What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

After reading Peace Child, I found that I had a lot to learn from the Sawi tenants. Looking through my previous blog posts and comments, I discovered that I was JUST as lost, selfish, proud, and needy as the Sawi people.

<6th Post: Are we really THAT different?>

Because the Sawi and the people of the modernized world all live according to their greed, it can be said that the modern culture and Sawi tenants have no significant difference between each other, but have a great resemblance in their flawed, selfish, and sadistic hearts. 

Yes, it is true. I am just as greedy and selfish as the Sawi. Having grown up as an only child, I spent my whole life stubbornly doing the things that I want to do and taking advantage of all the wonderful things that my parents gave me, like a roof over my head, a family that I can depend on, and an opportunity to make my dreams come true through my education. I was utterly disgusted at myself for being so selfish and ungrateful; however, there was nothing I could do about it, because those characteristics that disgusted me were the components of my essence. I knew that greed was always going to remain inside of me, and that there was no earthly power that could help me rectify my selfish human nature.

<7th Post: A passage that deals with God's gift to us>

"...we people confidently flaunt and wave around our 'best' for the whole world to see, when our greatest feats are actually superficial masks that cover up all the ugliness inside of us."

Because we are just so innately greedy and unpure, there is nothing about us that we can declare as our "best". I used to believe that my "best" was my love for my life. This post made me question the reason why I love my life. Was it because I enjoyed nature and every living thing in my world, or was it because I just prefer to live than to die? Although it discouraged me into thinking that I was such a selfish person, I had to admit that my life was important to me because I didn't want to die...I just wanted to live. 'Why am I so flawed?', I pondered in distress. 'Why can't I be as selfless and good as Don Richardson? What do I have to do to get rid of this nasty side of me?'

At that moment, I felt lost. I was confused and helpless like the Sawi were about their faith.I understood that we were confused because of our lack of faith and reliance. Just like the primitive jungle people conceal their insecurities with ominous body paintings and violent wars, I felt myself hiding my pertubation and acting like I was fine off without anybody's help or guidance.

<5th Post: ...but inside, the Sawi have a heart>

Might not the Sawi depend on their ominous body paintings, weapons and spears, and brutal wars because they don't know any better ways to survive and keep strong in their vast and frenzied lives?...Why are the Sawi such brutal cannibals and vengeful murderers, even when they clearly have a good heart for family and life? Could it be that they just need something to believe, like the merciful and understanding God that we have?

This post helped me realize why the Sawi and I tried to appear strong and confident when we really were not. It was because we were missing a great chunk of our lives; it was because we didn't get to know God. 

<Comment on Calvin's Post>

Could it be that God was already working goodness in their lives; it was just that they couldn't see Him because He was working behind the scenes?... He must have really meant it when He declared his unconditional love for ALL the world and ALL his people.

God works goodness for ALL the world and ALL the people in the world. The Sawi people and I were just the ones who failed to realize that God had always been playing a huge role in our lives. Just like Richardson gave the Sawi a chance to accept the 'Ultimate Peace Child', Jesus, the Peace Child provided me a way towards Christianity, something that could solve all of my troubles and answer all of my questions.

Q: What do I have to do to get rid of this nasty side of me? 

    A: I am to find my true self that awaits me in the Son of God.

Q: At times when I am insecure and lost, where am I to go?

    A: I am to find my true self that awaits me in the Son of God.

Q: What am I to do to get as close to my 'best' as I can get?

    A: I am to find my true self that awaits me in the Son of God.

The lesson that Peace Child taught me was simple: I was to approach God. I was to approach Him for the same reason why the Sawi grasped Christianity: to break away from distress and insecurity. As I conclude this blog assignment, I finish it on a good note. My outstretched hand towards faith has been answered, thanks to the help of Don Richardon's book, Peace Child. The Sawi people and God's miraculous work in the New Guinean tribes have led me closer and closer to what I had been missing all along: a little bit of Christ.

Christianity washes away the muck and the grime...

It is hard to believe that the the people that I read about in the first chapters of the story and the people that I read about in the resolution are the same Sawi tenants. From the moment Don Richardson took a step into the New Guinean shores of the Sawi, Christianity dramatically changed and affected these people in beneficial ways.

