How do I relate myself to Faith?

I still remember the time when I followed my dad to church every Sunday morning. Immediately as I finish my bowl of cereal for breakfast, my dad told me “Alice, if you go to the church I will buy you crackers or ice-creams.” Feeling excited from the beginning of the day, I always went to the church on Sunday mornings. Church was not a place that I promised to attend every week, but was a place that gave me treats every morning. However, it was also my starting point of believing in God. As growing up in a family with one Christian dad, I was not strictly required to be a devoted Christian. I actually had a choice of going to the church; I didn’t have to go if I was busy doing my homework. So, to me, Faith just meant trust to God. It was not a word that has a deep meaning. Since Faith means trust and I believe God exists, then I have Faith upon God! In other words, faith was like a math equation which proved that I believe in God.

However, after coming to TCIS, I realized faith did not only simply meant trust. After encountering faithful Christians in this school, I began to notice just believing in the existence of God did not meant that you have determined faith in God. (Even though I claim “I do believe in God,” sometimes I did not follow living a Christian life.) People who truly have determined faith did not only believe in the existence of God. They actually believe that they ‘know God personally’ and believe that He has prepared plans for their life. First, it was hard for me to understand about that issue. According to my faith upon God, God was a listener to me, rather than being a leader in my life. And how do I know whether God has plans for me? He doesn’t come up to me and say next to my ear “Alice I want you to finish up the blog quickly, since I have a next plan for you to do.” For several months, I struggled of understanding the true meaning of “faith.” I even doubted myself being a Christian, since I could not understand these issues thoroughly. However, soon I realized I am not an atheist. It’s just that I have a weak faith upon God.

Until now, I thought faith only meant trust. However, I realized faith is not a simple thing to understand immediately. It is like a tiny flower seed that develops over years through accepting Christ in life. First, it may be small and weak, but through God’s love, it may blossom, blooming into a bigger flower representing beauty of faith upon God. I noticed that faith is like a seed that only God and I can develop it together.

How did Christianity change this culture?

Through Peace Child, once again, I realized “Faith” can change people’s mind miraculously. Particularly, Christianity has influenced this Sawi culture in great extent. Before Don approached to this people, the culture depended on “Peace Child” to maintain peace between tribes. However, Peace Child was just a temporary promise between them; whenever the Peace Child dies, their peace also breaks apart. Without a Peace Child, it meant “no promised-peace” between tribes.

Kauwan turned away and said simply, “You should have given me a Peace Child. Then I would have protected you (pg 32).”

In the first chapter of the book, it described that Yae’s tribe and Kauwan’s tribe did not exchange a Peace Child. As a result, it didn’t matter whether Kauwan betrays Yae. This showed how the term “Peace Child” was important to the society and the idealization of treachery was part of their life. After fattening friendship with Yae for slaughter, they relished Yae’s flesh for their feast. Thus, killing the men and practicing cannibalism was perfectly normal to the culture. However, as Don Richardson spread the gospel and God’s love to the Sawi people by translating the Bible with the Sawi’s alphabet (which was created by Richardson), the Sawi culture began to change gradually. Jesus replaced the term, Peace Child, promising “eternal peace” among all of the tribes and cannibalism was also discarded.

In conclusion, I don’t want to think the changes of this culture made the tribes "lose" their culture. However, I think God has finally granted the real term of “peace” to the culture and led them to right way, by abandoning the wrong actions, such as practicing cannibalism. Christianity has influenced this culture spiritually.

What concepts in the Sawi culture surprised you?

I am still surprise when I think about the concept of idealization of treachery in the Sawi culture. First, I thought the Sawi people were complete Cannibals who only eat human flesh for their lives, but I realized they also hunt for food and eat sago breads. This shows that they (tribes) consider “headhunting” as a way to show their power and pride of their tribes. Eating the enemy’s brain meant total control over the enemy and the left over skulls were used as pillows. Often the particular bones, such as jawbones were given to the women and every people relished the enemy’s flesh for their feast. This was a surprising concept, since the tribes did not necessary needed to eat human flesh for their lives, but they just appreciated to eat to show off their status within their ‘ranking-in-society.’ Then I thought about the tribes living in the Sawi Culture. Wouldn’t they feel anxious of being tricked by other tribes and be afraid being killed everyday? Even though another tribe man approaches to have a friendly relationship, I think I wouldn’t be able to believe anyone.

