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

How do I relate to faith?

The way that I personally relate to faith is through love. God is love and He loves us. He loves us so much that He also gave us the ability to love one another and most important, Him. There is no possible way for us to love someone, whether it's a spouse or a friend, except through God giving us that gift and ability to love them. Every time that I feel love for someone I immediately know that God is there with me, giving me that ability to love that person and I remember how much He loves me. My faith in God and knowing that He is always here and He is real is very strong because I can see Him working every day in my life just by giving me the opportunities to love people, so that I can remember Him and love Him even more.

How did Don Richardson relate to faith?

Don Richardson was a missionary that related the peace child to faith in the Sawi Tribe's culture. Don Richardson had wanted to be a missionary for a very long time and when he finally got the opportunity to go and share the gospel in Papua New Guinea, he felt like this was a sign from God that his calling was to be a missionary and bring the tribes in New Guinea to Christ. He had such strong faith and trust in God that this was what he should be doing with his life. Throughout his journey and experience living amongst the Sawi people, he faced many obstacles and difficult and confusing times. It was those times that his faith became the strongest and the way he truly related to faith was by completely exposing himself to God and telling Him straight out that he needed help and that he couldn't do whatever he was trying to do, alone. Richardson had to completely trust God and lift everything up into His hands to reach out to the Sawi, and he did this. That show of his faith and trust in God was how He related to God and therefore God answered and gave him the way to relate to the Sawi through the peace child.

How do the Sawi relate to faith?

The Sawi tribe of Papua New Guinea related to faith through their relationship between their custom of giving the peace child and God giving us Jesus. The Sawi custom of the peace child was an offering of peace between 2 tribes. A child would be given to the other tribe and the other tribe could choose whether or not to accept that child as a gift of peace, and then as long as that child lived there would be peace between the 2 tribes. When Don Richardson explained how God gave his only son, Jesus, as a peace child to us and that he lives eternally, the Sawi realized they need to accept this peace offering and know that they will always have peace in their lives because God's son lives forever. The Sawi could relate to faith because they could all understand how much of a sacrifice and gift it was for God to give his only son, because they had also witnessed or done it themselves.

What factors of your native culture have informed your religious world view? Explain the impact of these factors

My native culture is American. I was born and raised in the state of Idaho in the USA. I went to a public elementary school from grades Kindergarten through Sixth grade. Every since I was born I have gne to church regularly with my family every sunday. I grew up in a Christian home and at church I was surrounded by Christian people and friends. Because I had grown up with such a strong Christian environment I have pretty much been a Christian ever since I was born. I loved God and knew that He loved me. Even though I went to a public elementary school and was one of the only Christians there, I never felt lonely or excluded. I knew that I was different because I was trying to live a Christian life, and I knew that other people could see that I was different. But I had friends that weren't Christians but they respected my religion and my faith was never really tested in any way. I really had a great time living in America for the time that I did.

When I was 12 years old I moved to South Korea with my family. I had finished elementary school an

d was preparing to move into Junior high which was a really big thi

ng for me at that time. I was really looking forward to moving on in school to hopefully make some more friends that were Christian that I could build some strong relationships with. When my parents first told me that I was moving to South Korea I was not very pleased, to say the least. My sister and I, who was going into 5th grade at the time, were both extremely disappointed and sad when we were told that we were moving to South Korea. It was a very unhappy time for us, and stressful in the fact that we had only a limited amount of time to get everything ready for we had to leave. In all that business and sadness I was not focus

ing on my relationship with God and trusting that He had a plan for me, but instead was questioning why He was doing this to me and frustrated with Him.

Our family had previously known people living and working here in Korea at TCIS, so once we got to Korea we were warmly welcomed by familiar faces and tasty food. TCIS is a Christian school and therefore I expected my life and my relationship with God to be

a much easier process because of the Christian environment. It wasn't. My

7th grade year was a very difficult time for me because not only was I goi

ng to a new school, that was religious based which was very different from my last school, but also trying to adjust to the vastly different culture of Korea and trying to make friends and keep of with the work ethic of this school which was much more prestigious than my previous school. I was living in a totally different world and struggled with that 100% change for a long time. But as I started to become more accustomed and comfortable in where and what I was living in, I started to fall in love with it and to fall in love with God and how trugly great He is. He did have a plan for me all along, but I was so caught up in what I thought was right that I couldn't accept it.

I am a third culture kid. That is basically a HUGE part of my identity. I have lived in South Korea for 4 1/2 years now, and I love the places I can go, relationships that I've built, people I've met, and opportunities that I've gotten to enjoy and hav

e that I would have never even dreamed of if I h

ad stayed living in Idaho. Korea is definitely my home, and every time I go to America for the summer I like for a time, but towards the end I end up missing 'home' and I just want to go back to Korea and see my friends. Friendships I have made here are probably the biggest reason why I love it so much. I have had the opportunity to build incredible relationships with people from all over the world that all share a common passion, which is God. These people have been there for me, when I never thought they would be and will always be there encouraging and keeping me accountable in my spiritual

life. They are extremely special people, and I know that no matter what happens in our lives, tomorrow or in 100 years, that I will always have those relationships and that they will always be there building me up in my most important relationship which is with God.

I've found that I am not in control of my life, and that I shouldn't be, because if I was then I would have missed out on the love, joy, trust, faith, and true honesty that I have experienced living here in South Korea.