watoto (lululululu)

What a treat to have the Watoto Children's Choir in church this morning.

These Ugandan orphans are bundles of energy, music and smiles. Can they sing and dance!

Their stories touch the heart. So much pain in their short lives. Most have lost parents to illness, often AIDs.  Some were abandoned in hospitals when they were infants. Others were left in the care of aging grandparents, older siblings, or to fend for themselves. Each child's story is full of pathos.

"I Am Not Forgotten" sung by Watoto

It was lovely to see the affection these kids get from their chaperones (the taller four people in the choir). These are young people from the Watoto church who accompany the choir on their six-month tour to look after the children, some as young as eight.

I was moved by their enthusiasm, gratitude, joy, energy, and hope for Uganda's and Africa's future.

This group, along with five other choirs, are currently touring. Check their website to see if a Watoto Choir is coming to your area. If they are you won't want to miss them!

Check out the video for a sample of their sound and energy.

book review: Behind the Veils of Yemen by Audra Grace Shelby

If you’ve wondered what life is like for the veiled women of the Middle East, this book is a revelation. Author Audra Grace Shelby, along with her husband Kevin, were Baptist missionaries to Yemen for nine years. In Behind the Veils of Yemen, Shelby tells the story of that time. She describes in detail the friendship with her language tutor Fatima. She also tells about incidents that stretched her faith like the sickness of her husband and her daughter, and the birth of her fourth child.

I love Shelby’s creative non-fiction style. A skilled storyteller, she helps us experience Yemen and her Yemeni friends, their homes, celebrations, and customs through color, touch, sound, and smell. Using specific detail she recreates incidents in settings as varied as a hospital room, a beach-side vacation cottage, and the home of Fatima. Here we see a Yemeni market:

“We arrived at the suq, an open-air Yemeni market. On one side of the entrance women sat on the ground with round stacks of pancake-like bread. They wrapped them in newspapers and waved as we approached.


On the other side of the entrance four men displayed aluminum trolleys with mounds of glossy dates, pressed together in sticky cubes. They flicked swarming flies with rags tied to sticks and called to us to sample a date.” – p. 75.

Her recall of events and details is quite amazing (she must have kept detailed journals), as is her ability to analyze people and situations. Of Fatima she says:

“She had a manner that was both transparent and secretive, faltering and arrogant, all at the same time” – p. 50.

When she attends a women’s wedding celebration and is coaxed to dance with the women, she reluctantly complies. After she makes her clumsy way across the floor, the reaction of the onlookers surprises her:

“Applause thundered from the crowd of women around me …. They were beaming at me. I realized they were pleased more by my willingness to dance with them than they were by my skills in dancing.” – p. 68.

I enjoyed the book for a variety of reasons.

I loved the glimpse Shelby gave me into the world of veiled women. Never had I imagined that under their black burqas may be vivid caftans, bejeweled silk scarves, even the odd mini-skirt. She introduced me to a vibrant and cohesive female community which is devoutly religious and has its own colorful wedding and funeral rituals.

Despite the exotic setting, Shelby’s story showed me that mothers everywhere struggle with the same things. I ached for Fatima as she tried to find reasons why her almost year-old baby was still not holding up his head or sitting unsupported. One of Shelby’s own mothering crises resolved when she faced the question: “Do you trust Me (God) without having to know why?” It is a question Christian mothers are bound to face wherever they live.

Finally, I found Shelby herself inspirational. I admired the way she parented her kids, stifling her own anxieties in order to keep them feeling safe and distracting them with made-up stories instead of sweeping them into the vortex of her own tensions. Her sensitivity to her women friends’ customs and feelings along with her generosity, kindness, and passion to introduce them to Jesus were beautiful to witness.

I have one little beef with the book. It has no table of contents; thus it’s hard to locate passages one has read without using a bookmark or dog-earing the pages.

The end-matter alerts us to the fact that the name of the author and her family members have been changed to protect friends whose work goes on in the Middle East. You can find out more about the book, the author’s experiences in the Middle East, and her current speaking schedule from her website and Facebook page.

(I received this book as a gift for the purpose of writing a review.)

