As In a Mirror

In End of the Spear, Steve Saint tells the story of himself and the Waodani tribe of Ecuador, the story of the son of martyred missionary Nate Saint and the very tribe that killed him. It is an amazing account of redemption and reconciliation, of how God takes the most tragic events of our lives and turns them around to do spectacular things. By miraculous circumstances which none are able to explain, the gospel has changed many of the Waodani for good. Hence, Saint came to love the very people who had killed his father and dramatically altered his life. Saint is a man who, having lived in the jungles of Ecuador as a child and then later in metropolitan America, has found himself torn between two worlds throughout his whole life. Many all over the world know of Saint’s father’s sacrifice and the Waodani’s salvation, but not many know the details of the story, or how it continues today. End of the Spear fills in those details, of what Saint himself says is a story that only God could have written.

Saint begins the book by telling of his trip back to Ecuador in 1994, to bury his Aunt Rachel Saint, who became one of the two first missionaries to the Waodani two years after her brother Nate’s death. Throughout the book, the author occasionally recounts previous events, to help the reader understand the full significance of everything told. Following Rachel Saint’s death, the Waodani asked Saint to return to their land, to teach them how to deal with the outside world and not be exploited by greedy outsiders. Thus, Saint found himself in an unlikely situation; he, the son of a man killed by primitive Indians, was now the only one qualified to represent them to the outside world, for he understood both peoples. His family came to live with the Woadani in 1995, helping them learn necessary skills to survive as an independent people, without having to rely on others to supply them with such things as medicine and tools. During his time in the jungle as an adult, Saint learned things from the Waodani about the events surrounding his father’s death that he had always yearned to know. The highlight of these events, in my opinion, is when Saint learned of what he believes were angels singing above the trees as his father and companions were dying. Tragedy certainly did not subside after Saint’s childhood; in 2000, his beloved only daughter Stephanie died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Saint shows what life is like for him and the Waodani in a realistic way, with sorrow and laughter interspersed throughout the whole. There is, for instance, unforgettable hilarity in some Waodani’s trips to the United States. While reading the book, I was once again overcome by a combination of emotions: wonder, amazement, bereavement, and joy. In the end, I was able to conclude with Saint that what took place in 1956 on the banks of the shallow Curaraye River was no accident.

The death of five missionaries was deeply traumatic to their families, but they were willing to do whatever it took to reach the people who had never been told the wonderful news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Thus, the Waodani were finally able to come to this knowledge, and many have become God-followers. But they are not the only ones touched; to this day, the past and continuing stories are reaching the lost and encouraging the saved.

End of the Spear is a first-person account of one who has seen the most traumatic experiences of his life worked out for good. It was certainly the most heart-wrenching book I have ever read, yet the overwhelming purpose made it definitely worthwhile. I find great honor in saying that I, too, have a small part in this marvelous story. I am very glad that I read this book after reading many others on the subject, for it helped me to fully understand the story that led me to Christ not many years ago. This story that is continuing through the children and grandchildren of the martyrs is another testimony to the fact that a life surrendered to God is never wasted; the Word of the Lord shall accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.

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The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway is an account of a Chinese Christian evangelist, who has witnessed both the great suffering of the Church in China and the wonderful works God is doing in that country. Brother Yun was born again by miraculous circumstances when he was a youth, at a time when the knowledge of God was scarce in China. In sowing the seed of the gospel in his country, Yun has experienced much severe persecution, yet still testifies to the wonderful things the Holy Spirit is doing, from the churches to the prison cells. The name of the book comes from the time he was first arrested; Brother Yun was outside a home where a secret church meeting was taking place, when the secret police found him. In an effort to warn the other Christians to flee, he shouted loudly, “I am a heavenly man! I am not of this earth and I don’t know where the meetings took place!” Thus he became known among the local Christians as “the heavenly man.” In this book, Brother Yun attempts to, through his own life, tell the story of the work of the all-powerful Heavenly Man in the land of China.

Brother Yun, born to a farming family in 1958, was born again with his whole family when Jesus healed his father of a deadly illness. When Yun cried out to the Lord for a Bible, the Lord provided one for him and told him to preach from it. When he was 16 years old, he recited the book of Matthew to a crowd and saw a whole village turn to Jesus. As he grew up, Yun continued to preach the gospel despite the fact that it was an illegal practice. He became a wanted man because of his refusal to cooperate with the government-run Three-Self Patriotic Church. The secret police of the Communist government tried to hunt him down constantly, and Yun relates many instances when the Lord delivered him from their hands, and others when he was delivered into their hands. Arrested by the Chinese police on three different occasions, Yun became very associated with persecution and suffering, both physically and spiritually. Though he was brutally beaten and mocked by the guards and fellow prisoners, Yun says the hardest thing for him was to see the horrid poverty his family endured during his imprisonment. Nonetheless, God used Yun’s times in jail to bring many desperate souls to Him. Yun even pretended to be a masseur, though he was really laying his hands on sick people to pray for them! In his first and third imprisonments, God supernaturally helped Yun to escape. After his second escape, Yun fled China and moved on to Germany, then later to Myanmar, where he was imprisoned for the last time. Since his release, Yun has visited many Western countries and observed the state of the Church in every one. Though he sees that there is more freedom for Christians in the West, he also sees that there is, for the most part, a great lack of knowledge of and obedience to the Word of God. He exhorts free Christians to obey the Great Commission, live godly lives, and pray that Christians worldwide will be able to stand steadfast no matter what difficulties they face.