Also, treating the kids as “money” was another surprising concept. If I were them, surrounded by vindictive enemies, I think I would only believe and love my family. However, the Sawi tribes just traded their child for a stone axe without showing any glimpse of guilt. Kids were also considered as “peace child,” thinking switching children between a tribe might represent a peaceful relationship.

Now, Don Richardson has changed the tribes’ beliefs and their life concept, which is wonderful. The tribes do not hunt down people or exchange their child; however, I would still never want to accept or understand those two concepts.

What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?

I understand it is not easy to get along with a new culture immediately. As being a kid who had moved five schools for the past decade, I was able to realize the difficulties when confronting a new culture. Even though I moved “inside” Korea for several times, it was still uncomfortable for me to get familiar with the new town or new people. However, how would it be like, if I am confronted to a completely different culture, the Sawi culture?

Before becoming a junior in TCIS, I had attended six different schools. Well, five of them are located in Korea but they were all different to me. After living in the states, I came to Kwangju, Korea. Immediately, I was sent to a Korean school, which I was very unfamiliar with. Apparently, Korean School was completely a shock to me. In one room, there were more than fifty kids and the room was not big enough for all the kids to run around. Furthermore, we just sat down in our chairs for five hours, listening to the teacher’s lecture. Before, I had nearly about twenty kids in my room and we always enjoyed different activities, moving from place to place. It was very uncomfortable to me to get easily along with the new culture but all I could do was getting use to it and bear the circumstances. Attending the school for three years made me to get more along with the Korean culture, but my parents seemed to have a different plan for me. In the middle of my third grade year, my parents sent me to an English School.

Through my experience, I realized that you have to bear with the new culture. As well as respecting and accepting the new culture, you should also try to get along with it. You should not try to recreate a new culture from it, since there is no ‘perfect’ culture and every culture has their uniqueness. Don Richardson did not complain or regret when he had entered the Sawi World. He did not even tried to change their traditional culture (except head-hunting), such as the way they adorn themselves. That’s what I think. If you just accept the culture, I think the other culture will accept you as well. The tribes were afraid of the Tuans at first, but as they realized the Tuans came to help them and did not criticize them, the tribes also accepted the Richardson’s Family.

Choose a representative passage from this novel that holds particular significance to you. Type it in and comment on its significance.

“Together Kani and Mahaen had started a unique new legend on its way. Mainly through Kani’s genius, they had given a vastly more daring expression to an ancient ideal of the Sawi people, an ideal, which unnumbered generations of their forebears had conceived, systematized and perfected over millenniums of time. It was the ideal of using friendship to fatten one’s victims for slaughter, of finding comfort and delight in the misery and destruction of others. It was the ideal symbolized inadvertently by the occasional act of pillowing one’s head on the skull of a victim-even though the skulls of relatives were more commonly used in this way, simply because the skulls of cannibalized victims were too often covered with black char from the cooking fires used in their annihilation” (pg. 65).

This particular passage holds significance to me because this seems to represent the people nowadays. The Sawi culture may be more brutal and requires violence, but I think their beliefs are very similar to our culture. Related to the students, as the competition (academic success) among us is getting fierce, students tend to “pretend” as being friends to use the other classmates. Last year, my mom and I watched Documentary based on high school students, in TV, which introduced how students and parents are becoming aggressive and selfish in order to achieve better academic success than other students are. In school, the students may appear as best friends, but inside their hearts, they are already enemies who are willing to crush each other. The most impressive scene of the TV program was when a girl said “In order to win another smart students, after becoming a friend with him/her, you steal their notebooks and trash them, because a well-written notebook is like a student’s treasure.” It was such a surprising comment but still made sense. Nowadays, education has blinded the parents and students, which made them to do anything that might be beneficial to them. Even though our culture may be less violent than the Sawi culture, I do not see any huge difference between the two. Just as the Sawi expression, using friendship to fatten one’s victims for the slaughter was the way of finding comfort and delight in the misery and destruction of others.

