David posted this story last week about Antoinette Tuff, the Georgia school bookkeeper who helped to prevent a tragic school shooting. He asked this question:
What would our lives look like if we were to live by the love of Christ, an attitude of nonviolence, and daily spiritual preparation? How would we – and our culture – and our churches – be transformed?
And Joe wrote this in response.
I’ve been mulling over a response to David’s question for a while, trying to figure out a way to articulate my thoughts. If I’m completely honest, I might have to confess that I have become numb to the tragedies that we hear in the news everyday. Perhaps it’s because we have been exposed to so much of it through the media that I just get tired of feeling compassionate all the time.
And then I remember the story of “Tārore and Her Book,” one of my favourite stories to tell the kids I work with.
And then I remember this is how we are called to live. And to answer David’s question, this is what happens when we live by the love of Christ, and transform our culture and our churches.
This is the true story of Tārore and her book.
Kia ora tamariki mā. (Hello children)
This is the story of Tārore, who brought peace to the iwi (tribe/people/nation) of Aotearoa (Māori name for New Zealand: Land of the Long White Cloud). Tārore was Ngāti Hauā (a North Island iwi) of the Waikato. When she was twelve, her father, Ngākuku, took her to the mission school run by Alfred and Charlotte Brown. Tārore was such a good student that the Browns gave her the Gospel of Luke. Tārore wore this precious taonga (something prized, a treasure) in a kete (flax basket) around her neck. The book had words of peace for all people.
In 1836 the mission school had to be moved to Tauranga. Ngākuku and a mission worker took twenty-one children through the bush. A raiding party from Te Arawa found them near the Wairere Falls. Ngākuku, the worker and twenty children escaped, but Tārore was asleep. A Te Arawa warrior killed Tārore and took the kete with the book from around her neck.
Ngākuku was overcome with sadness, but he remembered the words of peace and he did not seek revenge.
In Rotorua, the warrior who had killed Tārore read the book with its message of peace. “Love your enemies,” the book said. The warrior went to Ngākuku and asked for forgiveness. Soon, the words from the Gospel of Luke spread around the North Island. People gave up war to live the Christian way of peace.
Tārore’s little book came down to Ōtaki. The warrior chief Te Rauparaha heard the message and built the Rangiātea Church. Te Rauparaha’s son, Katu, and nephew, Te Whiwhi, took the message of the book to the South Island. There, the good news spread like seed on the wind.
Today, the tangata whenua (people of the land) say,
“The missionaries brought Christianity to this country, but it was our people who gave it to each other.” All of this happened through Tārore and the little book that she wore close to her heart.
At Waharoa you can see the grave of that twelve-year-old girl who changed the lives of her people.
Peace be with you.
(As written by Joy Cowley)