Title: Behind the Veils of Yemen
Author: Audra Grace Shelby
Publisher: Chosen - reprinted edition September 1, 2011, paperback, 238 pages.
ISBN-10: 0800795180
ISBN-13: 978-0800795184

Shoefoot's story on film

About 10 months ago I read a fascinating book called Spirit of the Rainforest. It's the story of how the Yanomamo people of South America were introduced to the Gospel. I discovered yesterday that someone has made a movie (called "The Enemy God") of Shoefoot's story. Here's the trailer:


"Guide You" Trailer from Caleb Resources on Vimeo.

More videos about "The Enemy God" movie here. (I think I just discovered one thing that will be on my Christmas wish list!)

book review: The Best of Wilfred Grenfell - William Pope editor

Title: The Best of Wilfred Grenfell
Author: Wilfred Grenfell, edited by William Pope
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing, May 2006, Paperback, 179 pages 
ISBN-10: 1551095815 
ISBN-13: 978-1551095813

“’To believe is to do,’ Wilfred Grenfell said, and his 40 years as a medical missionary along the rugged Labrador coast amply illustrated his words. He was a prolific writer, fundraiser and traveler but it was his faith that empowered his life and gave it meaning; it enabled him to accomplish great tasks to the amazement of others and made him a legend even during his lifetime.”

Thus editor William Pope sums up the life of Sir Wilfred Grenfell. It opens the introduction to The Best of Wilfred Grenfell, a collection of eleven short pieces by this British medical doctor and missionary to Labrador and Newfoundland from 1892 to 1934.

Grenfell was born in Parkgate England in 1865. Though his father was a clergyman, Grenfell had no religious leanings until one evening when he was 20. Returning from a sick call (he was already training to be a doctor) he happened upon a large tent where Dwight Moody was holding meetings. He sat down to listen and as a result of the message that night he decided to commit himself to Christ. That decision changed the course of his life. He eventually became involved in the North Sea Mission to Fishermen but when he heard of the need for medical services along the Labrador coast, he volunteered to work there.

Along the rugged coastlines of Newfoundland and Labrador he traveled by boat, kayak, canoe or dog sled to wherever he was needed. He loved Labrador’s majestic beauty and considered the cold, primitive conditions, and rugged landscape a challenge and adventure. During his 40+ years of work he attended to the medical needs the people by traveling to them and building village hospitals. His efforts soon branched into other areas such as establishing schools, orphanages, and doing whatever he could to improve the life of the people.  

From the hundreds of articles and 33 books he wrote, the eleven pieces collected here give us a taste of his range. The stories, authored from 1909 to 1932, are not in date order. The collection begins with adventure stories like Grenfell’s horrendous experience of drifting out to sea with his dogs on an ice pan. Other incidents involving Grenfell and local characters include tales of storms at sea, a starving trapper and a fisherman guilty of insurance fraud. Reflective essays on marriage, the importance of stewarding one’s body and his manifesto of faith “What Christ Means To Me” conclude the book.

Grenfell is a wonderful storyteller. He writes with a natural sense of timing and incredible detail and specificity, speaking of oilskins, komatiks, pan, sish and slob ice with the ease and familiarity we talk of jackets, cars, and road conditions. In many places he writes conversations in dialect, giving the tales extra color and realism. Though his English in some pieces may seem complex, his archaic style reminds us that these writings are up to 100 years old. Even the bits of clay prose are worth the slog, however, for Grenfell was a remarkable man with important things to say. 

He downplays his own role in many of these incidents but the way the people respond to him show that he was loved and trusted as a leader and example in the community. Grenfell comes across as an idealist, but one who believed in working, not just dreaming. He articulates his moral and spiritual ideals especially clearly in the essays about marriage, the human body and what Christ means to him. Note these quotables from that selection:

“Christ has become to me to mean more and more doing something, anything well.” p. 156

“God’s challenge to us is only to do whatever we can. Christ’s religion is as natural as the flowers in spring, and relates to the everyday things around us.” p. 156

“A lesson much needed and one which true loved calls for, is always to be optimistic. Never again will I be pessimistic because I cannot see the Christ bringing in His Kingdom in my way. If my boy promises me that he will not smoke, and I find a used pipe in his coat pocket, I do not say anything, I just trust him.” p. 158

Black and white photo reproductions showing Grenfell in his various roles are sprinkled throughout the text. There is a map of the area where he worked and a list of his publications at the back of the book.

