The largest ethnic group in Sarawak is the Ibans, most of whom classify themselves as Christians.
*A note for missionaries who are called Malay speaking: Ibans make up most of the Church’s membership in Sarawak, and they generally use the Iban language to communicate in meetings. However, they still use Malay to communicate with the missionaries. Only missionaries who can speak Iban well use it as their go-to way of talking with members. We’ll teach some of this in the Language segment. Most people in Sarawak understand Iban (~80%) and a lot speak it as well (~65%). This isn’t the case in Sabah and West Malaysia.
With each of these charts, we can see the ethnicities and religious activity of each place were missionaries serve. For example, Christianity is much more common in East Malaysia, while Islam is more common in West.
Being in the Singapore Mission is a great opportunity to become acquainted with many different languages, especially in one serves in Malaysia. You don’t need to learn another language besides Malay in order to effectively communicate though. In Sarawak, lots of people speak Iban, and in Sabah, nearly everyone speaks Malay.
We invite you not to waste your opportunity to serve God for one and a half or two years. Aside from that, you’ll have the chance to meet wonderful members, get to know different languages and cultures, and learn to love the specific things in each area you serve.