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

 

         My faith to God is a very crucial part of my life. As I said in my earlier post, as a Pastor's kid, I try to view the world as a Christian. When I was young, my faith in God was not that significant in my life and I lived as I wanted to be. However growing up and going through many ups and downs, I was able to find the reason to truly have faith in God. Although as Christians we should always praise God and seek for his guidance, when ever I was going through hardships, I was swayed away from God. In addition, when everything was fine and life was easy, I was easily thankful of my situation, however, when hardship came, I was not able to thank God and only complained. As you can see, I was a very selfish Christian that did not understand God's love and his plans. However when I was separated from my parents as a teenager and studied in the U.S. with my brothers, I came to realize the true meaning of faith in God. In the U.S I went through a very hard time. Although I had many friends, I always felt lonely, and even though I knew my parents loved me, I was unable to show them how I truly felt inside. Then, God strongly hit me and changed my life forever. Long story short, I was deeply touched at a revival held at a local Korean church and there God told me that he knew how much I was suffering and aching inside. He told me that he's been always with me and that he wanted to help me. He told me that he loved me. This idea of God always being with us was a well understood concept as a Christian, however, I realized how much I have been only understanding God's love with my human brains and not with my heart. That day for the first time in my life, I found the true peace and comfort that only God was able to provide. Now, my life is highly dependent on my faith. I know that God is always with me and he is the only one to understand me fully. He is the one who leads me according to his wills and often kicks me back on track when ever I seem to sway away from his plans. He is the indescribable merciful God who I know will always love me.

          Don Richardson, the author of the book the "Peace Child" highly depended on God when going to the headhunting tribe, Sawi, as a missionary. The fact that he was going to a tribe that honored treachery and eats human flesh was very dangerous and hard. Many times he faced dangerous situations even almost getting killed. However every time a hardship struck him, he prayed to God for guidance and only looked to him for a solution. Although everything was stripped away from him and he was now standing in the middle of a jungle and around savages, he knew he had God on his side and that God wanted him to be there to spread the Gospel. As a result, he was able to rely fully on God in any situation and find what God truly wanted through this experience.

          To the Sawi, the concept of faith was very hard to grasp. For decades, the Sawi killed each other in hatred and even ate the enemy's flesh. They highly honored treachery and betrayal than peace and love, and they were tightly bounded by dark superstitions. Because of this, when Don Richardson, a Tuan, came to their village and tried to have peace, it only seemed awkward and wrong to the Sawi. However, Don uses finds out about the "peace child" and from there he is able to connect Jesus Christ, the son of the one and only God, as the everlasting peace child for everyone. Slowly the Sawi come to trust the concept of the ultimate peace child and start to move away from their old brutal ways of life and relying on God. As a result, most of the tribes came to accept Jesus Christ as their ultimate peace child and savior, and eventually the Sawi built a church for any followers of Christ. Once enemies that only sought to kill each other and take revenge, were now sitting together harmless and peaceful to worship God. To them, God was the key to break away from the old dark ways to finding the true everlasting peace and mercy.

The Korean American Christian boy's worldly views!

My name is Daniel and I am a student attending Taejon Christian International School in South Korea. As a Christian with a bicultural background, I find my worldly views highly affected by my faith and the culture hat I've been exposed to.

First of all, most of my worldly views are formed from the fact that I am a Christian, especially a Pastor's kid (PK). When I was young, I didn’t really take my religion seriously, but now that I became mature enough, I find that my worldly views are very strictly according to my faith. As a Christian, I find drinking and smoking very sinful. However, I don’t judge people of their wrong doings because God told us not to hate the person but hate the sin itself. Small things from drinking and smoking, to more global issues such as peace talks and racism, I first think about what God has told us to do and not do. 
When I look at the world, I try to understand what God wants from me and what he is trying to do through me. I also try not to hold on to the materialistic things that this world provides because without God, no one will be able to find true peace and comfort. All I try to rely on is his grace and mercy. It is not that I find this world meaningless and useless, but it is that I value God's way more than what society and generally the world values more on. The world is only a temporary bus stop before reaching my final destination, which would be heaven. 

Other than my faith, my culture also shaped my perspective of the world. I have a very diverse view of the world because I was raised up in two very distinct cultural environments. I was born in the U.S. in 1993 and was raised there until I was seven years old. Then my family came to Korea and I from 1^st grade in elementary school to 7^th grade in middle school, I was in Korea. At this time I forgot most of my English and the American culture, and was very used to Korea. However, after the first semester in the 7^th grade, my family went back to the U.S. for my father’s sabbatical year. After a year, my parents came back to Korea and my brothers and I were left in the U.S. for further education. For two years I attended Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma.

This year I came back to Korea because I believe that God wanted me in Korea. Because of my bicultural life, my worldly views have been shaped neither as a Korean nor American, but as a person in the gray area. When looking at the world, I always find myself as someone in between a Korean and an American. For an example, in Korea it is not that homo to wear skinny jeans. However in America, some people still believe that skinny jeans are very girly for a man to wear. When I see a guy wearing skinny jeans, I don’t immediately think he is girly, but I understand his style and respect it. On the other hand, I also find my self-understanding why my American friends find it looking not so manly; because a man needs to be strong and built rather than skinny and weak. Small things like these to global issues such as the Iraq war and FTA issues between Korea and the U.S, I can understand both perspectives. 

I didn't realize before, but now that I think of it, I found how much my faith and my culture has influenced my perspective of the world. I am also very thankful to God that he has exposed me to both the American culture and the Korean culture. Now I can understand both cultures and view this world in a borader way.