This collection is a treasure for many reasons. It accounts rare early 1900s stories of life on the Labrador and Newfoundland coasts.  It provides history from one of Canada’s little-known mission fields. But most of all, it introduces us to a pioneer hero whose example in character and lived-out faith are needed as much today as ever.

*****************

More on Grenfell:

Grenfell Historic Properties

Many of the local projects that Dr. Grenfell established continue:

• Grenfell Handicrafts

• Hooked rugs

• Clothing and Accessories

October 21, 1940 Time Magazine article commemorating the life and death of Wilfred Grenfell

Wikipedia on Sir Wilfred Grenfell

rare visit with the Africa crowd

We had a visit with our nephew Chris, his wife Jane and their five sons on Saturday. Chris and Jane are in Canada on a short furlough from their work in Uganda. They are missionaries under Equip Canada and in Uganda Chris works on farming projects with several NGOs, including Orphans Know More, Bushfire and Farming God's Way. His website - Sperlings in Africa - explains these projects more fully.


A couple from their church offered Chris and Jane to live in the upstairs of their spacious house. The house comes complete with a large covered deck right off the kitchen where their active little boys can play ball hockey and generally be boys. In the back yard there's a swimming pool!

Jane grew up in Uganda. She tells interesting (and sad) stories from her childhood and growing up years. Several of her sisters have experienced tragic illnesses and premature deaths in their families. It's the kind of thing one typically hears about Africa - only it hits closer to home when it affects someone you know and love.

They'll be taking a road trip in September, visiting the churches that support them in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. (It will be quite an adventure, traveling all those miles with five little boys!)

Andrew (Chris adopted him when he was a baby)

Kenny (5 or 6)

Albert (4-ish - and looking not very happy. He ended up feeling sick.)

Isaiah (about 3)

Ezra (11 months) and mommy.

(If you think of them, pray that some immigration documents Jane needs are processed in time for them to return to Uganda at the end of October.)

book review: The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Title: The Hole In Our Gospel
Author: Richard Stearns
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, March 10, 2009, Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN-10: 0785229183
ISBN-13: 978-0785229186

You know how sometimes vanilla people can go all salsa on us? They’re bland and ordinary until they experience a pivotal event like a spouse being killed by a drunk driver or a bullied child committing suicide. Suddenly they turn hot and piquant. They’ve seen life from a different perspective and emerged with a new mission — to stamp out drunk driving or crusade against bullying. That’s the picture I have of Richard Stearns, author of The Hole In Our Gospel.

As an executive at Gillette, then Parker Brothers Games and finally CEO of the Lenox table and giftware company, Stearns’ life was tasty American vanilla all the way. Then a set of circumstances led him to World Vision. The change in him began when he listened to the story of an orphaned boy in Rakai, Uganda, on his first World Vision assignment. It continued in encounter after encounter with the poor in over a million miles of travel to all the inhabited continents of the globe.

In The Hole In Our Gospel, Stearns presents a compelling challenge to westerners, especially the church, to forsake their myopic pursuit of wealth, comfort, and self-realization and to fulfill the uncomfortable command of Jesus to care for the poor. As Stearns says in the book’s introduction,

“…being a Christian or follower of Jesus Christ requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world.”

The book’s 26 chapters are divided into five sections in which Stearns explores a variety of topics. He talks about the gospel and what it is. He describes his own journey of faith and how he came to head World Vision. He names the many challenges that the poor of the world face (disease, poverty, lack of water, hunger, political turmoil) and drills down with details, statistics and stories that bring facts to life. He exposes the self-absorbed tendencies of people in developed societies and challenges especially the church to remember the poor. As he says in the beginning of the section that examines the western church’s response to poverty around the world:

“Where was the church of Jesus Christ? That was the question I cried out that first day in Rakai, Uganda, after seeing the suffering of orphans living in child-headed households. That question has troubled me ever since. Where indeed was the Church? If the world as I have described it truly is wracked with poverty, injustice, and suffering, and God has clearly called us to embrace the whole gospel – characterized by love for our fellow man, a commitment to justice and proclamation of the good news of His salvation to all people – then we must next look at His Church and ask whether it is being faithful in its responsibility to bring the whole gospel to the whole world.”

