Faith and the World we Live in

What would the world be like if there was no faith. Would we act the same, live the same? I doubt it. Faith is crucial to the human body, we cannot survive without it. God made us that way. What if I had no faith. I could not believe anything. I would come home from school, lock my door, and not even open my door for my roommate, assuming that he would do something to me. You see, I would not trust my roommate. Faith is trust, and without trust we couldn’t live. We are confronted by evil on a everyday basis. If we cannot trust that somehow, someway, we would get through our struggles, everyone would commit suicide. If Don didn’t know that somehow, God would stick up for him and make sure he got through his struggles, Don would have given up, and went back to America. But Don believed, despite how the existence of him was so fragile, that the Sawi could and would be brought to know Christ. Imagine what the world would be like for the Sawi had their been no faith. They would be living in a endless bubble of treachery and hate, because no one trusts God well enough to let his love do the work. But people do trust God to work wonders, and because of that, worlds are changed. Jesus himself didn’t work wonders in his hometown because they had little faith. If we don’t have faith, nothing will happen.

Missions and the Sawi

Missionaries, like Don and Carol, try and change the minds of people, without changing the culture. The goal of a missionary is not to force people under their control, so the can develop foreign thrones of gold where they will sit and drink pineapple juice all day. The goal of a missionary is to forget one self and become obedient to Christ, as he was obedient to the cross. Missionary’s are not out to please themselves, but to please others. What missions do for these people is help them live longer, more physically and spiritually. That is evident from the novel Peace Child, Don once stood up in the middle of a fight to make sure that these people would not die without hearing the true word. And he succeeded too. He stopped the fight, and cured the man that was wounded. That is the work of a true missionary. Like I said before, Missionaries don’t change the culture, they need to change the Word to fit into the culture. The Sawi would never have believed what Don had said had he not linked Jesus to the Peace child. When Don hadn’t mentioned the Peace child, they regarded Judas as the hero. But when the concept of the Peace Child were associated with Jesus, Judas suddenly became the evil one. When missionary’s change themselves for the culture and have every intention of helping it, that’s when God’s plan can be accomplished.

Passage with Significance to me

"I tried to summon courage, the same courage God had given me for past crises, but it was gone, already disintegration g inside a cocoon of despair. I pressed my spirit naked against God, that He might conceive new courage within me. He conceived it and it grew, actually feeding on the despair that killed its predecessor In a few moments it was ready to be born in action. (209)" This is important to me because a lot of times, I feel like this I feel as if I don't have the courage to do what God wants me to do. I know he wants me to be a witness at this school, he wants me to glorify him in my living. But you know how hard that is. To dedicate your body and soul to someone you cannot see. Sometimes the only way I can get by is by drawing near to God and asking him for help. I know that if I don't do that, there is no possible way I can live this life. When struggles come, and they do come, I have to respond to them. One way I can respond is to act angry and hate everyone around me that day, or I can love everyone that day. The latter is more difficult, but its always better. that one God will give you courage if you do it. He will give you the power to resist temptation, so you can find a way from under it.

Difference of Cultures

What makes our cultures so different to others? Is it because we have a television, modern weapons, or even the UN to stop war? If we consider merely those things that make us different then the Sawi, we are wrong. The Sawi may not have a television to learn more violence and evil, but they do have an older generation to look up to and observe violence that way. The Sawi may not have modern weapons that can kill with a single pull of a finger, but what they do have is spears that can prolong the existence. They cannot kill someone easily, because of their spears. If we were reduced to merely spears’, I am sure that we would also betray people and try and kill them other ways. Like I said, we are not that all different from the Sawi. They may not have the UN to protect countries from attacking each other. But what they do have is a peace child built so strongly into their culture that it stops war. This Peace child is stronger then anything we have in our culture. In our modern culture, there is no remedy for peace. Anywhere you go there will always be some kind of war. The Sawi have mastered that though. Yes, I know the Sawi do not have the things that we have, and the knowledge that we have, but when we get down to the basics of the culture, we are the same.

