On the way to Lahad Datu on 8 September, we made a detour a short distance after passing through Kundasang town to the Jabez Resort built on a small hill 300mm away from the highway.
Not many are aware that the Basel Church Retreat Centre at Kundasang which was once a popular place for holding church retreats is now called the Jabez Resort. I for one only came to discover the name change quite recently when I drove by the road to Ranau.
Since the early 2000’s, interest of churches to hold church retreats at this Centre began to decline. Beach resorts and hotels became the fashionable venues for conducting such activity. Because of the lack of revenue to maintain this Centre, Basel Church decided to privatize it. The Concessionaire upon taking over converted it into a hill resort and renamed it the Jabaz Resort.
Over the years, many hill resorts and budget hotels have sprung up all over Kundasang. The Concessionaire too found it less and less profitable to operate this Resort. The Resort is now run by the Church after the Concessionaire returned it back to the Church.
To be honest, I have yet to attend any of the church retreats held in the beach resorts or the hotels. My memories are still with those times spent in the RC Bundu Tuhan Retreat Centre and the Basel Church Retreat Centre in the late 80’s and the 90’s. To me, this traditional retreat centre by virtue of its “remoteness” is ideal for families to get away from daily routine and to spend time together as well as with other friends exclusively without any third party interference. These days, comfort plus other leisure facilities are probably the overriding consideration. That could be the reason why hotels and resorts are so much more attractive these days!
A small concrete staircase used to connect the higher platform where the Centre is built with the lower platform which serves as the car park. The Concessionaire upon taking over had carried out fairly major renovation and re-landscaping of the compound. A huge staircase now covers the slope.
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| The Retreat Centre and the slope in the 1990's. |
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| Teenagers from our Church had such great and fun time at the Retreat Centre in the 1990's. |
1 comment:
This post brought back a lot of wonderful memories. I attended a couple of the retreats held at the resorts/hotels... but the feeling and memories attached to those can never be compared to the retreats held at the retreat centre and bundu tuhan. Most churches don't organise retreats like that any more. I think it's pretty much the end of that era. But I' glad that it was part of my childhood to be able to attend those old retreats.
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