What do mission organizations do for these people?

There are parts in this world that never had an opportunity to hear about gospel, and the goal of mission organizations is to spread the words of God to every part of the globe. The mission organizations support and aid “uncivilized” groups of people such as the Sawi. By these good deeds, the mission organizations show the love of God to the people so they can realize the presence of God.

If mission organizations never existed, then thousands of people might not have been able to live their eternal life with Jesus Christ. In fact, Christianity was first introduced in Korea by mission organizations from the Western countries as well. If the striving effort of the mission organization to spread Gospel did not happen in Korea during 1784, we all might never have an opportunity to receive the ticket to Heaven. The mission organizations also amend the corrupt and amoral societies. For instance, the Sawi practiced cannibalism and never considered that revenge is a sinful act. But as Don preached gospel to them, they realized their amoral behaviors and repentant themselves. Also mission organizations improve the life styles of those people. As the novel shows, Don made written language for the Sawi and translated the Bible in their language. So the Sawi were able to write and read their language and enjoy reading the Bible.
The impact of the mission organizations is indescribable. Thus without them, thousands of people would face the endless pain and suffering in their eternal lives.

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

It is impossible for people to live their lives without Faith since when people are in a dilemma, they rely on religion and faith. This occurrence is perfectly natural. When a baby needs something or is having trouble, the first thing the baby do is search for his mother. Thus in times of trouble, we ask God for help because He is our Father and Creator.




Without Faith, we cannot live our lives with satisfaction and happiness. Often time, we wander in our lives apart from God, questioning the real purpose of our lives. Life is like the Route 66, which is a route that starts from Chicago, Illinois to all the way to the Los Angeles, California. Before the realization of God being our Creator, we go to the California, West, whereas God is actually at Chicago, East. We keep on going to the direction toward West and find ourselves that there is such a thing as purpose of life since all the monetary and earthly objects do not bring the joy and the satisfaction in our lives. Nevertheless, at some point, God comes into our souls and makes us to realize that we were heading to a wrong destination and need to make a U-turn so we can start our new journey toward God. To allow God to come into our souls, we need to have Faith and let God to completely control our lives. Without Faith, we won't be able to make the U-turn and just keep on going to California, not realizing that there is nothing but hell.

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

There were many concepts in the Sawi culture that shocked me. Although I had a picture of uncivilized tribe in my mind before reading the book, when I read the passage where Kauwan deceives and murders Yae just for a girl whom he wanted to get married, I was totally shocked and couldn’t understand their minds at all. Yae was a relative of Kauwan, but how can he just simply kill Yae for a girl? Another scene that also surprised me was when the kids were messing with Yae, who was almost at the point of death. The kids and the people had no sympathy to Yae. It seemed like that they have no consciousness or pity at all. Moreover a concept that intrigued me the most was the respect that a husband showed to his mother-in-law. I think that most husbands in this modern society usually revere and care more about their own mothers rather than their mothers-in-law. But it was interesting because the husbands of Sawi were committing themselves to do anything that their mothers-in-law told. I was astonished to see the “uncivilized culture” like Sawi were way more loyal than some of us in our culture today. But what saddened me the most was the world view of the Sawi before when Don Richardson came to tell about God. The superstitious Sawi did not have the true understanding of Jesus Christ that He is the key to the eternal life and the purpose of their lives. I connected this scene to the today’s world that even some of “civilized” people are acting like the superstitious and “primitive” Sawi because they are skeptical about the whole Christianity.

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

The society should establish more of mission organizations or service trips so that anyone, who is willing to help the “uncivilized cultures,” can join at anytime. Also the society should encourage and suggest to the citizens to help out the “uncivilized cultures” through media, broadcasting, and maybe advertisement, since people are mostly affected by media in these days. Most of the time, people tend to just think or say that there should be an improvement in “uncivilized cultures.” Therefore the society should spur those to implement their thought. Furthermore, society can stop the traders and NGO’S by making a law that doesn’t allow the traders and NGO’S to take and use the people of the Sawi coercively for their business by selling them as slaves or some sort of entertainment. The society definitely has a power to bring influence to the people to move into actions.

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

God wants us to show respects to other cultures and faiths, but at the same time, He wants us to spread the words of God to them. If some cultures are amoral and against God, we need to tell them that anything against God is sin. For instance, the Sawi used to eat human beings and considered that physically killing their enemy was being heroic. Killing a person is wrong because as God said and the Ten Commandments shows that we should not commit murder and we should love our enemies. Thus Don Richardson tells the Sawi about Christianity and the words of God, which changes their unscrupulous behavior and culture. But we are only students and can’t spend years with a group of people that has corrupt culture to teach them about God. We can, however, go to mission trips in summer or winter break or pray to God about them. God expects us to do something even a little thing about them because He knows that each of us can bring a huge impact to those with uncivilized culture and never heard about Jesus Christ.