Rómulo Sauñe
Visionary and Martyr

Rómulo Sauñe was a “vernacular media specialist” before the term was ever coined. While translating the New Testament, Rómulo realized that many of his people would never be able to read, so in the late 1970s he began recording the Scriptures on tape. He was also the first to dub the JESUS video into Quechua, produce Quechua radio programs and set up a recording studio for Quechua music groups. His example for Ayacucho Quechua set the stage for speakers of the many ther Quechua varieties in Peru to begin doing the same thing for their own language groups.

Rómulo’s wife, Donna, grew up as a daughter of Wycliffe missionaries in Peru. The couple met in Yarinacocha in the Amazon jungle and they were later married in Atlanta. They had four children.

In the summer of 1992 they visited family and friends in the U.S. Donna and the children stayed in Atlanta with her parents, while Rómulo went to Ecuador for a conference and then to Peru to visit his family.

I happened to be on the same flight to Lima, Peru, as Rómulo. As we talked, Rómulo said he felt God wanted him to visit his home town once more to encourage his people who had suffered so much from terrorism. I asked him if it was wise to go there, but he said, “Don Allan, if God wants to take me, I can think of no better way than to be with my people.”

Rómulo Sauñe

On Saturday, September 5, 1992, Rómulo, along with his father and mother, and other relatives, were returning to the city of Ayacucho from a family reunion in their home village. About twelve miles from the city, their vehicle was one of the many stopped at a road block by some 100 subversive forces. When the people got out of their vehicles, their personal belongings were taken and their vehicles set on fire.

Lining up the travelers, the terrorists demanded they identify themselves. When they heard they were evangelical pastors, they cursed them and with a sweep of automatic rifle fire, they killed Rómulo, his brother Rubén, and two cousins.

A few hours later I received an urgent telephone call from Ayacucho. Enrique, Rómulo’s father, was crying, “Don Allan, they killed my sons, they killed my sons!” The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to call Donna in the U.S. and tell the family what had happened.

Three days later, with the arrival of Donna and other family members, two thousand Quechua believers gathered at the little Presbyterian church in Ayacucho for the funeral service. Christian leaders from all over had come to honor these believers who had given their lives for preaching the gospel—especially Rómulo who had been the key translator of the Bible into Quechua of Ayacucho. One of the most dedicated Quechua leaders that I’ve ever known, he became a leader among men, a pastor and Bible translator with a burning desire to see his people have God’s Word in their language.

As the people in the funeral procession passed through the city towards the cemetery, singing and praising the Lord, the whole city turned out to see this strange event.

At the cemetery, there were testimonies and praises to God for these men of faith. Rómulo’s father said, “Those of you who have killed my sons, I have already forgiven you, as Christ has forgiven me for my sins. Turn to Him and be forgiven!”

Donna said, “All his life, my husband wanted to bring people together in Christ. Now in death, he has brought together more than he could in a lifetime.”

Tertullian, an early church leader (155-230), wrote, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Through the death of these men, God has raised up many more who are following in their footsteps, reaching the five million Quechuas with God’s Word. Some are sons and daughters of those Quechua missionaries and others martyred during the 1980s.

In 1983, Rómulo, Donna, and others formed the Quechua faith mission called Runa Simi (“the real language,” referring to Quechua) to help the Quechua Church in Bible translation and literacy. Over the years, I have had the privilege of training a number of the Runa Simi missionaries in different aspects of vernacular media. They have recorded, edited and dubbed biblical videos, and many audiocassettes and CDs of the Scriptures, including Quechua worship and praise songs. They have also trained many other Quechua leaders how to evangelize and teach the Word of God through radio programs, biblical videos, audiocassettes and vernacular media. Years after Rómulo’s death, the vision goes on.

In 2005, SIL Peru asked Runa Simi and the men we trained to undertake the huge task of recording and editing the New Testament in 15 of the Quechua languages on audiocassettes and CDs. This was Rómulo’s vision years ago—to see the Bible on audiocassettes. Now his vision has become a reality