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

On page 239“Now new hopes, soaring like the pinnacle of their Sawidome, stir them toward new horizons both spiritual and secular, though their means of achieving their secular goals are at present still pitifully inadequate.”This passage held particular significance to me because I learned many valuable lessons from reading this book. First, I learned that we should never lose our hope even in desperate situations; rather, we should strive to achieve what we have aimed for. Initially, the book described the way how Sawi people lived. The book describes how it was their cultural norm to practice cannibalism and the treachery was rewarded in this society. The first thought that evoked from reading the book was that they could never accept the new “reform” movements, rather, they would only continue their traditional way of living. Additionally, they lacked what we viewed as “essentials” in life, such as stable houses, clothes, and stable way of producing food. However, Don Richardson’s continual efforts succeded in accomplishing the “miracle” within the Sawi society. The construction of such a magnificent conference building only to serve God in Sawi society means a lot to the society. It is a “Great Leap Forward” for the Sawi who had transformed from the “uncivilized” to the people who tend to accept the changes that gives greater potential for them to be civilized and develop in fast pace. However, behind all these accomplishments, there were consistent effort of Don Richardson who literally “translated” all the vocabulary that might describe our “God”. In the process, he attempted to make connection with their culture, in which, he observed their ritual practices carefully and later applied their kind of understanding to certain culture into describing God. Although, Don Richardson had a lot of conflicts in going through all this, such as going on a verge of war between the tribes, however, his consistent preaching and continual of applying the God into the culture of Sawi enabled them to accept more of the lifestyle that Tuan is offerings. And they had demonstrated such an acceptance as they had built the building.

 What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

The Sawi tribes in the novel somewhat seems to reflect my life. I am born in a Christian setting, where my grandmother is a devoted Christian and she encourages my parents to attend church daily, Additionally, I am currently attending TCIS, a Christian school, where it holds meeting every Tuesdays to praise God. I, therefore, am exposed of Christian environment frequently and I hear the speakers’ powerful words spreading the words of God in every meetings. However, I guess my faith is not strong enough, because once I step out of the chapel room, regardless of how strong my determination, I’d always forget my commitment I made during the chapel room. Although, I try to place God as my first priority, very often, many barriers like school work, SAT, and other activities stands high between God and I. Likewise, the Sawi people had similar situation. They also were exposed to the Christian influence from Don Richardson, who attempted to spread the words of God, in best of his ability, apart from the fact that the language and culture was far different from one another. However, Don Richardson did succeed in constructing the building, a place to serve God. This showed how strong the faith of Sawi people were in trusting Don Richardson's words and enabled him to reach his goal, even though, they had much unfavorable situation than my situation. I hope from this novel, I would be inspired to place God as my first priority as Sawi people did by giving up their own traditional belief and fully devouting themsevles to God.

 What concepts in the Sawi culture intregued / reviled / saddened / angered / surprised you?

The book vividly described the culture of the Sawi tribe and I realized that there was a huge gap between the culture of the Sawi and the culture of our world. The modern standards in our society view Cannibalism and polygamy as immoral but to them, it was part of their culture. My initial response to the Sawi’s “cultural” rituals was that these tribes are lawless society who does not have any principles that they abide by. However, as Don Richardson further explained the Sawi, I came to a conclusion that it was their oppressive environment filled with betraying cultures that made those practices a norm for their society. For instance, the concept of “feeding with friendship and consuming at the end” was typical concept that Sawi lived by; in fact, they praised those who betrays others. Thus, nobody could truly believe anyone with sincerity. On the other hand, our society enables us to entrust other people more openly. The surprising but relieving factor that Don Richardson mentioned was that although the Sawi cultures who are adopted in these treacherous and savage environments also had rules that they abide by. Apparent example of how Sawi adhered to their principles is portrayed in the exchange of peace child among the tribes. The Peace child symbolizes the ultimate peace among the tribes, and after the exchange of peace child, the qurrael and disputes that frequently led tribes to the verge of war submerged and each tribe kept their words by keeping harmony with each other. To me, this was relieving factor because it suggests that Sawi does follow rules once they accept them, which means that there is a greater possibility that they could accept “modern” society’s standards. Don Richardson successfully converting few Sawi people into Christianity is a living proof that Sawi abide by rules. Although, the process of Don Richardson trying to provide appropriate example of describing who the God is using Sawi culture, once the people accepted those “translation” of God into Sawi culture, they had faith in God. With their strong faith, they were able to build temples, a place to serve God.

What do mission organizations do for these people?

Mission organization sends missionaries to the remote and isolated regions to provide shelter and knowledge for the people who lack what we view as “essentials” in life. However, mission organizations’ primary motivation is to spread the Gospel. Bibles and the stories of Christianity may be ubiquitous within our society; however, there are many remote places in the world where there might even have communities that havne't even heard of Christina belief. It is to these remote places that mission organizations are willing to sacrifice their own routine life and time in order to guide and inform others the words of God. Don Richardson was one of the missionaries. I guess he was very courageous figure even among the missionaries because Papua New Guinea was an isolated place where savagery and treachery was a cultural norm, in which not many missionaries volunteered. The journey posed a huge threat to Don Richardson as well as his family because Sawi practiced Cannibalism and they were aggressive to foreign peoples. Despite these unfavorable conditions, Don Richardson voluntarily provided services for the Sawi people who were not aware of the Christianity. Some skeptics say that it is not right for us to intervene in the Sawi’s way of living because it would obstruct their cultural traditions. However, to this, I say that faith is something that is not determined by external “pressures,” rather, it is internal substance that grows within heart. Additionally, the missionaries never “force” anyone to serve for God. As illustrated in the Peace Child, some group of people in tribes did not attend the conference building because they still had faith in their traditional way of living, and nothing was done to them to harass any of their own beliefs. This suggests that mission organization does not force anyone to believe in what they believe in, rather, they are only providing the bridge to the faith that they would not have been exposed to without the aid of these organizations.

