up the Baleh river, and his conversion was a factor of great importance in the initial growth of the Church and led many of his followers to accept the Christian faith. Other prominent Iban leaders among the early converts were Pengarah (4) Sibat and Pengarah Jinggut, and Pengulu (5), later Temenggong, Jugah, who became Minister for Sarawak Affairs in the Federal Government of Malaysia. Writing about the news of this baptism Malcolm MacDonald said that it was "astonishing news." It came "without warning, it seemed as inexplicable as it was surprising." (MacDonald 1956:100). He continued:
When I learned later of.. the extent of the baptisms I felt a mixture of pleasure and concern. The mass conversion of such an impressive group of Iban leaders on the Baleh river was of course a triumph for Baughman and the Methodist mission, but it seemed impossible that, on the part of some at least of the chiefs, it was authentic. Undoubtedly Jugah, Sibat, Jinggut and several, other serious-minded penghulus were genuine, and had real comprehension of what Christianity meant; but I doubted both the understanding; and the sincerity of others. As for Koh, he was far too old and set in his ideas to adopt, except in a most superficial manner, a profound new faith. Presumably he had been talked into this sudden change by some of the younger men, who perhaps thought it politically opportune and spiritually harmless.
I was told ... afterwards that Baughman himself shared these doubts.
He had known for some time that Jugah, Sibat and Jinggut were intelligently attracted by Christianity, but it was something of a surprise to him when a much larger group of chiefs asked to be christened. His first instinct was to refuse one or two of them; but then he realised the difficulties which he would cause if he accepted some and rejected the rest. In particular it would be hard to shut the door of the Church against the paramount chief while opening it to his juniors. Moreover, by receiving so many leaders as avowed Christians he could increase his influence with them, and secure better opportunities for educational missionary work among their people.
Feeling, however, that he should not himself take a decision on this somewhat dubious matter, he referred it to his Methodist superiors in Singapore. They approved the baptisms. So, at an historic service at Kapit, Temenggong Koh and an array of distinguished ex-pagans were received into the Church. (MacDonald 1956:199-200).
Derek Freeman undertook his research at Rumah Nyala on the Baleh from 1949-51 before the arrival of Christianity and when the majority of Iban continued to follow their traditional religion, and visiting in the Baleh, which was almost entirely undertaken by the Christian teachers at the Kapit schools, was very limited (Cheng Chung-sing 1964). McDonald made many visits to the Baleh River and was well acquainted with senior Iban families in that area.
MacDonald questions the strength of the newly converted individuals' commitment to Christianity:
This remarkable event [Koh's conversion] did not produce any change in Koh's outlook on material, intellectual, or spiritual matters.... It did not strike him that there was any contradiction between such solemn heathen rites [as the hornbill festival, gawai kenyalang] and his recent profession of Christianity (MacDonald 1956:200).
Pengulu Jugah showed an understanding of Christianity which accommodated traditional religion. He stated that for him bedara (to sacrifice) could now be regarded as making an offering to the Christian God, though others regarded it 'as an act of appeasement of evil spirits' (MacDonald 1956:369).
These ideas were taken up by two Methodist ministers, George Wang and Andy Fowler (1969) who considered how Christianity was accommodating Iban religious concepts. Their study shows the consistent liberal approach taken by Methodists:
In 1950 a church, house and school were built at Nanga Mujong, and in 1951 after the arrival of an American black pastor, T. Harris, to take over the principalship of the school at Kapit, Mamora was placed in charge of the work at Nanga Mujong. The next year an agricultural training centre was set up at Nanga Mujong and pastoral work in the Baleh then developed more rapidly. Harris told MacDonald 'of a programme of expansion which the mission planned on the Rejang.' (MacDonald 1956:203).
A classroom was erected near Pengulu Jinggut's house on the Baleh. Further schools for Iban pupils, which used English as the medium of instruction, were opened in the rural areas upriver from Kapit in the 1960s. At Kapit, where the primary school had been enlarged to include facilities for girl boarders in 1949 and a secondary school opened in 1960, the schools contained children of all races, but those upriver were almost entirely made up of Iban pupils (Cheng Chung-sing 1964). After the first baptisms of twenty-nine Iban in December 1949 there was an emphasis on education, agriculture and medicine and rapid growth in membership. In December 1967 there were 7,905 full members and 4,043 preparatory members (Fraude 1968:21).
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