What Should WE Do?

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

Everyone deserves to be a part of God’s wonderful, everlasting family.

Hence, God expects us to be like Don Richardson in the book Peace Child and introduce Him to people from other cultures and with other faiths.

However, I don’t think that God wants us to use harsh words or actions to tell others about Him because those harsh actions repel people from God. I have seen this many times on the streets in Korea. While I am walking, a “street-preacher” would come and tell me to go to their church or I would burn up in hell.

I know that this statement is true, and as a believer, I am personally not uncomfortable listening to this statement. However, to others, this statement is offensive and extremely rude. They feel forced to believe in God, but God doesn’t want people to believe Him simply out of pure fear but out of love.

Instead of utilizing these offensive and blunt statements, I personally believe that we should first find a way to connect God into their lives, just like what Don Richardson did to the Sawi. We must tell them how much God has given up so that we could be happy and how much He loves and cares for us.

We mustn’t lie or hide anything, but at the same time, we mustn’t offend them.

Why should Christians do this though?

As Christians, we strive to use the gifts God has bestowed upon us by telling others about Him and to make our indescribable Creator happy. As Christians, simply following God’s words and adding more members into our family brings us immense joy because these are the things that God delights in.

A Reflection... Am I so Different?

12. What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

Strangely, I was able to make many connections with this novel, Peace Child.

Like the Sawi, I have accepted Christ as my Savior, and having Him as my Savior transformed my life. Of course, the change wasn’t as radical as the Sawi’s, but personally, I know that this change was very significant.

After I got to know God, I did not care about being popular. I became confident in who I was and didn’t mind what others thought of me. All I cared about was how my Holy Father viewed me, and I began to follow my Father’s commands. I also stopped trying to please myself but started striving to please others and more importantly God.

I often ponder about my life without my magnificent God…

I think if I didn’t know about God or have Him in my life, I would have followed the rules only when I wanted to and would have easily broken them if it didn’t benefit me. I would have been easily overwhelmed with the journey of life and would not have been able to see the light at the end of the road. I would have wanted to be loved and accepted so much that I would have done anything and conformed to the rules of world.

So, I am able to connect with the Sawi because I have God in my life and understand His importance in my life. Knowing Him gave me so much wisdom and matured me greatly. I have blossomed greatly under His love. I also am so grateful for what He has done with my life and consider Him my biggest blessing.

How do I, Don Richardson, and the Sawi relate to faith?

Personally, I try to center my life on my faith in my amazing Father. Because I believe in my God and am utterly in love with Him, I always strive to dedicate all my actions and thoughts to Christ and to worship Him with my all

My faith in Christ is such a prominent aspect in my life that it has become more than simply a belief, and my actions have become more than just an obligation to serve Him. My belief in God has blossomed into a wonderful relationship between my Father and me, and trying to follow and worship Him has become my greatest pleasure in life. My trust in Christ also transformed me and saved me…

If I didn’t have my God, then I would have never been able to conquer all those hardships I experienced. Those massive obstacles would have been overwhelmed and destroyed me. However, knowing that my omnipresent Father is there right beside me and is so much more powerful than those challenges, I was able to go on in life without being crushed.

My wonderful Father also helped me get over my past and live for the present and the future. Before I met my Father, I have done many horrible things. Without my amazing Father, I would have continued to dwell in my past misdeeds and have this guilt gnaw on my heart instead of letting them go and letting in God. My trust in God helped me learn from my mistakes and helped me forgive myself.

So, how do I relate to faith?

My faith is everything to me. God is everything to me. He is my Savior, my amazing grace, my Dad, and my best friend.

I believe that Don Richardson’s way of relating to faith is similar to mine.

Don Richardson, the author of the book Peace Child and an advocate of God to the Sawi, loved God and trusted Him so much that he was willing to meet an uncivilized and treacherous Sawi tribe and introduce Christ to them. He was willing to put his own life in jeopardy to please his amazing Father and to save the Sawi, but he trusted that God will protect him and his family.

