We Stand By You

Forty odd years ago, a group of Officers started off from scratch trying to garner support from the local community trying to start off First Sibu Boys’ Brigade Company. The Officers, to the best of their abilities and with unfathomable dedication, strived to realize the dream they held close to them. Lacking in manpower, they went about seeking sponsorships, recruited and shouldered heavy responsibilities just so that the First Sibu Boys’ Brigade Company has a chance of starting the race. Against enormous odds, they succeeded. We started off with the race.

Forty odd years later, right this present moment, once again, you are called to stand up facing against with what seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle placed right before your eye. Your convictions, your principles, your beliefs and your dreams are being challenged, not from without but from within.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather, it is the judgment of something more important than fear. It takes a great courage to confront our enemies; but it takes an equal if not greater form of courage to confront the people that we once thought were our friends.

We understand that the Officers, all this while since last year, have been fighting with a Goliath. We understand that the Officers have worked so hard and ladened with so much responsibilities keeping up the fight and fending off again and again and again against external and internal forces so strong. We understand and we know that the Officers, despite scaling such predicaments, have been trying to put a brave front for the Boys and we are deeply grateful to the officers.

All of the Officers of First Sibu Boys’ Brigade company have shown an enormous audacity against the challenge. Your commitment, your dedication, your strength and the principles that you have uphold in ensuring that the company will remain strong as it is, has touched every single one of us and our appreciation for all of you has been deeply ingrained in our hearts.

The Officers, we know, are tired but we are proud that all of you have shown such faith and unity in the face of adversity. The problem came knocking on the door, but all of the Officers opened it and faced it boldly out front and we could not ask for anything more from all of you and we are proud to know that we were once a member of the First Sibu Boys’ Brigade Company.

Fighting against such odds and such power, as a consequence, we have lost so many things many times in our lives, but in that “loss”, today, we have all aspired for the value of “gain” because it is always possible to fight for that which we love; and because there is always time to start over again. Fighting obstacles and struggles doesn’t mean we’ll get through every single one of them. Neither does it mean that we’ll be a victor over it at the end of the day. There will be defeats. There will be struggles. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for our convictions and things we believe in rather than to be defeated without ever knowing what we're fighting for in the first place.

In the end, we do not know whether we will win the fight. In the end, we do not know how the story will close. In the end, we may see ourselves overshadowed by the victor but it’s because that yesterday, all of the officers of First Sibu dared to struggle, that today, we dared to win a glorious victory. It is in such moments that our destiny is shaped.

Win or lose, for the better or for the worse, we stand by the Officers’ Council’s decisions and we know that the company’s future will be determined in large part by your commitment and dedication and also by your dreams and by what you hold true in your lives and by the struggles to make them real. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who won, but each of us will be judged by the standard of our lives and our morality, not by the standard of our living; by our measure of giving, not our measure of wealth; and by our simple goodness, not our seeming greatness.

God did not give us life to start a race, but He gave us life to end one. Forty odd years ago, First Sibu started off the race, we might as well run with our might and leave no rooms for regrets till we hear the resounding applause and the standing ovation that you, all of you deserve.

Thank you, Officers of First Sibu Company for the unity, the dedication, the fortitude, the commitment and the unparalleled spirit of the Boys’ Brigade that you have shown during such extremities. For all that you gave, we appreciate you very much.