Rainbow no promise for Pai Tavy Teras
Missionaries Don and Julie Flower ministered among the Pai Tavy Teras for many years, and each new cultural tidbit they discover helped them understand the darkness surrounding many of the Pai people.
Now they minister at the Missionary Training Center using the skills they gained from tribal ministry. Future missionaries are able to profit from the knowledge the Flowers learned first-hand.
Recently they reported a cultural tidbit they had discovered – the Pai people are afraid of the rainbow. What we recognize as God’s eternal promise never again to send a flood to destroy His people is to them an object of evil causing great fear.
The Pais say that you should never look at the rainbow or point your finger at it. Looking at the rainbow may cause a person to be paralyzed or die.
When someone sees a rainbow they begin to chop at it or draw a rainbow shape on the ground and chop at it to protect themselves from the dangers of the rainbow.
At one time Cenidia said to her husband Chito, “The missionaries must be teaching us lies. They are teaching things that are different from what our ancestors taught. When the big flood came Grandfather saved himself by climbing up into a palm tree and chanting. As long as he chanted the tree grew and he was saved from the flood. Grandmother drew a circle on the ground and stepped into the circle chanting, it floated like a tub and she was saved from the flood. We have always been taught the rainbow is evil, not a promise from God.”
But as Don and Julie faithfully taught through the Firm Foundation Bible lessons, Chito and Cenidia realized that God’s Word is true and that the promise of the rainbow was from Him and not their ancestors. Chito and Cenidia have trusted Christ and now look at the rainbow with joy not fear.
Pray for Don and Julie as they teach the students at the missionary training center and tell them about the Pai Tavy Tera