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

As mentioned earlier, the “uncivilized cultures” like Sawi has to have chance to be informed of other cultures and be able to choose according to their own will. In our standard, “uncivilized” Sawi people are living in a harsh conditions without what we considered to be essentials in our lives; stable shelter, proper food, and clothing. Thus, we should not neglect those people whose population is steadily declining as they continue to practice cannibalism and exposed to dangerous environment like diseases. In order to keep trace of the cultures like Sawi, we need to accommodate and convince them to live under the protection of the recent technology that we are offering them. However, we should never force them to adapt into our own way because they have their distinctive way of living by adjusting in that wild envrionment. Thus, we only need to accept those who are willing to change and not obstruct their originial way of living.

What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?(faith)

Each community has their own distinct cultural tradition that they have developed overtime. But the difference in the culture might lead to utter clash when they are confronted. Even in our modern day, this can be reflected in the tables from different countries. For instance, Korean tables tend to have hot dishes like Kimchi while American tables tend to have bread and jams. Thus, when tables are switched, they would not be able to adopt very easily. Likewise, when cultures of Sawi and Don Rinchardson with more than thousands of years of gap met, there were severe confusion and fear between the two. For instance, the Sawi referred the “modern people” with recent technology as Tuan, who were respected and feared. Although, Don Richardson faced tremendous difficulty as he was even threatened of his life, he was able to accommodate with the other culture and succeeded in establishing a building that meant to serve God. This was a great leap forward for the Sawi people, because the purpose in the construction of that building was valuable since symbolized how they now would more willingly accept the changes that will be brought within their society. Once they accept the changes, Cannibalism and dangerous environment filled with diseases from unsanitary conditions and killing between the peoples might well be removed. But the book mentions that some people continued to keep their culture regardless of how the others adopted to other cultures, and I think this is the best way to prevent any dangerous riot against any authority who is trying others to adopt their own cultures by force. Providing offers whether they want to change their culture or whether they want to live as they want.

How does Faith relate to the world in which we live?

Faith includes a belief in anything that is internal, however, it is largely external factors that formulate our faith, and it is our environment that takes that role. Everyday experiences within certain environment largely shape the faith that one has. For instance, daily routine and interaction with the individuals within certain communities will influence what Faith you would have. As Sawi culture is distinct with our culture today, the faith in which we believe in is also far apart from one another. Faith guides the way how a person would act within certain situation, so without faith one would be in utter fear, and for Sawi, because they solely relied their faith in their traditional way of living, when they were encountered by the new kind of conflict, only three elderly people in the tribe were able to stand out to meet the Dutch boat that their ancestors never mentioned about. Thus, this reflects how Sawi derive most of their faith from the stories that are passed down from their ancestors. In contrast, our faith covers variety of subjects as they are derived from many different and distinct environments like Europe, America, and Asia. These differences allowed people to have more liberal view about the faith. In our world, faith acts as a fuel for our action, for instance, some people believe that working hard in school might lead to eventual success, in which, that faith enable to study them harder. While some, like Don Richardson, believes that spreading the words of God would save many people acts as a fuel for them to work.

How do I relate to faith? How did Don Richardson relate to Faith? How do the Sawi relate to faith?

Sawi Village
The faith covers variety of concepts that it is sometimes complicated to develop the understanding of faith. The faith covers belief in anything, as code of ethics, standards, merits, and doctrines. In reading this book, I realized that Sawi’s faith was special one and they had strong faith in what they believed in. Sawi had faith in their traditional way of living; the belief that if they keep their living as the way that their ancestors did, they will be prosperous and could maintain their living. In keeping their faith, they had to live in accord to their accentors, thus, they continued with “practices” that descended from their ancestors. For instance, the people adopted Cannibalism, nomadic way of living, and created a society where treachery was a norm. Due to this unstable environment no one had enough courage and strength to challenge the environment established by the “authority”. Thus, their faith was well reflected in their actions. As for me, Sawi’s faith and my faith is somewhat similar because as an individual in the society, I tended to accept the common belief or faith established within the society, thus, Sawi and I were conformed to the way how majority believed in. However, the difference between Sawi from “our modern culture” was that our society with variety of community enabled to accept more of a difference between each community and allowed more liberal ideas to spread, that led to the progresses from our ancestry way of living. While the Sawi advocated traditional measures that they lived the way how their ancestors lived. Don Richardson’s faith was beyond ordinary, he had strong faith in God in which he even made a decision of giving up the security of the family as a household in order to spread the word of God. He had faith in God that he would protect him and his family as well on the journey to the dangerous society. I believe Don Richardson’s faith exceeded that of Sawi’s faith in keeping their traditional way of living because Don Richardson successfully converted many Sawi tribes into Christianity by speaking louder than that of Sawi faith that God was the savior of the World. In doing so, Don Richardson cleverly divided bits of information about Christ into Sawi cultural practices to enhance the understanding. Thus, his faith was strong enough to change the principle that the environment had been practicing for a long time.