The Peace Child

     After finishing a baby blanket for my great-niece, I decided not to start another knitting project, but to catch up on some reading instead. As Al says, “The stressful thing about retirement is trying to decide what to do each day!”   

     A yellowed second-hand paperback book which had been sitting on the bookshelf for months caught my eye—Peace Child, by missionary Don Richardson. After a few pages, I realized that I had read it before, but decided to read it again because the story was unusual and inspiring. 

     In 1972, Don and Carol Richardson established their home among the Sawi people of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. It is hard to imagine that there were people living only 40 years ago who were still in the Stone Age, practicing cannibalism. The Richardsons believed that God was calling them to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the Sawi.

     Because they were the first “Tuan” or “White People” with whom the Sawi had come into contact and because they were the source of a seemingly endless supply of axes and other mysterious treasures, three villages merged together to build their tree-top homes near the home of the missionary family. As Don related in the story, the Sawi culture was based around revenge and violence. With three different villages living close together there was bound to be trouble.  Fights were constantly breaking out.

     After spending months trying to learn their difficult language, he still couldn’t seem to find the key to communicating the gospel to them. When he was finally able to share the story of Jesus, Don was dismayed to discover that Judas was a hero to them. The Sawi decided that Judas must have been a very clever man to betray God’s own son. Betraying someone with whom a friendship or treaty had been made was the ultimate achievement of the Sawi warriors. Legends were passed down from one generation to the next of how someone had unsuspectingly been lured into friendship only to be murdered.     

     What great dedication to their Lord, conviction and love the Richardsons shared as they lived among the Sawi with their two young sons! They must have wondered at times if they also would be betrayed by the same people they were trying to reach.  When the tension peaked among the three tribes, Don and Carol decided to leave. They had prayed faithfully for God’s help in finding the key to reach the Sawi. Had they failed?

      Just before the Richardsons left, the tribal leaders announced that they were going to make peace. Then a man from one tribe voluntarily came forward with an offering which was held out to the extended arms of a leader from the other tribe. The offering was a baby, the man’s own son, given amidst much crying from the anguished mother. The baby was his token of peace, a “tarop tim” or “peace child.”

       In return, the second warrior brought his own little son as an offering to the first man. This exchange was a covenant of peace between the two villages which could only be broken if one of the babies died. The tarop tim was the Richardson’s answer to prayer. Not only did they decide to remain with those tribes, they also now had a way of explaining the gospel which the people could understand—Jesus was God’s peace child. There was no longer a need for a human tarop tim to make peace. Through this revelation God moved in a powerful way upon the hearts and minds of the Sawi.

      May the peace of God richly abound in your life during the coming year, and may you discover the joy of knowing Jesus, the Prince of Peace, personally as Lord and Savior.

“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9: 6b NIV