The Heavenly Man is filled with stories that relate the goodness of God, in trouble and in tranquility. Brother Yun tells from his own experience what is happening to our fellow Christians in the vast land of China, and urges us in free lands to pray and, most of all, to get the Word of God into the hands of hungry souls. He desires to awake the West to see that this precious call to advance the kingdom of God is under attack globally, in places like China by hardship and viscous persecution, and in places like the United States by complacency and perversion of the gospel. Brother Yun hopes to someday return to his country and fellowship with his brethren again, but for now, he is making known the reality that they live in.

This book has certainly helped me to better see the heart of the underground Church in China through the eyes of one who has seen it grow almost from the beginning. One fact in the book that I found noteworthy is that in the 1920s, a movement was started to bring the gospel from China back to Jerusalem over the footprint of the ancient Silk Road, preaching the kingdom of God “in all territories along the way.” Brother Yun and other house-church members have a great passion for this “Back to Jerusalem” movement. I was encouraged by Brother Yun’s emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in China; people are healed and convicted, demons are cast out, and wisdom and revelations are given to believers. The Heavenly Man has shown me that God is doing marvelous works to draw people to Him despite Communism’s efforts to squelch the gospel. The Lord knows no barriers; He is mighty to save!

I understand that Brother Yun has been accused by some, even some within the Christian community. For more information, read this open letter about the book by Paul Hattaway. God bless Brother Yun and the faithful in China.

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This week’s Inspiring Story (first in a while!) is a video about Gracia Burnham, the missionary to the Philippines who had been held hostage with her husband by the Abu Sayaaf. Maybe you remember the story, but this 5 minute video summarizes the story that Gracia writes about in her books In the Presence of My Enemies and To Fly Again. Amazing, heart-rending story, and to think that such stories are so common, but not all of them get such media attention. God bless this faithful woman.

For more Inspiring Stories, visit In Defense of the Christian Faith.

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Jungle Pilot by Russell T. Hitt is the story of the life and witness of Nate Saint, a missionary pilot to Ecuador who was martyred in 1956. A love for God and a love for airplanes led this young man to commit his life to serving the Lord and His people in the middle of the jungle. This book shows how such a man was made, beginning from the Bible-based household in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, all the way up to how the vision he lived is still being fulfilled today. Hitt frequently uses Saint’s own writings to show how through his years of preparation for his life’s work, his years in service to his beloved King, and even to the point of his death, he strove to be unconditionally surrendered to the will of God, labeling himself “expendable.”

Nathaniel Saint was born in 1923 to Lawrence and Katherine Saint, the seventh of eight children. His parents were Bible-believing Christians who worked to keep their family “unspotted from the world.” Nate was an innovative lad with a keenness in mechanical and financial things. When struck by osteomyelitis at age fourteen, Nate promised the Lord that if He allowed him to live, He would turn over his whole life to him. Nate lived, and when he was nineteen he joined the Air Corps, greatly desiring to become a pilot. The Lord soon spoke to Nate through a series of occurrences that convinced him that the Lord wanted him to be a missionary. He threw all his energy into preparing for this task, eventually joining the Christian Airmen’s Missionary Fellowship (later known as Mission Aviation Fellowship). In 1948, he and his newlywed wife, Marjorie, arrived in Ecuador, to begin what would be nearly eight years of serving missionaries isolated in the middle of the jungle.

Nate and Marj set up their base at Shell Mera, an abandoned oil company station right on the edge of the jungle. Nate’s job as a missionary pilot was to transport people and supplies in and out of their jungle stations. Every missionary Nate served could testify that air travel was far more efficient than ground travel, especially over the rugged jungle terrain. Nate was always trying to work out ways to make mission aviation safer and more efficient. He even invented an alternate fuel system, a “bucket-drop” system, and created a humidity-controlled room. Three beloved children were born to the Saints: Kathy, Steve, and Phil. Nate became close friends with many missionaries, all who greatly admired him for his intelligence, humor, and dedication to God. Once, when Nate’s older sister Rachel paid them a visit, she expressed her desire to someday work with an unreached tribe. Nate flew her near Auca territory and said, “There’s your tribe, Sis.”