Stearns is well qualified to meddle in this way. As a former member of the lethargic Christian majority, he understands the mindset. But now, as the face of World Vision, he has seen with his own eyes the grim reality of how the rest of the world lives. And so we can’t shove him aside as someone who doesn’t understand us or doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Stearns’ voice is warm, his writing style interesting and easy to understand. He wields a variety of persuasive tools including statistics, Bible exposition, and stories. Finally, like a good salesman, he goes in for the close, challenging each reader to personal action.

The hardcover edition appears sturdy enough to withstand the hours of handling it will receive if the book is used with the Study Guide section at the back. The end-matter also includes the book’s website URL where visitors can share stories, join a forum, find church resources, view videos and more. The book’s last pages contain a list of notes and references footnoted in the text.

This book reminds me of the Ronald Sider’s classic Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Like that book, you won’t be able to get through The Hole In Our Gospel and remain unchanged. So beware. Reading this book may just tip your dosimeter into the radioactive zone or change your status from sleeper cell to activated. You yourself may turn from vanilla to salsa.

life-changing stories wednesday - Miracle Macaroni

Our pastor has just returned from a week in Ethiopia. There he worked alongside PAOC missionaries Brian and Val Rutten, taught in the Bible College, visited the Child Care Plus facility and the school for kids. His message on Sunday morning included some incredible stories. Here is one, told in his words:

Miracle Macaroni

I met a man and we sat and talked. He told me his story. This man had been born and raised in a Muslim family. He had become a teacher of Islam, was a teacher in a mosque and an authority in the Koran. He was hostile to Christianity and was not interested. He’d met a Christian but had no interest whatsoever. That’s the background.

The circumstance was that both he and his wife lost their jobs and they had run out of food. They were down to one small bowl of macaroni and physically that’s all they had left in their place. He said there were so few macaroni inside he could count them. And so he and his wife sat down at the table with this small bowl of macaroni, to eat.

As they were sitting down to eat, there was a knock at the door and a guest arrived – a friend of his wife. The custom is that you invite the guest in and you share whatever you have with them. So they invited this woman in to sit with them and share their food. Now there are three of them sitting around this little bowl of macaroni.

They began to eat and continued to eat. “My wife thought I was doing something sneaky, and I thought she was doing something sneaky, but we were able to continue to eat – the three of us,” the man said. “We ate until we were satisfied from this one bowl. And at the end there was still the same amount of macaroni in the bowl.”

“So,” he said, “I was confused by this. But there was nothing more to do so I left them talking and went to bed. While I was sleeping, I had a dream. And in my dream Jesus Christ appeared to me and said, ‘If you give me your life and follow me, I will multiply your life the way I have multiplied the macaroni in your bowl.’”

The next day he got up, found the Christians and became a believer in Jesus Christ. He was discipled for a period of two years. They had baptisms every three months. He postponed his four times because he had troubles balancing the Islamic worldview and the Christian worldview. But he finally came to realize that Jesus was not only a prophet but that he was the Son of God, that He had died and risen again and that He was indeed the Savior of the world. So he was baptized. He then went to Bible college. He is now the leader of ten tribes among Muslim people.

I asked him (and I had to push him to tell me), “Tell me, how many people have come to Christ in those ten tribes that you’re working among?”

He said, “At least ten thousand are now following Jesus. Many, many more.”

Every night they meet to talk and they ask questions. He said what the Muslims do now is they test the power of God. They come and they ask questions. Because the Christians say that God will answer their prayers. So they haven’t believed in Jesus yet but they’ll bring prayer requests to test and see if Jesus will answer prayer.

And so what this man does now is he goes and teaches in the mosques. He starts with Jesus and the Koran and then takes them to John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And the strategy is simply to start, not on the street corners, not in the market place but to actually be in the mosques and teach those who want to hear. It’s the most amazing thing.

They have vision and they have people who are ready to go to any of the Muslim nations of the Middle East that you want to name – the most severe under Sharia law, it doesn’t matter. They’re prepared to go and share Jesus Christ in this manner with those who are hungry. It’s exploding; it’s beyond comprehension. It seems impenetrable, impossible, where your life is on the line. If you convert, you can have your head literally cut off, you’re separated from your family, you lose all economic opportunity, you’re ostracized, you’re treated as dead, and they’re saying it’s growing and expanding every day, every day.

