Road to Indonesia---Fear of Death and "Holy St. Francis"

 The assignment was to personalize quotes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.  This response relates Shakespeare to Papua. 

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once. 

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 

It seems to me most strange that men should fear, 

Seeing that death, a necessary end, 

Will come when it will come,” (Shakespeare.2.2.32-37). 

In this excerpt, Caesar is replying to Calpurnia’s outbursts of worry for his fate. She is begging him not to go to the Senate that day as the omens are incredibly bad. But Caesar in his arrogance replied in a steadfast way. He believes that only cowards bow down to the fear of death, therefore dying even before the fight. The brave and honorable, however, proceed in the face of death and welcome death when it comes. He thinks that everyone will experience death in the end and that it is not worth fearing. 

The thing that captures my attention is the last three lines. Death is a necessary end, so it’s not worth fearing. Living in Papua, as a Papuan, is honestly a very terrifying experience. Apart from being afraid of the Indonesian government and the genocide in play, there is fear of spirits and old traditions killing your family. I don’t feel like I’m in danger anymore after getting out of Mulia, and also after accepting Christ, but the fear of death is palpable in my family; more specifically my dad’s family. This in turn affects me. Almost everything we do is done after taking account of how our people will view us. Jealousy and mere dislike are very common things in my tribe, and people, even close families, will kill just because of it. My parents have to take both my brother and me out of that environment to protect us. But after accepting Christ, I was set free from that fear, death is not a scary thing now."

We from the West have no idea what some people live with. Pray for the Lord of the Harvest to enter into these situations.

On a lighter note: Another assignment was to rewrite as modern day a scene from  Romeo and Juliette .

One student chose to rename Friar Lawrence as Pastor Larry, and Romeo as Ron. At one point Shakespeare's Friar Lawrence exclaims, "Holy Saint Francis!" My student modernized that to say, "Holy Francis Chan!" I burst out laughing and kept chuckling all morning.