Nate had long before heard of the feared “Aucas,” a completely alienated tribe renowned for their deadly spearing raids against outsiders for unknown reasons. Protestant missionaries longed to bring the gospel to these people, but until Nate’s time, a window had not been opened. After Nate had located some Auca villages from the air, he and a few others planned to make friendly contact. They first exchanged gifts with the Indians with the “bucket-drop” system, and when it seemed good will was expressed, they took the next step. Nate and four others, Jim, Ed, Roger, and Pete, set up camp on a beach of the Curaray River. Here they were peacefully approached by three Aucas, though unable to communicate with them. Three days later, on January 8, 1956, they were speared and hacked to death by the Aucas, despite the fact that they were well able to defend themselves. Nevertheless, the story does not end here, for Nate’s flame was carried on. Through a miraculous story of redemption, Rachel Saint, and Jim’s wife, Elisabeth Elliot, were invited to live with the Aucas and teach them God’s word.

Nate’s death was not the end of his witness, for it helped the “Aucas” understand what Jesus did for them on the Cross. Jesus did not resist death, but gave Himself up as a spotless Lamb to be a ransom for sin. Nate’s son, Steve, tells in the epilogue how he continues to carry on his father’s vision by working among the Waodani (the real name of the “Aucas”), and now sees the fruit of his father’s sacrifice in the God-followers of the tribe.

As I read this book, I felt as if I personally knew the man, Nate Saint, and was stirred by his whole-hearted devotion and Christian character. Thus I was captivated by every page, seeking to know the fullness not only of how and why he died, but also how and why he lived. Through this, I saw a picture of Jesus, giving everything he had for the glory of God, whom he called upon as Father. Every once in a while, we read or hear of a man with a nature just like ours, but who completely entrusted their being to the One who gave them life through His death, and hope through His resurrection. But how often do we see such a person whose imitation of Christ continued until their blood spoke to people whose language they did not know? Calvary was illustrated to the Waodani on the Curaray River, and they were willing to repent and believe in this God of love. For me, that is the whole essence of Jungle Pilot, and it has made a mark on my life. I will remember what a precious flow was poured out for me, what holy and blameless Lamb of God was despised to bring me peace with my Maker.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you’re not a missions nut. This will satisfy lovers of adventure, biography, airplanes, Christian life, Christian witness, travel, humor, or even fiction. Reason being? It is a fascinating story, so fascinating that only God could have written this story. It is so cool to think that the same God is writing our story!

Filed under : Books, Missions, Operation Auca

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Give Me This Mountain by Dr. Helen Roseveare is an autobiographical account of an English missionary/doctor who served in the Congo during the 1950s and ’60s. Dr. Roseveare attempts to show what reality in a missionary’s life is like, how missionaries are very normal people, in the words of Jim Elliot, “Just a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.” She does not shy from telling the problems and weaknesses missionaries and evangelists face in their everyday lives, but still emphasizes that there is true honor and nobility in the work, because in our weaknesses, Christ can be strong in us if we allow Him. The title of the book comes from the Scripture Joshua 14:12, in which Caleb, who has been granted by God an inheritance of whatever land he desires, chooses to drive the treacherous Anakim out of Mount Hebron. I found the book quite riveting, because Roseveare, like Caleb, went into hostile and uncertain territory, and learned to not give up until she received the inheritance promised by the Lord.

Helen Roseveare, born in England in 1925, grew up in an Anglo-Catholic home, but in college realized that no ritual or intellectual understanding could get her right before God. The text of Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God,” spoke to her heart, and she finally grasped the wonder of the forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ. Roseveare applied at the World Evangelization for Christ as a medical missionary. In 1953, she was sent to the Belgian Congo, where she came to realize that missionaries, Christians, clash and make mistakes. In her book, she acknowledges that her own personal ambition often got in the way of what God wanted her to do, and that often she let the present circumstances discourage her, instead of looking at the valleys as paths to mountains. She was utterly amazed that at a point when her spirit was so burdened with her own failings, the Holy Spirit used her to bring conviction to an existing congregation of Africans, who with much weeping accepted God’s redeeming grace. Roseveare went on to establish hospitals and support churches in the Congo before its independence in 1960, learning invaluable lessons about partnership with God and man. During the horrific Simba rebellion of the 1960s when most foreigners fled the country, she stayed, soon to be one of those held hostage for five months, before the Belgians rescued them. Roseveare says that her years in Africa taught her that Christ wanted the preeminence in every area of her life, so that He could use her to show who He is to other people, all over the world. Indeed, the Lord asks this of all of us.

The book Give Me This Mountain by missionary doctor Helen Roseveare is an account of a simple missionary, who wrestled with all the difficulties and dangers a missionary faces, including her own will and ambition. She learned that to succeed in conquering territory for Christ, He must be the motivation and dictator of how that is accomplished. She learned that to obtain a mountain, she had to trust in the Lord’s promise to guide her through the valleys. Roseveare says that her years in Africa taught her that Christ wanted the preeminence in every area of her life, so that He could use her to show who He is to other people, all over the world.

Through this book, I have learned to see very clearly that missionaries are normal Christians, just like you and me, growing in the Lord and learning how to live in His ways. It has also defined once again that the only life worth living is one that is given totally to Jesus Christ, who asks us to carry our cross daily. The Lord does not ask us to do great things for Him, but simply to be obedient tools for Him to do a great work in the nations. Truly this surrender, this bondage, is freedom indeed!

Well, now, I have kept my promise.

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