The Fruit of Sacrifice 50 Years Later
Above: Nate Saint poses in front of an aircraft, holding camping equipment.
A memorial service for Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint and Roger Youderian was held on January 8, 2006, at the very spot where they were murdered in Ecuador exactly 50 years prior.
The Waorani Indian church leaders planned and led a three-day conferencia that culminated with baptisms and a communion service. Among those leading were two of the men who had participated in the spearing of the five missionaries.
What had brought about this significant change? Why had so many chosen to “walk God’s trail”?
In the early 1950s, the Waorani were called “Auca,” meaning “naked savage,” by the surrounding Indian groups. Even the nearby oil companies and the Ecuadorian government referred to them by this name.
The Aucas were feared because they speared all cowodi (foreigners) who came into their territory. More than 60% of the tribe died by homicide, due to revenge killings within their own group. They were slowly annihilating themselves.
On January 6, 1956, the five missionaries landed their plane. For two days they established friendly contact with the Indians on a sand bar nick-named “Palm Beach” by Nate Saint. Many were praying for the success of this venture. But then, on the third day, a lie and a culture of violence turned what had been a growing friendship with the cowodi into martyrdom.
The shock from this event permeated the mission community worldwide.
Miraculously, within several years after the martyrdom of the five, violence within the Waoranis (the name they had always called themselves) dropped 90%! Why? The fact that the young missionaries had not defended themselves with guns, but had willingly laid down their lives, spoke volumes to this tribe.
Also, within two years, Dayuma, a Waorani who had left the group, along with a wife and sister of one of the five, returned in the spirit of love and forgiveness. They brought with them Wangongi’s carvings—God’s Word—a powerful witness.
Gikita, the leader of the spearing party, put it this way: “My heart was black with sin! But Jesus’ blood dripped and dripped and washed my heart clean.”
And Mincaye, another on Palm Beach in 1956, declared, “We lived badly, badly until they brought us God’s carvings. Now, walking His trail, we live happily and in peace.”
Later, as Mincaye grew in his faith, he added, “God does not see it well that we should walk His trail alone. Going first, we must speak God’s name well wherever we go. Then, going to God’s place we will take many others following after us.”
In the fall of 1955, when Nate Saint circled overhead and exchanged gifts with the Auca Indians, neither he nor the world knew the impact that contact would make on the Waoranis—or on the use of airplanes in reaching isolated people groups of the world—or on the thousands of young people who would be challenged to joined the mission endeavor in the 20th century.
—Roger Krenzin, a career missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators, has known the Saint family since he was a teenager. In the 1980s, he began serving in Ecuador as a pilot-mechanic; he often flew the Waorani, including many involved in the spearing. Several times, Roger has also piloted Steve Saint's replica of the Piper Family Cruiser that landed on "Palm Beach" in 1956. He is currently a recruiter with JAARS aviation.
Above: Roger Krenzin; Mincaye, a Waorani; and Steve Saint laugh in front of Saint's Piper Family Cruiser.