Go here to listen to all of last Sunday’s sermon.

the dalits of india

Attending Missions Fest is always interesting. Last weekend was no exception. One of the seminars my husband and I attended was a documentary film on the Dalit people of India.

I had heard of the Dalits years ago, only under a different name. When we learned about India in school they were called the Untouchables - the very lowest of India's castes. I hadn't heard of them for years and thought they had disappeared as class of people. I was very wrong. Here is Wikipedia on the Dalits.

In the context of traditional Hindu society, Dalit status has often been historically associated with occupations regarded as ritually impure, such as any occupation involving butchering, removal of dead animals, removal of night soil (human feces) and leatherwork. One million Dalits work as manual scavengers, cleaning latrines and sewers by hand and clearing away dead animals.[13] Engaging in these activities was considered to be polluting to the individual who performed them, and this pollution was considered to be 'contagious'. As a result, Dalits were commonly banned and segregated from full participation in Hindu social life (they could not enter the premises of a temple or a school and stayed outside the village), while elaborate precautions were sometimes observed to prevent incidental contact between Dalits and other castes.

In the film, we saw all this in living color - and more. Young boys of 10 to 12 described how they worked as bonded laborers (slaves really - working for cruel bosses to whom their parents owed money under such payback terms their loans would never be paid off). Old women described how they had been taken as young girls and used as temple prostitutes. We saw footage of a whole community of Dalits living in the rejected cracked concrete pipes of a pipe-making factory. They had been tricked into coming to the isolated place to work in the factory. Now their children were growing up far from any schools and they owed so much money they would never pay off their debts even if they worked out the rest of their lives.

In all this there is a ray of hope. An organization called the Dalit Freedom Network, was formed in 2002 and has come alongside these people. One of their activities is to help Dalit children get an education. They do this by pairing Dalit children with donors who then pay for their education. Watch the YouTube movie below to find out more about the Dalits and how the Dalit Freedom Network is making a difference in the lives of these people who number 250 million.

sunday quote - a hymn this time

I don't normally post hymns, but yesterday we were at Missions Fest - Vancouver and sang this grand old one. What a wonderful reminder of how God continues to work even when we're perplexed about where we are and what's next -- maybe especially when we're perplexed and finally still enough to let Him take over.



Be Still My Soul Hymn

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, be leaving, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Lyrics: Katharina A. von Schlegel - 1752
Music: Finlandia, Jean Sibelius - 1899

Below is a beautiful version of "Be Still" sung by Selah.
(To turn off automatic player click on '' of the Playlist - sidebar top right.)

book review: Spirit of the Rainforest by Mark Andrew Ritchie

Title: Spirit of the Rainforest
Author: Mark Andrew Ritchie
Publisher: Island Lake Press, Second edition, 2000
ISBN-10: 0964695219
ISBN-13: 978-0964695214

Back cover description:

"The Yanomamo of the Amazon -- endangered children of nature or indigenous warmongers on the verge of destroying themselves? Now for the first time, a powerful Yanomamo shaman speaks for his people. Jungleman provides shocking never-before-answered accounts of life-or-death battles among his people -- and perhaps even more disturbing among the spirits who fight for their souls. Brutally riveting, the story of Jungleman is an extraordinary and powerful document."

Review:

The Yanomamo are a fierce tribe of Indians who live in the jungles of Venezuela. The story that Mark Andrew Ritchie tells in The Spirit of the Rainforest - A Yanomamo Shaman's Story is through Jungleman, one of the most powerful shamans of the tribe. The incidents Jungleman relates took place from approximately 1950 to the early 1980s. The stories were collected and transcribed by Ritchie during numerous visits to Amazonia when he talked with Jungleman, Shoefoot, Keleewa (Gary Dawson, son of missionary Joe Dawson who grew up with many of the story's characters, and translated the stories for the author in exchange for all author royalties from the book going to the Yanomamo people), and others.

