‘Revival is in my bloodline’

Jacintha Tagal Cheah is a pastor and leader at Holy Trinity Bukit Bintang (HTBB) Church, Kuala Lumpur. She spoke with our deputy editor, Jemimah Wright, about how God reached the headhunting tribe her family originated from and how she is seeing him move today

Jemimah Wright (JW): I’ve heard stories about a move of God in your family’s history. Can you share a bit about that?

Jacintha Tagal (JT): I grew up in East Malaysia, in a town called Miri, which is close to my father’s village. The tribe my father comes from is called the Lun Bawang tribe. They used to be headhunters, and books have been written about them (such as Drunk Before Dawn by Shirley Lees) because the people were constantly drunk. They were drunk for maybe two-thirds of the year. They were extremely superstitious and practised animism. For example, if a bird flew across the sky, it could be a sign that they didn’t need to work that day. That superstition often meant they didn’t care for their families, their children or their homes. Government documents at the time warned people not to try to reach the Lun Bawang because they were violent. They were at high risk of dying from disease and alcoholism, and the government thought they might become extinct.