What reflections can you make with this novel?

Peace Child definitely granted me a different impression than any other books. Maybe it is because the story is based on Don Richardson’s “true” experience, but also it is related to Christianity. For several times, I just had to close the book when I read the Part 1 World of The Sawi, because the descriptions of their culture were way too palpable in a brutal way. Since it was an assigned book to read for our English class, all I wanted to do was to finish this book. However, as I read further chapters, I began to think more profoundly about the message this book try to convey. Before, I only thought the uneducated tribes were just “savages” that they were not worth enough to receive support or help. The title, World of The Sawi, was correct; the Sawi tribes were living in their own world, which is completely different from our world. I did not understand why Don Richardson bothered to help the people like the Sawi tribe, who could actually kill him as they do to their enemies. However, I realized the Sawi tribes were actually living better than I do. At least they had a purpose in life-such as head hunting and has ambition of creating new legends among themselves. Head hunting is uncomfortable for us to understand in our culture, but in Sawi’s culture, it may represent success and pride among the men. Compared to our culture, it may be similar as becoming the smartest one by competing with the classmates. Truly, this book made me wonder more about my life and myself. Apparently, they do not have anything what I have. They do not have I-pods, computers, cell phones, shoes, clothes, or education, but they live with what they have. However, I always complain of not having more of what I want. Even people who live in a devastated place has their own purpose of living, but what about me? I have more properties than the Sawi people do, but am I living better life than they are? It made me realize fancy properties are worthless. Whether I have a BMW or a brand new I-pod, unless I have a definite purpose in life, life is meaningless.

What should society do for “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi?

No offense, but I never thought the cultures as Sawi's culture might still exist in the other part of the world. Yes, I read books and watched TV programs about Indians or native tribes, but I always thought they were now just imaginary people, exaggerated by human’s imagination (which sounds very dumb). Since nowadays the world has become “sophisticated” in culture, the society seems to neglect the uncivilized cultures. However, now it is important to help them with supplies. It may be difficult to influence the people just as Don Richardson did to the Sawi, but we should at least attempt to support them.

South Korea supports the North Korea by supporting food, money, and home supplies, since they are uncivilized than South Korea. Therefore, I think we can help them by providing some clothing and medical supplies. It is widely known that many people in uncivilized cultures, such as Africa or North Korea, tend to become sick easily because they do not have enough medical care or clothing that covers up their bodies. People around the country can offer donate clothes they do not wear anymore and offer some money for the medicines. Also, just as the Habitat Mission Trips, we can help the people to build houses for them. The Peace Child states that the tribes have to clamber up to their houses, which sound very dangerous to me, and whenever the long poles that support their homes begin to rot, they just move to a new location and build new houses. Small concerns might be able to help them greatly.

What does God expect us to do for other cultures and faiths?

According to our History teacher, one of the reasons why Hitler had killed millions of Jew was because he believed it was God’s order to kill the Jews. Hitler, himself, believed that Jews had killed Jesus. However, God definitely does not want us to harm the people who live in different culture with different faith. Rather, He wants us to respect them and lead them to the right path, through Christianity. The Bible states “For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), which supports God's love towards the world. God loves the World and the people so sincerely that He even gave up His only Son Jesus, to express how He cares and loves each one of us. Not everyone would believe in God, but God does not love only the Christians, but loves everyone. Don Richardson had listened to God’s words and had shown God's expectations through his actions, by entering to a Sawi World, where a completely different culture and faith exist. Despite of knowing how dangerous the Sawi World is, Don almost sacrificed himself and led the several Sawi people to the world of Christianity. Don Richardson actually had a choice of deciding whether he goes to the Sawi territory or not, but he believed God wants him to serve them.

God expects us to serve the people who does not know His existence, as Don Richardson did. It might be difficult to enter to a land of cannibals as Don Richardson did but I believe it is not the only way of showing God's love. Starting with small actions, God wants us to teach the people about God’s love and His words by spreading the gospel.