Tuesday, January 11, 2011

What concepts of the Sawi culture saddened you?

Before Christianity was introduced into the Sawi culture concepts of the Sawi culture that saddened me was: How they felt that they had to fatten friendship for slaughter. How they would after the slaughter prepare the human flesh in preparation to be eaten. How the Sawi had to give one of their own biological children to different tribes as a term of peace. How the Sawi had no trust between tribes and within their own tribes. 
These concepts saddened me as I my idea of being involved in a tribe meant that you felt safe within the tribe. You wouldn't have to worry about whether or not you were being "fattened for friendship". The concept of having to bare a child and then the next thing he/she is being taken away to be raised into another tribe is one of the saddest things that a mother could go through. Not only because you feel protective of that child because of the motherly instincts that we have but also because we conceive children so that we can raise them up into a loving family and show them the love that God has for each and everyone of us. The Sawi's culture before they were introduced to Christianity was a culture that I felt was lost. These concepts of the Sawi culture saddened me because it I felt that the Sawi people were immersed in a culture were it was either hunt or be hunted.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

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

I think that God wants us to encourage us to understand and adjust to the different cultures and faiths that each and every one of us holds. This means that we don't shove our faith and culture down their throats saying that they should become a believer in this faith because it is the only way otherwise I cast in black light. It means that we bring to people's attention the real beauty of the faith that we have and the cultures which we have. For example I am a Christian and I think that God would want other Christians to show people who may be searching for God or don't yet know Him to see the wonders of his scripture and the power that the scripture can bring us through God. God would want us to go up to a group of strangers and tell him to become Christians otherwise they will be sent to hell. Because this does not bring honor to God as we are not showing the work of God through our actions. Instead we present God to them and let them decide whether they choose to believe or not. God encourages us to help those who have not found him and he would expect that as His children that we do not turn a blind eye on someone in need, or someone struggling instead we help and nurture them by showing them that God works in mysterious way and although we may not think that he is with us. He is always with us, its only in our darkness trials that we realize he has only been with us, walking along aside us through everything.