Members of the Official Peace Child Fan Club

06-07 tcis boys varsity vball


04-05 tcis vs pahs @ far east tourney


04-05 tcis boys varsity soccer


04-05 pahs boys varsity soccer


05-06 tcis boys varsity soccer

05-06 tcis boys varsity soccer

Sawians Are Sexy..No Doubt..

This post is basically to defend the Sawi from the outside world and explain why I think this way. Starting off with the fact that Sawians are cannibals and kill people for cultural reasons, I would have to say that yes, this is not only against Christianity but basically violates a big law in any country with some sort of organized government. Also in addition to the western culture, what the Sawi people do is probably considered grotesque and inhumane (uncivilized, old-fashioned) But setting the things that the people do, do you actually think these people enjoy doing this? I mean these people have only seen these kinds of people for God knows how long and have never experienced the outside world. How these people are suppose to know if this gets you a ticket to a life-sentence? How are they supposing to know if the rest of the world doesn’t eat people for pride and to survive? There are so many questions that can argue the fact that what theses people do is not wrong to them. It is not our job to change this by sending people to introduce the modern world and change people to make them one of us. Although this may seem righteous and gives them a easier life, I personally see this as a disruption to the law of nature; to let things be and let them change and learn things on their own. Who would know if the Sawi would have stopped their tradition in the near future and modernize. What Don Richardson did was undeniably giving and did it for their benefit but I would have to take my stance as to leave them be and let culture be diverse.

Effects of Christianity

Instead of merely pin-pointing the effects of Christianity I think stating the effects of society (as in atheism) would be logically comparative and easier to understand without encountering much bias. First of all Christianity doesn't really affect us negatively but instead I would have to say, it gives us too much dependability often times. Not to be anti-Christian or anything, Christians have this tendency to give God as the reason for every question in this world. We all know that this can not be true even if God did happen exist. Giving us illusions and delusions, I think God tells us only the obvious; not to sin, to love your enemies, forgive those who sin to us; listen to what is right (Jesus) and etc. Besides this I think the Bible is filled with stories that is about people and just gives some proof that God exists. Whether God does exists or does not exist is not the debate here; we have to admit that being Christian does not really help us a lot but gives us a bit more what they say "pure and clean" life. Connecting this to Peace Child, I think the introduction of Christianity to the Sawi people was actually highly effective, nevertheless did not change the mindsets of the people. Yes, Don Richardson didn't go there to change the people but to simple introduce the word of God but, in the end doesn't that mean he wanted the Sawi people to become Christians, meaning follow all the commandments and basically change? This question may be argued but I am just saying that that is what I think. I would have to say becoming a Christian requires a lot of change and basically means starting a new life.

Son of a Peace

This entry would have to be my stance of the storyline of the book and what I have to say about it. Peace Child was a definite way to express both the Christian aspects of life and an atheist's aspect of life; people who do not know who God is. Jumping to conclusions, the outcome of the story basically turns out to be that cult and differences do not matter as long as God is in your life. Moreover I believe that cult and differences do matter but our job in life is to set aside these differences and strive for mutual peace even with occasional arguments. Well, what is my overall view of this book? I have to say that Don Richardson is a respectable guy; living in a cannibalistic place for 15 years; a few more years and I think he'd deserve a Nobel Prize or something. Well I like the fact that this heroic story wasn't made up but was actually based on him and it was written in a first-person viewpoint, making the story more real than ever. Also people tend to exaggerate a lot of events that happen but in this story it was in great detail, therefore giving me exact pictural images in my mind. Finally, I would have to say that whether Christian or not, this book is definitely recommended.

The Novel and I

I would have to say that this book definately reminds me of a incident or incidents where it was similar to the Sawi and Don Richardson mission. Although my incident had nothing to do with religion, it did in fact have something to do with cultural issues and backgrounds. Not long ago, I knew a girl who was not exactly what you would call "the same" as me. Although we were completely different people, we knew how to set differences aside and simply have a fun time without getting into needless debates about what we thought about something. Furthurmore, we actually had a alot of things that we agreed on; passions, dislikes, ideas and etc. Once this "getting to know" phase turned up a notch, it became more of a relationship. Meanwhile we actually began to tell each other things; things that we wondered about, expressing these differences that we had; our culture. Up to this point, I was beginning to wonder if we were different because it seemed like we agreed on so much, despite the "occasional" arguments. Eventually this relationship became clear and actually seemed like we fell for each other, hiding our weaknesses and differences into the foggy mist. Although it seemed like the affection was beginning to skew in one direction; me sacrificing everything I had for her while she was only giving it half as much. Differences did not matter to me, what I thought was love seemed to be enough and make a relationship last. It wasn't that she didn't show that same love back and was just a lie, it was simply that I was being too good to her up to a point where she felt uncomfortable. None of this showed of course and was revealed only after all of this happened. By this time at least a few months had passed and it wasn't just some random relationship but even our environment recognized that feelings we had for each other. Highschool love may sound a little silly to some, while adults may doubt that teenagers know what love is; but I was sure this was love. What sounded cheesy and so perfect later came to a downfall just as any fairytale does; we broke up, more specifically, she broke up with me. For what reason? She fell for another guy. This gave me a final realization that we were different and what I thought changed and didn't matter did. The reason I am telling you this anecdote isn't to express my cheesy feelings for her, nor is it to make what happened public for people to judge her or myself, it is simply to make a connection with the daily things that happen all around this world. We need to admit that until we overcome these differences for eternity, peace or love will never last and will always have a end. Peace Child gives us the same message.

