Book Review by D.I. Telbat
(find a description below the review)
Autobiography, missions
Rating: 5 stars

Peace Child is the exciting true story of Don Richardson, the first missionary to the cannibalistic Sawi tribes of New Guinea. After an education at Prairie Bible Institute in Canada, Don and his wife Carol entered the primitive jungle atmosphere by dugout canoe, and began their ministry for Jesus Christ to the curious Sawi people.

Or were the Sawi tribes merely fattening Don, Carol, and their infant child for a final meal? Regardless of the manifold risks, Don was the first to break the Sawi language barrier through other tribal interpreters. As natives flocked to his remote homestead, he began to translate the Scriptures into the first-ever written Sawi alphabet.

But Don’s work was ever tainted by the backdrop of ritualistic treachery and violence. Tribal and inter-familial conflict surrounded the Richardson family. For them and the missionaries who followed for the next thirty years—an average of one life per day would be saved due to modern medicine and the spread of the ultimate Peace Child, Jesus Christ.

The first third of this book reads like a cannibal warrior novel—a true inside glimpse of what Don and Carol were up against.

Whether you’re called to reach foreign peoples or the family down the street, I feel that this book should be read by every Christian.

I give this inspiring story a five star rating, and I’ve already begun to employ certain concepts of a mission church into my own ministry.--David Telbat
[end of book review]

Description of Peace Child:
From Cannibals to Christ-Followers--A True Story
In 1962, Don and Carol Richardson risked their lives to share the gospel with the Sawi people of New Guinea. Peace Child tells their unforgettable story of living among these headhunters and cannibals, who valued treachery through fattening victims with friendship before the slaughter. God gave Don and Carol the key to the Sawi hearts via a redemptive analogy from their own mythology. The "peace child" became the secret to unlocking a value system that had existed through generations. This analogy became a stepping-stone by which the gospel came into the Sawi culture and started both a spiritual and a social revolution from within. With an epilogue updating how the gospel has impacted the Sawi people, this missionary classic will inspire a new generation of readers who need to hear this remarkable story and the lessons it teaches us about communicating Christ in a meaningful way to those around us.

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