“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Mt.6:22,23 NASB)
A Bisorio woman named Bawame was carried from a mountain location down to the village where the missionaries lived. She was thin and very weak. The hearts of the missionaries broke with sadness and concern. After consulting medical workers, they prayed and cared for her, treating her with anti-malarial medicine and providing food and fresh water. Bawame’s family allowed her and two relatives to stay in the missionaries’ home so they could provide her with the constant care she required. Praise God, she began to improve. The missionaries took hope in that she was going to recover. Then, unbeknownst to the missionaries, her uncle, Asebe, came and took Bawame away into the jungle to offer sacrifices to the ancestors to affect her healing. He took her in hopes that her illness was not caused by the yama, the evil spirit of death, for which no offering could be made. The missionaries heard people in the village shouting, “They’re taking Bawame! They’re taking Bawame!” The missionaries ran down to the edge of the river only to see the dugout canoes pulling away with Bawame. Though she had clearly begun to improve, she was still frail and required more care and medicine. The missionaries called out, pleading, “Please, Asebe, please don’t take Bawame yet. Please, wait. Please, let us help.” Asebe did not look back. He just kept paddling upriver, deep into the jungle. Bawame died shortly thereafter in a lonely, remote place, without ever hearing the Gospel of Christ. (George Walker, from World View Resource Group website)
Similar situations occur in missionary work the world over, including among the Culina Madiha people where we have begun to learn the language and culture. In the above account, the missionaries’ actions and behavior was completely different from Asebe’s actions and behavior, but both were genuinely concerned for Bewame’s well-being. Both acted appropriately within the context of their world view.
Asebe picked up his world view as a child, listening to his parents instructions and to the adults narrating the old legends and myths of their ancestors. “He learned, for example, that the Sun was the creator of all things and that it surrounded humans with various spirit beings. These spirits controlled the events of life—including sickness. Therefore Asebe was confident that either a dead ancestor spirit or the evil spirit of death called yama was the cause of Bawame’s illness.” (G.W. WVRG web site)
A few years ago, Adriana and our former co-worker, Edite Americo, who herself is Culina, spent considerable time writing down and recording important Culina cultural information– important, because this information is valuable to understanding the Culina world view. A good grasp of the Culina world view is necessary to be able to contrast it with a Biblical world view and offer freedom from the darkness of their understanding. Essentially, we want to be able to show the Culina that looking through the lenses of a Biblical world view, as apposed to the lenses of their animistic world view, will clarify and lighten their understanding. The Biblical world view offers the truth of where the Culina people came from, what the purpose of mankind is, why there is trouble, sin, and death in the world; who God is, and that there is hope of a restored relationship with the creator God through the sacrifice of His Son.