missionary, missiona-scary
The speaker at the pulpit on Sunday, a Canadian by the name of Don Richardson, told the most amazing stories of his time living with cannibalistic natives in the jungles of New Guinea.
He went there with not even an inkling as to how he was going to reach out to the people living there. Not even sure he and his family weren't about to become the specials of the day. All he had was a faith in the Lord so strong it defied every protest his mind could come up with. Him, his wife and his little son not even a year old.
The initial times were the hardest. He couldn't speak a word of their language and none of the Tsawi people in the village could speak his. They all regarded him as a Tu-ong, a great white blessing who'd come to their village bringing medicine and a 24 hour on-going sideshow. They considered the sight of a fair skinned person who turned blisteringly red in the jungle heat, an astounding, and not unfunny, sight, and so were not adverse to welcoming him. But getting them to welcome him and his family was one thing. Getting them to understand him and the message he eventually intended to share was another. So he desperately went about trying to learn their language, starting from the bare bones method of pointing at objects and people and hoping they would understand and give him a word for whatever it was he was pointing at.
Eventually he learnt enough of their language and lifestyles to believe himself ready to start sharing some of the gospel with them. So he proceeded to one of the longhouses where only men were allowed and his wife went off vice versa. He started telling them about Jesus and the way He lived His life. The way His love affected the people around Him. By and by he came to the story about Judas betraying Jesus, telling them how Judas betrayed his Lord and friend with a kiss, expecting them to tkae the logical path and view Judas as a villain. Lo and behold, the Tsawi started cheering and chanting Judas' name and hailing him as a hero. Utterly confused, Don later learned that, in Tsawi culture, the man who makes his enemy his friend and then stabs him in the back is a man indeed. To his despair he learnt that theirs was a culture that revered treachery and cunning and considered them to be the best virtues a man could posses. Quite undertandably, he was very distressed and cried out to God to help him change their mindsets and bring His true message to them.
War soon broke out between the particular Tsawi tribe he was staying with and another. Men were being injured and dying more from the filthy, crude wounds that their primitive jungle weapons caused. Don and his family were using up their valuable supply of Pennicillin far more than they could and found themselves not being able to treat non-combatants who'd simply gotten sick. Don prayed hard for an end to the war and pleaded with the tribal elders to make peace. But what with a culture steeped in adoration of treachery, a call for peace was never easy, if at all possible. One side never trusted the intentions of the other and more often than not that distrust was well placed. The only way to make peace was for one side to show an act of absolute sincerity, one no one could ever refute, a sacrifice no one would make short of complete sincerity. If a father from a tribe were to offer one of his sons to a father from the warring rival as a peace child, then the act of peace would be complete and the war would stop.
The war raged on for a long time until finally, six months after it had started, one of the Tsawi in the village Don was living in decided he'd had enough and he wanted to honour the wishes of the Tu-ong and so he took his only son, his one and only child, and ran off to the other tribe amid the wails of his devastated wife. He ran and ran and on reaching the enemy lines he cried out 'I offer this child as a peace child that there may be peace so long as this child is alive in your longhouse!'. The warriors of the rival tribe, on seeing his offer, and knowing that he had but one child to give and yet gave him, were moved beyong words and one by one walked up to touch the child and cry out, 'I accept this child as a basis for peace!' And so the dying stopped that day.
Don watched all this from the sidelines and was suddenly struck by the fact that right here, God had given him the opportunity to introduce Jesus as the peace child that God had given to mankind to reconcile us with Him, to bring the people He loved back to His side. That God was utterly sincere because He was willing to make the supreme sacrifice and give His one and only begotten son.
And so he told them even as they were celebrating, how a child had been born a long time ago in a little stable in a place called Bethlehem, how that child was God's gift to a people who'd fallen away from Him and yet He loved so much that He was willing to pay any price to get them back. All of a sudden the people of the village started getting angry and on inquiring, Don found out that they were angry with Judas and his actions. Confused, he put forth that before, they'd hailed Judas as a hero for his cunning and deception, whereupon they replied, ' But you didn't tell us that Judas betrayed a peace child. That is, in our view, the most despicable act a man can commit.'
Don was amazed at what a little faith and prayer could do. He lived among the Tsawi for a time and brought the gospel to them, translating the New Testament for them. Eventually, this little village was saved and started sending the Good News to surrounding villages. Today that little gaggle of Tsawi villages in the jungles of New Guinea are dotted with churches and people celebrating the life our Saviour has brought.