During his time with the Sawi, Don Richardson showed that he had a strong faith in Christ because he often communicated with God during difficult times and always managed to have peace within him, even when his two sons nearly drowned. If Don Richardson did not have this faith in God, he would not have been able to preach to the Sawi tribe and to convert them into Christians because he would have been overwhelmed with the discrepancy between his culture and theirs and would have lost his temper when things weren’t going as smoothly as he expected.

To Don Richardson, faith is what enables him to continue doing his work and to continue living. To him, God is his source of peace, his best shield, and his life counselor.

Now, to the Sawi, their way of relating to faith changed after they converted into Christianity.

In fact, the Sawi didn’t even have faith in anything before they came to know God because treachery was their way of living. They could not trust their friends because they never knew whether their friends were fattening them up for the slaughter. Even though they did have gods and devils, they didn’t trust or have faith in them. Instead, the Sawi feared them and did not want to interfere with them because they thought that the gods and devils will meddle with their affairs and will bring troubles in their lives. Faith was not present in the Sawi culture.

However, after the Sawi heard of God and His amazing love and became Christ-followers, their way of relating to faith transformed entirely. Their faith became an important aspect in their lives. Everything they did was dedicated to God. They even created an enormous dome/church so that they could praise God. Their faith in God also caused them to stop honoring treachery and doing immoral practices. God became someone who was so important and valuable that they converted their entire way of living so that they would not often God but honor Him instead.

To the Sawi, faith was the light that showed them the immorality of their practices and showed them the beauty of God. God, to them, was someone who flipped the entire Sawi culture, their peace child, and their resurrection.

What Must I Do?

6. What does Jesus want us to do for the Sawi?

Jesus wants us, His friends and family members, to introduce Him to the Sawi, just like what Don Richardson did. He wants us to guide the Sawi to Him so they become Christians; however, He doesn’t want us to force or deceive the Sawi to make them into Christians. He wants us to befriend the Sawi and show them how wonderful He is so they desire Him and love Him. Jesus also wants us to not judge people like the Sawi because of their immoral actions. Instead, we must understand their customs and try to teach them the immorality of their actions.

But… why is it so important for Jesus to have the Sawi or just people know Him?

A teacher once gave me this analogy: if there was an excellent chef who invited you to his house, the chef is supposed to provide you with an excellent meal that is made with the best of his ability. If the chef merely ordered pizza or cooked a really simple dish, then you would not be satisfied. Jesus’ best gift to us is Himself because He is absolutely wonderful. If He gave us anything else, we will not be satisfied.

In other words, Jesus wants people to know Him because He is the best thing He can provide for us.

Jesus also desires us to know Him because He wants us to be a part of His amazing, everlasting family.

Jesus is not being prideful or selfish when He wants everyone to know Him. In fact, it is the complete opposite. Jesus is loving and selfless because He wants us to have the best gift and wants us to be happy.

A Radical Change

11. How did Christianity change this culture?

Christianity entirely transformed the Sawi culture. When many people in this culture began believing in Christ, they formed new morals, and their personalities altered.

First and foremost, after the amazing God entered into the Sawi culture, the Sawi shed their habit of being treacherous and tuwi asonai man, fattening people with friendship for slaughter. They no longer began to deceive their friends to gain fame and began to love each other. Instead of doubt, trust was in between two people’s relationship. This trust helped end the tension and hatred between two tribes and the wars tribes frequently had. Also, since the Sawi now believed that God had sent His one and only begotten son Jesus Christ, peace and trust between two nations or people was possible even without a human tarop tim, a peace child.

God also helped the Sawi end some of the immoral and horrid practices. For example, the Sawi used to have a custom of gefam ason, or touching the stench. In this custom, the Sawi relatives of the deceased would breathe in the stench of the rotting corpse while one would dance below the corpse until the maggots and flesh landed on him, insert his hand inside the corpse’s body, and with this hand, eat freshly cooked sago, a type of food. The Sawi performed these acts to express their sorrow, and they believed that if they did these acts, then the deceased will be able to resurrect. However, knowing God and His power over death, the Sawi understood that these actions would not bring resurrection and ceased to perform this custom.