What God Wants us to do for Other Cultures

Before Jesus went up to Heaven, he gave this last command to his disciples: “7…it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."(Acts 1:7) Considering this was Jesus’ last request, I assume this was one thing he really wanted his disciples to do. If I was on a deathbed, and I knew my last breath was coming, I would say something that I want my children to do. Maybe I’d say, “love each other”, or something like that. But what Jesus said was something more important then I could have even said. When Jesus went, we wanted the Joy that he disciples had to be brought to all cultures. And back when Don asked God, “is this it? Is this what You want me to do? (75)" The answer God gave him was yes. God wanted him to go and lead others to Christ, and fulfill his ambition. God explained to him that the world does not resolve around he himself, but it revolves around God, and by serving God you are doing the right thing. We should do what God wants us to do, and God wants us to go tell the world about him. If we don’t, we really cannot be called Christians.

Interesting Ritual

I would say that the Waness ritual is the more surprising one. I mean, if you think about it, why in the world would the Sawi choose a ritual where the genitals are involved like that. They go around practically naked, and to have a ritual in which touching the genitals is forbidden or disgraceful. But the go around having that possibility all the time. To make something that serious, and yet so possible, is amazing. And another things that startled me is where the Waness ritual can from. Did it start from some sort of new legend maker who said that we should have a ritual in which we can later deceive all of mankind? Probably not. But what I think is the case is that the Sawi had a bit of the Gospel planted in their culture. Just like many other cultures had different rituals that were in relation to the bible. Don Richardson talked about that in his book, Eternity in Their Hearts. They knew somewhere deep down that just as Adam and Eve knew they were naked, so the Sawi also know that they need to respect their private parts, because in part the are ashamed to be naked. That also links off to the peace child, and how even though they had not been influenced by a lot of other events, they had these striking parallel to the bible. Who would have thought that some tribe would use a peace child, just as God used a Peace child for us?

Changing Cultures

There are a number of things to do when we encounter a culture most unlike our own. The first thing we could do is just immediately regard them as stupid and non-human, much like what traders considered Africans. But just as Africans really didn’t learn anything from the traders except hate, so a cultural will not learn anything from you if regard it as less then you. Lets look at what Don and Carol did. They came in and built a house on a Sawi river without protection. They were EXPOSED. The Sawi could do anything they wanted to Carol or Don. The missionaries didn’t get afraid and instead settled down there, even with the warnings from other tribes. Despite the horror things that continued to go around them, such as bloody fights, a alive man claimed death, and a possible death of their own among crocodiles, they did not give up. Instead of trying to change the cultural to fit the gospel. Don brought the gospel to the Sawi in their own way. He did not try and change their culture. Instead, he tried to change their beliefs. I believe that’s what all of us should do. Instead of trying to put natives in tuxedo’s and putting them in houses and beds, we need to respect how they grew up. You alone cannot change an entire culture, but you can change yourself to accept them. You cannot change the way they live, but you can change your views on what is right.

Faith, Don, Sawi, and me

Despite knowing how dangerous the Sawi culture Don Richardson was going into, he knew he could be killed at any time. He even considered that they might be "...fattening us with friendship for a slaughter?(156)" But Don never gave up. When the Sawi said a man was dead, Don relied heavily on his faith in God to bring that man “back” from the grave.

The Sawi had a different way of faith. For thousands of years their culture had been ok. But when the Tuans came in, they changed. They had to believe and have faith that this new religion which was now about to change their life was accurate. Because Don had faith, the Sawi also developed faith. When Don questioned the first Sawi believer what made him turn to Christ, he replied, “When I saw that God’s Tarop(child) could give you peace even when your two sons had almost drowned, I knew everything you said about Him must be true. I decided he could take care of us too.(200)” Don led an example that the Sawi looked up to and believe him.

My faith is a bit different. Unlike Don Richardson, I’m not relying on God to save my life, but like Don, I rely on God when the times get tough. When I was young, my faith was similar to that of the Sawi. My parents believed something, and because I looked up to them, I believe what they believed, that Jesus died for us. My faith has not been exposed to tough times, so as a result, my faith is not a strong as Don’s, but I believe that over time it will change to grow and mature.