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There is now opportunity for Baha’is to pioneer to Mukah. There, the believers are mainly from Mukah Town, Kampung Tellian Ulu and Longhouses along Mukah Beach. The believers are of Melanau and Iban backgrounds. The Chandrans (originally from Malacca) have been home-front pioneering here since 1986.

Children’s Classes are conducted at the Baha’i Centre, Kampung Tellian Ulu, Mukah. It is normally held on Sundays for a period of 1 hour. About 30 non-Baha’i (Melanau) children from Kampung Tellian Ulu attend the class. It is taught in Malay by both Mr. & Mrs. Chandran based on Ruhi Book 3. There is potential for this class to flourish. The children have been showing great interest. However the local Baha’i community does not seem to generate enough human resource in terms of trained teachers to sustain it.

The evening of 22nd May 2004 was a merry and joyful occasion for Kampung Selampit, the largest Bahá’í community in the State. The Local Spiritual Assembly and the Department for External Affairs jointly organized the special event in which the Federal Assistant Minister for Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah, YB Datuk Dr. Tiki Lafe was the guest of honour. Also specially invited were YB Peter Nansian and Temenggong Stephen Jussem, and other community leaders.

The celebration was held at the community hall, which, with a capacity for only 400-500 people, was not able to fully accommodate the more than 700 people who came for the event. The program started with prayers, including a chant from a representative of the Muslim community. The ketua kampung, Mr. Jitwil gave a welcoming speech to the audience followed by an address by YB Peter Nansian who stressed that all religions lead mankind to God and that we are lucky to have religious unity among the various religious groups in the country. Dr. John Fozdar, a member of NSA Sarawak and the chairman of the Department of External Affairs, gave a brief explanation on the purpose and significance of the celebration.

The above training course was successfully organized from the evening of 22 Jan to 25 Jan 2004 at the CAWF training office. It was facilitated by ABM Ms. Ong Eng Eng from West Malaysia, who was assisted by External Affairs members, Dr John Fozdar , Maria Peter and myself. There were 12 participants: 5 tuai rumah (longhouse headmen) and 4 AJKK from 7 localities plus 2 External Affairs members and 1 ordinary believer. This was the first training ever organized for this group of leaders and it was very good. The training also included sharing experiences, games, workshop and role play. All the participants participated actively.