Although the book Peace Child does not mention these changes, I believe that the Sawi also stopped the custom of killing the second twin. The Sawi used to practice this custom because they believed that the second one was a devil who was in guise of a human. Now that the Sawi believes in the one and only God and has more knowledge, I think they realized that the second twin was not a devil and took care of the second child just as much as they did the first child.

The drastic change in this Sawi culture truly portrays God’s power. It is rare to find a person or a society today that changed so radically. I truly believe that God has created the Sawi to show the world His amazing power and love.

There are others in this world who do not believe this awesome God exists, but… if God is not real, how could this drastic change occur?

"I am not like them..."

 10. How different is your modern culture from the sawi tenants?
When our English class first began reading this novel, Peace Child, and learning about the Sawi culture, almost everyone was shocked and disgusted. They simply could not understand how people could possibly think and act in this horrible manner.

However, I didn’t see much difference between the Sawi people and us. To me, these two groups of people are quite similar with very small differences. The Sawi people betray and kill others to gain status and fame and we betray and emotionally hurt others to gain advantage for ourselves. We do not care what happens to others as long as the ones we love, including ourselves, are safe and the Sawi deeply love and care for those in their community but are heartless to others. The Sawi hand over something that is a part of their body as an oath but are quick to break this promise; we often say “I swear on my right hand/on God/on my mother’s grave…” but these are just words for us. We think that we are better than everyone and shun those who are ‘uncivilized,’ while the Sawi also cannot see anything wrong with what THEY are doing and believe themselves to be superior to other tribes.

Aren’t we quite similar to the Sawi if we look at this topic in this point of view?




"Modern" people seem to wrap their

hideous parts of them with pretty

and fancy things to cover those ugliness



We should not say that the Sawi are people with disgusting thoughts and actions because we too have those thoughts and do those actions. The only difference is that we cover our ugliness with pretty smiles and fancy intelligence. Underneath all the elaborate exterior, the ugliness is still there and is no different from the Sawi people’s ugliness.

With all these similarities, can we, the so-called “modernized” people, be any different from the Sawi people?

We are very alike. We just don’t want to admit it.

What Should We Do When We are Confronted with Other Cultures?

     We should be extremely careful when we confront other cultures. First, we should not be dogmatic and automatically dismiss the other cultures’ ideas and traditions because we are never sure whether our culture and its belief are actually right. However, we should also not accept everything and change who we are and what we believe in because those ideas and beliefs may be corrupt and immoral. Since every culture has different ideas of what is right and wrong, we must be very prudent when we decide what to accept and not to accept.

     I believe that there are no RIGHT or DEFINITE ways to act when we are confronted with other cultures. However, I think that is necessary to first study more about those cultures by learning their language, their belief and custom, and the origins of those beliefs and traditions. If we do not understand the thoughts behind those cultures, we will become dogmatic and stubborn in our belief that our culture is the “correct” culture. We not respect the new cultures because we believe that those societies are queer or even repulsive, so we will never accept those new cultures.

     After we know more about the new culture, we should compare our culture with the new culture. Where do these two cultures come from? What do these two cultures believe to be right and wrong? Why do these cultures believe these things? Which ideas harm people? By comparing the two cultures, we will be able to determine which ideas are right and which are wrong. However, we should not decide on what to accept based on the factor of popularity. Just because others believe that something is right does not necessarily mean it is right.

     Let me give you an example. As a Chinese Christian girl living with an atheist family in a Korean society while attending an American school, I was confronted with many different cultures ever since I was very young. I knew I could not live only by one culture, so I learned about all the cultures I was surrounded by as thoroughly as possible. Then, I had to ponder on which parts I was going to accept. I did not necessarily choose the easiest or the most popular things, such as the Chinese culture telling me to hide my weakness. My decisions were based on what I believed was right.

     Finally, when we are confronted with something in a culture that is extremely immoral, we should try to change that part of the culture. We should not do it by force though. Don Richardson confronted some elements in the Papua New Guinean culture by teaching them his own culture and allowed them to choose between the two culture. Likewise, we should tell those people our belief and explain why we consider that part of the culture so corrupted.