Before Christianity reached the Sawi through Richardson's service in New Guinea, the Sawi society was based off of a disastrous and brutal social order. Power and glory were gained through the slaughter and betrayal of a fellow human being, and festive feasts and celebrations were held for treachery and murder. However, Christianity was able to turn the tribe away from its cannabalistic and evil ways and direct the Sawi people towards a peaceful society. After their religious transformation, the tribal people no longer layed their values in violence and revenge, but praised their 'Ultimate Peace Child' and grew into warm people. The men began to openly acknowledge that their wives were cherishable companions and the Sawi soon found that they should act generously towards their former enemies by inviting different tribes to feasts and religious conference meetings.

Christianity helped the Sawi develop into a modernized culture. Richardson and his other missionary friends handed out Bibles and clothing for the Sawi to use in their everyday lives. The people were taught how to use a book and how to read and write, and were able to escape from their illiteracy and recieve an education for the first time in their history. Clothes were given to cover their fragile bodies, and tools were distributed to improve their welfare. With the gifts of education, tools, and an improved welfare, the Sawi slowly emerged away from their under-developed and 'uncivilized' ways of life towards a modern and stable culture.

Beyond all the societal changes and living-standard developments, the most profound and significant thing that Christianity changed in the Sawi is the Sawi nature. Christianity wiped away all the muck and grime from the tenants' hearts, transforming their once greedy and treacherous nature into a generous and peace-seeking one. The tribe that Richardson dwelled in presented their former arch enemies the opportunity to experience God, inviting other tribes to the enormous dome that they built as their 'Church'. They found peace and joy when praising and worshipping God, not when battling and betraying others. The powerful role that Christianity played in changing the Sawi is something quite extraordinary that redeemed the society, welfare, and most importantly, human nature of the tribal tenants.

A passage that deals with God's gift to us

They knew the peace-child concept was their best. Now they were finding what I too had found nine years before - man's best is not enough! They were approaching the realization that everyone's true self is waiting for him in the Son of God...Once again, there was stillness in the manhouse. -Page 187-

When I read this specific passage, there was a stillness inside of me. 'Wow' I thought to myself, 'Even our best is not good enough... How imperfect and harried are we in the first place?' This one short excerpt from the book challenged and radically changed the way I perceived humanity.

Even though there were many times I shook my head in disgust about all the cruel wars and crimes in the world, I had always held a strong faith that humans are genuinely pure and good-hearted beings. I thought that mankind had the ability to return back to its tranquil and congenial ways whenever it needed to, even when it was in the midst of all the sin and woe in life. That was why , I believed, celebrities and famous personages, like Leonardo Di Caprio and Oprah Winfrey, found joy and satisfaction in donating momentous amounts of their fortune to the less fortunate, even when they were exposed to so much monetary temptation and lavishness. 

If the Sawi's best is their trading of Peace Children, then the best of the modern society is most likely peace treaties and reconciliation. However, if we think about it, even our best originates from some things that are utterly diabolical and disturbing: war and conflict. The reason why these 'bests' exist in the first place is because we want pacify all the brutality and cruelty that occur when we disagree and argue. The army alliance between Korea and America during the Korean War was initially made because South Koreans desperately needed aid from the American army to restore all their wounded soldiers and to take revenge on the North. After having this epiphany, I felt ashamed and embarrassed that we people confidently flaunt and wave around our 'best' for the whole world to see, when our greatest feats are actually superficial masks that cover up all the ugliness inside of us. 

Humanity, I felt, has no such thing as a good heart. Although it was painful and depressing to do so, I concluded that people are genuinely as imperfect and harried as all our crime, sin, and outer appearance are. Even the Bible seemed to exclaim that we are brought forth in iniquity, and that we branch from innate sin (Psalm 51:5). However, the next portion of the passage comforted my disappointment as it assured me that our 'true' pure selves await us in the arms of God's Son, Jesus. 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only begotten Son, that whoever should believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more. (John 12:43)

As these two Bible verses explain, God has been merciful enough to give us the one and only opportunity to escape from our innate and genuinely faulty ways by giving us Jesus, God's Messenger and Son. Only after tyeing the meaning of the passage and the Bible verses together was I able to discover the profound truth that left the people in the manhouse silent in awe. There is no such thing like our "bests" in our world. The closest we can get to the "best" is by approaching and believing Christ.

Are we really THAT different?