Holla from Society

Setting aside the Christian standard and viewpoints of life, what do we people tend to think about these differences in majorities versus minorities? Knowing that even myself as the writer of this entry, have bias and a distinct viewpoint of life, I need to understand other people in order to compare myself and see where everyone is coming from and is currently standing. Relating this to the book, in Peace Child, you can see that there are two major viewpoints; the Sawi and the westerners. The westerners mostly like to follow modern society and basically follow what the rest of the world considers to be "right." This basically means that the western viewpoint is respresenting the majority and the Sawi, the minority. Today, we do not see much killing and cannibalism, but the Sawi's case, these are parts of their culture and traditions. Most the world sees this as grotesque and inhumane; although this the majority viewpoint is somewhat correct, I personally believe that this is not a very good reason to change something else that does not follow what the majority says. Society also tends to exclude these minorities (the Sawi in the book's case) and label them as unrighteous and wrong. Even though law tells us that is fair to follow what the majority says, I believe that these differences should be left this way instead of creating conflicts due to these differences. This definitely does not contradict with the nature of conflicts from occuring because it does occur, instead it merely gives us a simple explanation that we have absolutely no reason to dominate others because of these differences.

Holla from Jesus

It is important to understand how we people view the ways of the Sawi and the ways of us westerners; but the question of what we should do about these matters is definitely worth asking to Jesus. Jesus tells us that we people are all born the same and are equal. Even though race, culture and ideas collide all around us, he tells us to overcome these problems by loving one another regardless of these minute differences. We also need to understand that not only from a Christian viewpoint but a person who does not believe in God can still rely on his words. Although it is true that the Ten Commandments from the Bible speaks only righteous and moral purity, we have to understand that people set different commandments and believe that those are the set standards of righteousness. The reason why Don Richardson and his wife went to the Sawi village was not to change them but to show them a better way of living, which was to follow God and live even more righteous lives. Often times we see these people (missionaries) as converters or dominating other minorities and changing their way of living, but in actuality, Jesus has never ordered us to change people but to spread his word and make them better people.

Cultural Collision

Do you know a song called "Collide" by Howie Day? Well withour getting too off topic, this song is about two different kinds of people and how because of these differences, they do not belong together or go together. How does this relate to Peace Child? Well you may have noticed that the Sawi and the westerners are the same kind of people but are totally different in culture and spend lives in distinct atmospheres. In a western viewpoint, what the Sawi do and how they live may be absurd or grotesque but we need to understand that it is the same or at least similar to the eyes of the Sawi. In one word we call these characteristics and traits of different kinds of people; culture. Culture is something that one country enherits or develops where people in the nation start to follow until it becomes an independent tradition. Every person carries one or more of these cultural traits depending on one's birth and how they were raised. In the book, the Sawi have traditions and commandments, while Don Richardson and his wife, who were both born to the western culture have their own unique culture. What this comes across is that culture can not be judged as correct or incorrect. No matter how different a culture may be we westerners especially need to accept the fact that they (as in the Sawi) do not follow violent or morally wrong behaviors without a purpuse, but instead do it because that is how they were taught and grew up to be. Cultural collision is inevitable, but the fact that this is becoming a reason to be descrimative or condescending is avoidable.

An Intro To Faith

Faith faith faith...what exactly is this "faith"? I mean we hear it in our everyday dialect, yet do we know its actual meaning? Personally, faith appeals to me as a simplistic, independent belief or trust that allows ourselves to depend upon it regardless of our circumstances. When our society says faith, often times it is considered to be something distant from logic or reason and has a lot to do with spirituality or supernaturality. Don Richardson; the author, narrator and one of the main characters of this story leaves us a message that faith is something that we share in order to reach a spiritual parallel with those who do not base their lives on faith. In this particular story, Don refers this to the Sawi culture and their primitive and brutal traditions. Until Don visits them with his wife to spread what he believes will give them the peace that they need, faith to the Sawi is just a meaningless word. Although Don has a strong sense of faith, he only gives them the truth of scripture and leave it to the people themselves to decide how this affects the way they live. In the end the Sawi realize what "faith" does and come to a realization that God is the answer to all of life's questions. While Don Richardson remains a man built by faith, I personally do not see myself made by a lot of faith. Although it may seem bias, I would have to admit that faith is something that we depend on too much, making us overly dependent. But don’t get me wrong, faith is not a negative thing to have; in fact faith does keep us on our feet at times and is the solution to a lot of problems that we confront in our everyday life. Furthermore, I believe that faith does not only have relations with a God or religion but also may be just another form of showing our trust or reliability on something or someone. I leave this post with the message that we need to understand that faith's boundaries are undetermined thus, something that we all seem to have.