Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Uttermost Parts of the Earth by Frederic Hunter Uttermost Part of the Earth. Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948), by E. Lucas Bridges, is the definitive story of , . The memoirs of the land’s ‘third white native’, it details his life amongst the indigenous Fuegians, their cultures and the effects of colonisation. Part autobiography, part ethnography, part history book and part adventure novel, Uttermost Part of the Earth is the most detailed account we have on a people now extinct. Lucas Bridges (1874 – 1948) was the eldest son of Reverend Thomas Bridges, who established the Anglican Mission at , Tierra Del Fuego. He grew up amongst the coastal Yaghan people and, as a young man, explored the island’s interior, where previously uncontacted tribes lived. AF Tschifferly, who rode from Argentina to Washington DC on horseback, convinced Bridges (below) to write down his stories. In his 70s, Bridges applied his lifelong energy to writing this book. It describes his later life – service in WW1, adventures in Paraguay and , only in passing. Tierra Del Fuego is the focus. The book five parts: Ushuaia, 1826-1887: European exploration, Bridge’s early life, the Yaghan. Haberton, 1887 – 1899: adventures on the coast, the Manek’enk (Aush), first contact with the Selk’nam. The Road to Najmishk (1900-1902): Selk’nam conflict, adventures in the interior A Hut in Ona Land (1902-1907) Bridges’ sheep farm. Selk’nam culture, Fuegian animals, myths and legends. The Estancia Viamonte, (1907-1910) The story concludes. Vivid descriptions bring the prehistoric wilderness of Tierra del Fuego to life, its rugged cliffs and islands, snowy forests, mountains, moors and bogs and the creatures who call it home. Bridges alternates between the main narrative and such descriptions, peppering them with strange and fantastic anecdotes. While his father dedicated his life to transliterating the Yaghan language, Bridges is most interested in the mysterious tribe beyond the mountains. After making contact, he lives and hunts amongst the Selk’nam hunter-gatherers (whom he calls ‘Ona’, their Yaghan name) for over ten years. He learns their language and customs, makes friends and enemies, and is eventually the only outsider initiated to their lodge. His accounts cover everything from courtship to clothing to secret societies and the Selk’nam’s (lack of) religion. Though the author veers on paternalistic, he treats the Fuegians with genuine respect and is free from the naked racism so common in his time. He tries but does not succeed, to ‘soften the blow of civilization’ and help the Selkn’am adapt. They left no records of their own. The cast of characters can be bewildering. Many key players have unfamiliar Fuegian names. Bridges does well, however, in describing their backgrounds and personalities, while reminding the reader of past events. Memorable individuals include the insane ‘wizard’ Minkiyolh, the hunter Ahnikin and the gaucho Serafin Aguirre. The many stories in these pages are fascinating, heartwarming and sad. There are true tales of abduction, murder, hunting trips, shipwrecks, escaped convicts, massacres and suicidal horses woven throughout its pages in simple and matter-of-fact prose. Overriding the stories, however, is the sobering doom Bridges alludes to from the start. Civilization will triumph. Roads and airstrips will conquer South America’s last frontier, and guns, alcohol and measles will destroy the indigenous way of life. Bridges does not discuss the Selk’nam genocide at length . That happened in northern Tierra Del Fuego in the 1890s, before Bridges made contact. Those he meets are the remainders yet untouched by colonialism. Due to libel, Bridges does not disclose the names of murderous settlers. Their children were still prominent landowners when he published. Obtaining this book was difficult . It went out of print years ago and the only copies online are expensive second-hand ones or third party reprints. I opted for the latter option and paid around $30 to have it delivered from New Delhi. It is a hefty book with well over 500 pages. Unfortunately its many black and white photographs and maps were barely visible. They are one of the books’ main draws. This passage on page 336 stands out: “Talimeoat was a most likeable Indian. I was much in his company. One still evening in autumn, just before business was to take me to , I was walking with him near Lake Kami. We were just above the upper tree level, and before descending into the valley, rested on a grassy slope. The air was crisp, for already the days were getting short and, with weather so calm and clear, there were bound to be a hard frost before sunrise. A few gilt edged, feather clouds broke the monotony of the pale green sky, and the beech forest that clothed the lake’s steep banks to the water’s edge had not yet completely lost its brilliant autumn colours. The evening light gave the remote ranges a purple tint impossible to describe or to paint. Across leagues of wooded hills up the forty-mile length of Lake Kami, Talimeoat and I gazed long and silently towards a glorious sunset. I knew that he was searching the distance for any sign of smoke from the camp-fires of friends or foes. After a while his vigilance relaxed and, lying near me, he seemed to become oblivious to my presence. Feeling the chill of evening, I was on the point of suggesting a move, when he heaved a deep sigh and said to himself, as softly as an Ona could say anything: “Yak haruin.” (“my country”) “From Jerusalem to the Uttermost Parts of the Earth” – Have we Misunderstood Acts 1:8? A missionary comes to your church to speak, and you absentmindedly turn to Matt 28:18 or Acts 1:8. Sure enough, this time he will speak about the Great Commission from Acts: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. His sermon touches upon familiar points: Jerusalem was their home town, and they were supposed to evangelize there first. Judea was their home area. Now, Samaria was like but not identical with Judea, but next in line since it was a nearby mission field. And of course “the end of the earth” means any foreign country. [1] In conclusion, the preacher adds: We are all called to be missionaries (I take objection to that, by the way, see below). What is your Jerusalem and Judea? What is your Samaria? What is the uttermost part of your earth? Does God want you to preach his gospel in a foreign land? You shouldn’t go to the ends of the earth until your Jerusalem is evangelized. May I propose that we have this all turned around. First, let’s look at Luke 24. Since Luke and Acts are two volumes by the same author, the last chapter of Luke and the first of Acts overlap. In Luke 24:45-49 Jesus talks about the mission, in different terms and with more detail: (45) Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, (46) and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, (47) and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (48) You are witnesses of these things. (49) And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Notice the parallels between Luke 24 and Acts 1: Jesus proves himself to be alive; the mission must be preceded by the gift of the Spirit; then the gospel will go forth, specifically from Jerusalem, to all nations. The important new datum from Luke is that this program comes from “the Scriptures” – in other words, the Bible predicted not only the death and resurrection of Jesus; it also foretold that the Spirit would come (as in Joel 2:28-32); and that the gospel would go forth from the city of Jerusalem . Where did the prophets predict the last part? Most commentators have pointed to Isa 2:3 – For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The great church father Irenaeus wrote, in Against Heresies 3.20 (ANF 1: 451) – And again, specifying the place of His advent, he says: “The Lord hath spoken from Zion, and He has uttered His voice from Jerusalem.” Matthew Henry, in his comments on Ezekiel 47, spoke of Jerusalem and said: There it was that the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and endued them with the gift of tongues, that they might carry these waters to all nations. In the temple first they were to stand and preach the words of this life , Acts 5:20. They must preach the gospel to all nations, but must begin at Jerusalem , Lu. 24:47. We might add Isa 66:18-19 – …the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors [in context, the survivors are from Jerusalem] to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. The Bible shows that “beginning in Jerusalem” was a once-and-for-all first act in the gospel’s advance: from Zion to whatever nation may be named, God made the gospel go forth by centrifugal force. As Jesus had said in Mark 13:10, before the end of the age “the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations”; he and the disciples were on the Mount of Olives at the time, facing the Holy City. This also sheds light on Paul’s statement that “from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ” (Rom 15:19). Another observation: until the day of Pentecost, Jerusalem was never the “home town” of the apostles. With the possible exception of Judas Iscariot, the apostles all came from Galilee in the north. Like all Jews they went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feasts, probably leaving their wives and small children behind. When Jesus was raised, they were staying in a borrowed quarters. Jesus told them to return to Galilee, so that they would see him there (Mark 16:7; Matt 28:10; John 21:1). So the apostles temporarily returned to their home towns in the north. They then went back to Jerusalem, moving back to Zion in order to position themselves to go out from Zion in fulfillment of the prophets. 40 days after Easter week, they saw Jesus ascend to heaven. They continued in the city and there receive the Spirit and first preach the gospel. In Acts 2-9 the Twelve are living and working in Jerusalem, their new adoptive town. Many of the converts on the Day of Pentecost were Diaspora Jews, who later returned from Jerusalem to other nations in their world, taking the gospel to them, from Zion. Due to the persecution, believers moved to Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1). From Jerusalem, Phillip went to evangelize Samaria, followed by John and Peter (Acts 8). Peter evangelized the Mediterranean coastline, and made the first gentile convert (Acts 10-11). According to tradition, the apostles then went out to many nations – I just read an old story that may or may not be historically true, about how Andrew was martyred in Patras in southern Greece. [2] Samaria was, as we all have been taught, extremely antagonistic to Jews, and the feeling was mutual. But its significance in Acts 1:8 is not simply it was a neighbor to Judea: Samaria had a special part in God’s plan. Although the Israelites in the northern kingdom had intermarried with pagans, still, they were half-Israelites, and worshipers of Yahweh. So like the evangelism of Jerusalem and Judea, this evangelism of Samaria too was unique – it was designed to bring together believers from all the twelve tribes of Israel in Christ. [3] It is for this same reason that Paul, when he arrived in a new city, made a point to speak first in the synagogue, to give the local Israelites a chance to receive the gospel from Zion – he spoke “to the Jew first” (Rom 1:16). Back to our fictional preacher from the beginning of our post. While I disagree with his exegesis, still, he makes some valid points: Application 1. Yes, we must share the gospel wherever we are, in our home town. This is not in order to fulfill the “Jerusalem” mandate of Acts, but still it is a Christian truth: when someone applies to be a missionary, they first must demonstrate that they are practicing the gospel where they live right now. Why go overseas to try to do a thing that you cannot do in your home culture? Application 2 . The first gentile conversion takes place in Caesarea (Acts 10-11), Roman capital of Judea and thus a pagan beachhead in the promised land. So the first mission to gentiles was not in a faraway place, but one in which gentile conquerors had moved in. A similar way to reach “all nations” today is to work with the international students who come to the US to study. The United States is the top destination for foreign students; over a million people came in 2015. [4] This is a phenomenal opportunity to witness to “all nations,” especially during a time in their lives where they are apart from the pressures of their home culture. Another excellent opportunity is to evangelize those who emigrate to your area from other countries, whether you think they should have been allowed into your country or not. Application 3 . Not everyone is called to be a missionary, but still everyone of us must be willing to step away from our home culture in order to take the gospel to the world. This is the true definition of a “missionary,” one who is sent from one place to another. All missions agencies are reporting that the number of American missionaries is in steep decline; the baby boomers are retiring, and fewer young people want to make that sort of commitment. Missionary giving is also falling rapidly, as churches have fewer members, the members are aging, and the churches emphasize short-term mission trips. [5] I suppose that there are two errors a church might make. One is to be weak on missions but strong on local evangelism; the other is to be generous with missions “over there” but ignore its own locale. My experience has been that people who are strong in one sphere are also strong in the other. Unfortunately, some who claim to be “concentrating on Jerusalem” mean, not local evangelism, but investing in building improvements so that the local lost will be more easily brought into the church building. Not everyone in our hometown will come to Christ, but we should arrange that they at least hear the gospel. Still, we can and must take the gospel to other cultures and lands even before we have our own city entirely in order. [1] For examples of this viewpoint, see the article by B. Steve Hughey, “Witnesses…Where? The Four Arenas of Mission Involvement” (https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/34919114/witnesses-where-the-four-arenas-of-mission-involvement). Also Jim, Barbarossa, “Have We Forgotten Jerusalem?” (http://www.step-by-step.org/acts1-8.htm) [2] Why aren’t they told to evangelize Galilee? One explanation is that Galilee had already been fully evangelized during the earthly ministry of Jesus, in a way that Judea had not been (see Luke 10:1). Another is that the word “Judea” had a variety of meanings. It could mean the southern half of the land, or it could mean all areas in the Holy Land that were inhabited by Jews (it is so used in Luke 23:5), making it include Galilee in Acts 1:8. [3] Today there are still Samaritans living in their ancestral land. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12069728. “From Jerusalem to the Uttermost Parts of the Earth – Have we Misunderstood Acts 1:8?” by Gary Shogren, PhD, Professor of New Testament, San José, Costa Rica. Africa, Africa​!​ A white girl disappears in the Congo jungle. A Belgian planter escapes his past. An African king bests an award-winning American journalist in a contest of will. Author Frederic Hunter developed these stories from his experience as a State Department official and a journalist in Africa in the 1960s. Africa, Africa! is a tour de force by a distinguished writer. It is powerful and sometimes chilling in its emotional landscapes, accurately conveying the disorientation and dislocation of Africa during the consolidation of local rule. Yet the book is also filled with one-of-a-kind characters and jaw- dropping events thinly disguised as fiction. Ultimatly, the reader is left with the humanity of Africans and the risks and also riches of cross-cultural exploration. The Uttermost Parts of the Earth. Kwame Johnson, an African-American academic serving a stint as a cultural diplomat, is sent to visit a remote Congo post where an officer is establishing an American cultural center. But the officer has disappeared. Kwame tries to discover what happened, but in vain. He's instructed to set up the center himself. Kwame finds companions among the expats living at his hotel. He expects to marry his white fiancée in Paris within several months. But the languor of the town under-cuts his plan. While attempting to find out about his fellow officer, he befriends Kalima, the beautiful Congolese wife of an expat who has deserted her. She lives with a Nigerian doctor resident at the hotel. She and Kwame begin an affair. The doctor takes this in stride. He and Kwame arrange to share her favors. Danger always lurks in the Congo and one danger for Kwame is falling in love with her. An even greater danger is the unrest from neighboring Rwanda where massacres spreads toward Kwame's town, forcing Kwame and Kalima to become exiles who must discover how to flee the Congo and find refuge elsewhere. Love in the time of Apartheid. Gat, a 30-year-old member of the Katanga Gendarmerie, the Belgian colonial police force, is sent from the newly independent Congo to South Africa with a wallet full of blood money and instructions to "Disappear." He arrives there, bearing a secret and searching for redemption. In Cape Town he meets Petra, the 18-year-old daughter of Piet Rousseau, who heads the Bureau of State Security for the apartheid government. When Gat and Piet meet at her parent's home their interaction is chilly, for Gat makes it clear that he does not believe in apartheid. And it soon becomes clear that Piet can employ draconian measures against anyone trying to oppose the regime's separation of the races. Gat and Petra are strongly attracted to one another. About to start university, Petra wants desperately to escape the overprotective care of her father. What better way to do this than to begin a passionate love affair with a mysterious man she hardly knows? When Petra and Gat set off on a road trip, the battle between Piet and Gat is fully engaged, and the outcome for all three of these people remains in limbo until the novel ends. This historical novel, based on actual events, provides a hair-rising look at the worst-of-times under the Afrikaner regime.