Hoary millenniums earlier, their ancestors and mine had been one people, living together, using the same tools and weapons, pursuing the same goals, speaking the same language. Then they had wandered apart, not merely into differing climes, but into steadily diverging life styles as well... We were equally human...flesh and blood...men. -Page 100~101-

      The theme for this year's Spiritual Emphasis Week was "essence", the thing that remains in us when all the insignificance miscellaneous is brewed away. What I discovered quite disconcerting about the theme was that most of the time, I was not happy about what remained as the essence of my soul. Although we may wish for our morals and ethical values to remain as our essence, it is but, of course, something disappointing that lasts and resists all the brewing: our greed. 

      The modern society has managed to disguise and embellish its greedy nature with a facetious of civilized practices and pleasing etiquettes; however, fundamentally, the modern world and the cutoff society of the Sawi are quite the same. Both worlds live so they can satisfy their greed. Both base their societal system on power and authority, fatten their enemies with friendship so they can sore above the ashes of their competition, and resolve arguments via wars and treachery. Although we people of the modern society claim that we are not nearly as sadistic as the brutal murderers and cannibals, a renowned quote challenges our assurances and proclamations. "Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding two guns than two hands?" When observing this quote, we can definitely discover how humans naturally have the tendency to lean towards war than compliance and that our beliefs in our morality are groundless claims. The reason why such culturally different communities are so similar can be tracked back to the essence of humanity. Because the Sawi and the people of the modernized world all live according to their greed, it can be said that the modern culture and Sawi tenants have no significant difference between each other, but have a great resemblance in their flawed, selfish, and sadistic hearts. 

      It is most likely that Don Richardson was able to influence and change the Sawi because he and the tribal people came from the same seed, the same essence. God was probably working behind the scenes of Richardson's journey, preaching the same gospel to the modern and primitive communities and rectifying the innately greedy nature those two societies held in common.

...but inside, the Sawi have a heart.

      When I first checked out Peace Child from the school library, the first words that I read out of the book were the following:

'Peace Child...An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery in the 20th Century...'

      These words gave me the strong impression that Don Richardson's book was going to illustrate the merciless and diabolical ways of the heartless tribal people in New Guinea. However, as I read deeper into the story, I discovered that beneath the treachery and slaughter, there were goodness and human affection in the Sawi people. Many of Richardson's Sawi comrades payed him with great loyalty and obedience like no other that I have ever seen. When Richardson tried to save Warahai from succumbing to the Sawi 'aumamay', Mahaen, a villager who had grown friendly towards Richardson, determinedly complied to carry Warahai back to Richardson's hut, ignoring all the contempt and pressure that he received from his fellow Sawis. For one to follow a foreigner's request and turn against his/her society is something that cannot be easily done, even in our modern culture. Another thing that amazed me was the fact that the Sawi had affectionate feelings for their children. When the families offered their children as the Peace Child to be traded between two tribes for everlasting peace, the mothers and fathers of the children cried in despair and sorrow, pleading for their children with all the force of their souls. Richardson describes the scene as something that he and his wife "had felt the most sympathy for a fellow human being" (page 168). Similar to their love for their family, the Sawi feel attachment towards nature and life.

I would have guessed they were also poets-an entire subclass of Sawi verbs is devoted to personifying inanimate objects as speaking! If a flower has a pleasant scent, it is saying fok! fok! to your nostrils. Is it also beautiful? It is saying ga! ga! to your eyes. When a star twinkles it is whispering sevair! sevair! If your eyes twinkle they are calling si! si! If mud squish around your feet, it is murmuring sos! sos! In the Sawi universe, not only man, but all things are communicating. -Page 147-

      This excerpt from the story shows that the Sawi people enjoy observing the world in which they live. They appreciate nature and life so much that they find it reasonable enough to dedicate a range of their language for describing objects as if they were blessed with life.

      The capability of the Sawi to stay true and obedient to their comrades, to cherish their family and children, and to celebrate the gifts of life and nature totally contradict their treacherous values of power, misery, and slaughter. Because they do not have a reliable source of faith, like Christianity or trust in a merciful God, could it be that they feel vulnerable and fragile in the midst of all the danger and bloodbaths? Could they be praising death because they fear the end of their lives, not because they enjoy the treachery that death brings? Their vulnerability and fear tie back to all their other headhunting and cannibalistic ways. Might not the Sawi depend on their ominous body paintings, weapons and spears, and brutal wars because they don't know any better ways to survive and keep strong in their vast and frenzied lives? This leads to the questions that intrigue me the most.

Why are the Sawi such brutal cannibals and vengeful murderers, even when they clearly have a good heart for family and life? 

Could it be that they just need something to believe, like the merciful and understanding God that we have?