We feel like Paul Harvey... "Now for the rest of the story."

In our weekly update we were talking about how different cultures get each other's attention. We were saying, "Some cultures are very direct. They will ask and even demand that you pay attention. While others are very indirect and even take the approach that if you want to pay attention, fine but if you don't, that's OK too. In one language group in Papua New Guinea getting men and women's attention are captured in very different and interesting yet effective ways.

For the men of this particular tribe, when a war or battle is being waged between neighbors and when the elderly women of the tribe have seen and had enough, they will come into the middle of the battle and without saying a word, they do something quite profound to arrest the men's attention away from the battle. The women's actions quiet the storm."

Let us just say that the woman in this culture dress very differently than women do in western cultures. It is not uncommon for them to dress without tops. This is not seen by men in their culture as being provocative or sexual at all. A very different worldview than that of westerners.

We can remember years ago, while visiting a tribal church way out in a remote village of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, when during the sermon a very elderly woman sitting in front of us with a bread tie as an ear adornment (very distracting to say the least) decided she was too hot. The woman very nonchalantly lifted her shirt and took it off. Boy was Don glad he and the boys were sitting behind this woman. If he thought listening to the sermon was distracting before because of the bread wrapper ear ring there was not enough places to put one's eyes. Wow!

Anyway back to the story of how the elderly stateswomen, arrest the attention of the men of their village and their neighbors to get them to stop fighting. If it is common for woman to walk around without tops on then having these woman come out on the field this way would not win the day and cause the men to take notice. In this culture if you want the men to be startled and sit up and take notice of the nonsense in their actions you have to do something that is culturally relevant.

In this case the woman walk out onto the field revealing something that would never be considered to be appropriate to show in their culture. What the woman did was so startling to the men. They revealed their inner thighs. These very elderly woman, bringing shame to themselves and shaming the warriors young and old, as they came out onto the battlefield completely unclothed. Shocking as this is, it wouldn't be enough. One of the woman also carries with them a very important token that was theirs to hold in times just like these. They held high, waving it back and forth, something called a peace shell. About the size of a dinner plate, a beautiful flat abalone shell glistens in the sun being swung back and forth calls the men to peace.

The woman had to take extraordinary measures to grab the men's attention and wave on high the banner or shell of peace. The war ends and the men go back home having responded to the woman's call, "May we please have your attention."

May we encourage you to let the Lord call you away today to what he wants you to pay attention to in life. Let him bring peace where there is little to none in your life and circumstances. Be reminded His son is our peace. He hung from a tree and was raised from the grave to earn that peace for you. It's yours today.

May the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and may you be blessed with his peace this week. If peace is rare to you try being thankful in your circumstances. Please join us next week when we share the story of how the men in this same tribe in Papua New Guinea "think" they gain the women's attention.