I was completely blown away when I heard this story. Its amazing the way God brings His salvation to people. Through the most unbelievable of paths, to the most unexpected of places.
He went there with not even an inkling as to how he was going to reach out to the people living there. Not even sure he and his family weren't about to become the specials of the day. All he had was a faith in the Lord so strong it defied every protest his mind could come up with. Him, his wife and his little son not even a year old.
The initial times were the hardest. He couldn't speak a word of their language and none of the Tsawi people in the village could speak his. They all regarded him as a Tu-ong, a great white blessing who'd come to their village bringing medicine and a 24 hour on-going sideshow. They considered the sight of a fair skinned person who turned blisteringly red in the jungle heat, an astounding, and not unfunny, sight, and so were not adverse to welcoming him. But getting them to welcome him and his family was one thing. Getting them to understand him and the message he eventually intended to share was another. So he desperately went about trying to learn their language, starting from the bare bones method of pointing at objects and people and hoping they would understand and give him a word for whatever it was he was pointing at.
Eventually he learnt enough of their language and lifestyles to believe himself ready to start sharing some of the gospel with them. So he proceeded to one of the longhouses where only men were allowed and his wife went off vice versa. He started telling them about Jesus and the way He lived His life. The way His love affected the people around Him. By and by he came to the story about Judas betraying Jesus, telling them how Judas betrayed his Lord and friend with a kiss, expecting them to tkae the logical path and view Judas as a villain. Lo and behold, the Tsawi started cheering and chanting Judas' name and hailing him as a hero. Utterly confused, Don later learned that, in Tsawi culture, the man who makes his enemy his friend and then stabs him in the back is a man indeed. To his despair he learnt that theirs was a culture that revered treachery and cunning and considered them to be the best virtues a man could posses. Quite undertandably, he was very distressed and cried out to God to help him change their mindsets and bring His true message to them.
War soon broke out between the particular Tsawi tribe he was staying with and another. Men were being injured and dying more from the filthy, crude wounds that their primitive jungle weapons caused. Don and his family were using up their valuable supply of Pennicillin far more than they could and found themselves not being able to treat non-combatants who'd simply gotten sick. Don prayed hard for an end to the war and pleaded with the tribal elders to make peace. But what with a culture steeped in adoration of treachery, a call for peace was never easy, if at all possible. One side never trusted the intentions of the other and more often than not that distrust was well placed. The only way to make peace was for one side to show an act of absolute sincerity, one no one could ever refute, a sacrifice no one would make short of complete sincerity. If a father from a tribe were to offer one of his sons to a father from the warring rival as a peace child, then the act of peace would be complete and the war would stop.
The war raged on for a long time until finally, six months after it had started, one of the Tsawi in the village Don was living in decided he'd had enough and he wanted to honour the wishes of the Tu-ong and so he took his only son, his one and only child, and ran off to the other tribe amid the wails of his devastated wife. He ran and ran and on reaching the enemy lines he cried out 'I offer this child as a peace child that there may be peace so long as this child is alive in your longhouse!'. The warriors of the rival tribe, on seeing his offer, and knowing that he had but one child to give and yet gave him, were moved beyong words and one by one walked up to touch the child and cry out, 'I accept this child as a basis for peace!' And so the dying stopped that day.
Don watched all this from the sidelines and was suddenly struck by the fact that right here, God had given him the opportunity to introduce Jesus as the peace child that God had given to mankind to reconcile us with Him, to bring the people He loved back to His side. That God was utterly sincere because He was willing to make the supreme sacrifice and give His one and only begotten son.
And so he told them even as they were celebrating, how a child had been born a long time ago in a little stable in a place called Bethlehem, how that child was God's gift to a people who'd fallen away from Him and yet He loved so much that He was willing to pay any price to get them back. All of a sudden the people of the village started getting angry and on inquiring, Don found out that they were angry with Judas and his actions. Confused, he put forth that before, they'd hailed Judas as a hero for his cunning and deception, whereupon they replied, ' But you didn't tell us that Judas betrayed a peace child. That is, in our view, the most despicable act a man can commit.'
Don was amazed at what a little faith and prayer could do. He lived among the Tsawi for a time and brought the gospel to them, translating the New Testament for them. Eventually, this little village was saved and started sending the Good News to surrounding villages. Today that little gaggle of Tsawi villages in the jungles of New Guinea are dotted with churches and people celebrating the life our Saviour has brought.
I was completely blown away when I heard this story. Its amazing the way God brings His salvation to people. Through the most unbelievable of paths, to the most unexpected of places.
posted by isaac! at 9:10 AM
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