From the 1950 fight with Potato Village to the 1980s when Jungleman is finally able to live at peace in Honey Village, his tales of events among the Yanomamo -- their tit for tat inter-village battles that inevitably lead to more anger, fear, treachery, and revenge -- fascinate and repulse.

Several things struck me about this story.

1. The reality of the spirit world and how it corroborates Bible accounts of Jesus interactions with the demonic. Though the Yanomamo encountered white men (nabas) of various kinds -- rubber traders, anthropologists and missionaries from various denominations -- it is when they met Pepe (Joe Dawson who worked under New Tribes Missions) that the spiritual conflict really began. Pepe and his family came to live at Honey Village (at the Yanomamo's invitation) where Shoefoot (Jungleman's protege and relative) was the shaman. Over time Shoefoot gave up his spirits. Here's what happened the next time Jungleman came to visit his brother-in-law and friend:

"When I pulled my canoe up to the shore at the mouth of the Metaconi I felt the usual excitement that comes with meeting old friends. But something was very different. What was it, I wondered.

'Don't go in here,' Jaguar Spirit told me. 'There's too much danger here. We are afraid.' It was the first time I had ever heard fear coming from Jaguar Spirit and it made me feel poor inside. My hands began to flutter and I held my bow tight to make them stop.

There can't be any danger here, I thought. These people are my friends. They have always been my friends. But it wasn't just Jaguar. All my spirits were crowding the shabono iin my chest and making a terrible noise about how afraid their were.

When I saw Shoefoot I was stunned. 'What has happened to your spirits?' I asked him, looking at his chest. I could see they were gone.

'I threw them away, brother-in-law.'

'What!' I whispered as hard as I could. 'How could you do that? Why would you do that?'

'I found the new spirit I was looking for,' Shoefoot said. 'Yai Wana Naba Laywa -- the unfriendly one. You know, our enemy spirit.'

'You can't have him!' I whispered in excitement. 'It's too hot there and he never comes out!'

It was a horrible visit for me. There was a spirit in Shoefoot's village that I couldn't understand. But it was powerful. That's why my spirits were so upset when I came. I hung my hammock next to Shoefoot and as soon as I lay down they were all there, every spirit I have, crowding my shabono.

'Please Father!' they all begged together. 'Please leave here. It's not safe here. We are terrified.' And they were. The new spirit in Shoefoot's chest had them all frightened like I had never seen them before.

He's my friend, I thought.

'He's no friend of ours! We hate him!' All my spirits talked at the same time. 'Please Father! Please don't throw us away.'

The thought of throwing my spirits away hadn't even come into my mind. Why would they say that to me?

'He'll want you to throw us away,' they said. 'You'll see. Please don't listen to him, Father!'

My spirits were right about that. Shoefoot and his new naba friends did want me to throw my spirits away. Shoefoot's new spirit would never get along with mine."

Compare with Mark 5:1-12, also Matthew 8 and Luke 8.

2. The Bible talks about unclean spirits. That is what these spirits were. The book is not a pretty or pleasant read. There is much violence, especially against women, with rape, bloodshed, vengeance, physical and sexual abuse -- and not all of it at the hands of fellow Yanomamo but also at the hands of various non-Indians (rubber traders and some of the anthropologists). The graphic nature is not gratuitous, though, but makes the story seem more believable, told as it is without taking the taboos of our culture into account.

3. The Bible describes Satan as a liar and the father of lies. Here are Jungleman's thoughts about his spirits when he was an old man:

"I wish I had known the truth about Yai Wana Naba Laywa when I was a young man -- it would have saved me so much pain and misery. But how could I? My spirits lied so much to me and tricked me. They were so beautiful, so wonderful, so hard not to want. They were the best at telling me split-truth. Now I'm at the end of this life, and I'm ready to begin my real life with Yai Pada.

If this book had one affect on me, it made me want to crowd close to Jesus -- and to have nothing to do with any other spirit. For they are active in our land too, though not feared as they parade in familiar costumes with names we all recognize like pride, unbelief, anger, greed, envy, revenge...

*********
Links of interest:

Anthropology case study including references to the work of Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon and an interactive CD-Rom that he made of a Yanomamo ax fight in 1975.

More about the Yanomamo from the Hands Around the World site.

Another blog review with generous quotes from the book.