Church (Protestant)

By: Andrea (BATCH 6)

For those of you who are Christians, yes, there are churches in Kelantan, don’t worry, but the process is kinda 麻烦 la.

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE GOING TO CHURCH

Outing days are on Fridays and Saturdays and church service is held on Fridays. There will be a fixed day for boys and girls for their outings separately, for example, during our Sem 1 the girls went out on Friday and the boys on Saturday, then in Sem 2 the boys on Friday and the girls on Saturday. So in Sem 1, every time we go to church the boys would have to fill in this thing called Surat Outing that you can get from the HEP office then let the PPHEP sign it. The newest PPHEP are Sir Salmizie and Miss Laila, but if nothing has changed, they will leave a place on the HEP counter for you to place the surat that you wanna sign then you just go back later and collect it. Remember to get it done around the middle of the week to make sure that you can get the surat back in time. Then on Friday when you go out the boys will have to give the surat to the guard before they let you go out. This would be the same for the girls in the next semester.

HOW TO GO THERE?

There are a few ways you could travel to church. Note that it is in Kota Bharu (KB) which is around 45 minutes from college so we usually leave college at around 8 or 8.30 am. Church starts at 10am.

1. Grab / MyCar

Because KB is quite far away, it would be quite expensive to take Grab. But if you don’t mind, its probably one of the most convenient options. MyCar is another service like Grab but probably easier to find.

2. Van

At the beginning of our Sem 1 they had this van service provided by the Politeknik college nearby. We had to text the driver earlier in the week and ‘book’ him and also let him know how many people are going. It’s the cheapest option coz its RM5 per person for one way so travelling would take only RM10 total for each person. But towards the end of Sem 1 that particular driver didn’t drive anymore and we didn’t know any other drivers who did so we had to use other ways to go to church.

3. Rent car

There’s a car rental service nearby. We had to call/text the person earlier in the week and let him know the time (he was always late so I suggest you tell him an earlier time). He would come to the college and take one student back to the shop to collect a car, then that student will have to drive the car back to college to pick the other students baru can start your journey to KB. Also, usually petrol tank will be empty so when you dapat car ady you’ll have to fill petrol first before picking up the other students. The cost is counted hourly depends on the car you take.

Note: renting car is quite risky because college actually doesn’t allow you to but just do it senyap2 and be careful la

ADDITIONAL INFO

· This is an English church. There is another group of us who attends a Chinese Methodist church which is in Jerteh (Terengganu). There is also a Catholic church somewhere in KB.

· Church starts at 10 and usually ends around 12pm.

· If you reach early, there are a few restaurants in the same block as the church so you can have breakfast first before going for service.

· Church provides lunch every week (good food!)

· KB mall is just opposite so after lunch we would walk over and buy whatever things we need before going back, but it’s closed from 1pm to 2.30 pm so you can either try to rush shopping before 1pm, or wait until 2.30pm to shop.

· If you wanna wash clothes, there’s a dobi opposite church. We usually leave the clothes before going for service or before we go to KB mall.

· Church will subsidise the cost of your one-way journey, which means like half of your travel cost.

· The church members are very friendly, and some of them offered us quite a few times to stay at their homes overnight during balik bermalam, but we didn’t really get the time to plan our balik bermalam so we didn’t get to experience that.

That should be all! Don’t worry about how studying in Kelantan will affect your faith as a Christian. If anything, I felt that my spiritual life improved while I was there. I hope you have a wonderful church experience. God bless you!