God Answers “Why” Through the Death of Eight Saints (aPP 9)

I want to share an amazing God story which spans three generations with you in this Puzzling Paradox Nugget. But I will be kind to you and give you video links at the end for you to watch the full story. I don’t want you to miss anything of this remarkable story. My part in the process is to give you a synopsis of the unfolding story which you can also read in five books.  It’s an incredible story that I first read in the Elisabeth Elliot’s book Through the Gates of Splendor. The story about Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully and Pete Fleming, the five missionaries who went to Ecuador in January 1956 with the goal of reaching the Aucas. This people group had the highest homicide rate of any people group in history. They were reclusive, mysterious, as well as astonishingly violent. They had successfully held off the government, the military, and progress itself, retreating deeper and deeper into the jungle with every outside contact. They lived as they had for centuries, walled in by the jungle. They were a Stone Age people alive and well in the 20^th century. Neighbouring tribes referred to them simply as “the Savages”. They were the Auca! They call themselves the Waorani (pronounced Waodani), “the people”.

These five men and their wives, Elisabeth Elliot, Marj Saint, Barbara Youderian, Marilou McCully and Olive Fleming were the cream of the crop from Wheaton College. Men and women skilled in multiple ways to take the Gospel to a group of people whom other tribes feared. The Waorani had a reputation for being killers, spearing anyone who dared to come into their midst from the outside world. The story was continued in Beyond the Gates of Splendor by Steve Saint. I came across this story not long after I became a Christian. It impacted me greatly. Be careful of the books you read.  

Steven Curtis Chapman (the singer) was radically transformed by this story (as above) and shared the Waorani story on tour across America.  On first hearing the story, Chapman began doing some research on the Internet and ran across the sequel to the story in articles written by Steve Saint. Chapman thought, “Is this the same Steve Saint who was five years old when his dad was killed and I read about in Through the Gates of Splendor?” Steven and Steve began to talk and email, and Steve Saint told him the full story of Menkaye, one of the six men who killed his father.  Steve Saint said, “My children call this man Grandfather, this is a dear man to my family, he’s here with me right now in the US. I’d love for you to meet him and us as a family. What followed was a Great Adventure for Steven Curtis Chapman, the band and family as they went on a journey back to the Stone Age and then on tour across the US with Steve Saint and Menkaye telling the story of how God saved a people group from extinction in the most remarkable way.

Anybody up for a Great adventure? All right, we’re going to the Amazon jungles of Ecuador. Here we go!

They were brave. They were spirited. They were pushing the boundaries of traditional views. They were innovators and pioneers of their time. They were adventurers. Five men and five women, passionate and obedient for the sake of the call of God. The team of Operation Auca. The timing was critical. The oil companies were weary of struggling with the indigenous peoples who stood in the way of their oil. The Ecuadorian government was embarrassed, as they couldn’t control their citizens. And the tribe was in jeopardy at their own hands, due to intertribal warfare. No matter who struck first, extinction seemed inevitable. So in late 1955, just before the flood season began, the missionary team realised they had a window of time. They stepped through it. They knew the risk. They knew the sacrifice. But they knew that somewhere, far removed from everything else lived a group of people in darkness. People that had never been introduced to their Creator. No one had ever brought them the Good News of God’s love. They had to be told, before it was too late! The missionary team felt this was the reason they were alive.

They knew that others had gone before them, unsuccessfully. “It’s no small thing to try and bridge the 20^th century and the Stone Age,” wrote Nate Saint. They knew they had a lot to lose. And so the day came, the moment they had fasted and prayed and hoped for. The overtures of friendship had been successful and the missionaries made the first known peaceful contact between the feared Aucas and the outside world, complete with peanut butter sandwiches, insect repellent, and an airplane ride. Their moment had arrived.

The Time Line

In the early 1950’s, two Waorani girls left the area to escape death threats.

      Rachel Saint, Nate’s sister who worked with Wycliffe, made contact with Dayuma. Learned the Waorani language from her.

For 3 months before contact from October to December 1955 weekly flights were made over the Auca area to reconnoitre and dangle gifts. e.g. an axe,

       Guikita retrieved the axe and tied a live bird to the rope.

Tuesday Jan 3^rd 1956, Nate made five flights from Arajuno ferrying the other four and supplies to land on “Palm Beach”.

        While Nate flew, the others built a shelter thirty feet up an ironwood tree.

         On the last flight of the day Nate flew over the area shouting in Waorani “Come tomorrow to the Curaray (River)”                                                                                                                                                                                   

Wednesday Jan 4^th 1956 The Five waited for the Waorani to come.

Thursday Jan 5^th 1956 They waited

Friday Jan 6^th 11.15 am three Waorani emerged from the jungle and met the Five.

           George (Nenquihui) went for a ride in the plane, flying over the village and calling to the Waorani below as Nate had done.

           Delilah (Gimade – Dayuma’s sister) – went off down the beach and disappeared into the jungle with Nenquihui following and calling to her.

Saturday Jan 7^th 1956 was likely the day the Five were killed by Menkaye, Nenquihui, Dyumi, Dabo, Kimo, Guikita

Sunday 8^th 1956 Nate Saint (the pilot with MAF) misses check-in… first time ever

Monday Jan 9^th 1956 Stripped plane sighted No sign of men

The Story Becomes World News Headlines:

• 5 U.S. Missionaries Feared Seized by Savages
• Indians Seize Missionaries
• 5 U.S. Missionaries are Believed Slain
• Missionary Massacre
• Missionary-Killing Indians

Tuesday Jan 10^th 1956 U.S. Air Force dispatches rescue team

Thursday Jan 12^th 1956 the rescue team arrives at the Palm Beach site, a body was sighted floating in river further upstream.

Friday Jan 13^th 1956 a second body was reported near Palm Beach

Saturday Jan 14^th 1956 – All five men are confirmed dead, their wives are flown over the site to see where they died. The bodies of the five men are buried in Auca country.

Put yourself in five-year-old Steve Saint’s shoes. How do you tell a child the most tragic news of his young life?

Song: “No Greater Love” by Steven Curtis Chapman

Broken hearted from all you have lost
How can you sing through your tears?
What is this music that can bear such a cost?
What is this fire that grows stronger against the wind?
What kind of flame can this be?

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

This is the love that God showed the world
When He gave us His Son
So we could know His love forever
Beyond the gates of splendor

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

What now? They were gone, but why? It seemed like such a waste. Five young talented men, their whole lives ahead of them, their remarkably capable wives and their young families by their sides. Where was God when the spears went in? Where was God when the bodies were dumped in the river? Why? How? The questions flood, drowning all you thought that you knew.

But this is not the end of the story. When God writes the story, sometimes what seems like a tragic end is really a miraculous beginning. One of the wives of the five martyrs and the sister of another were compelled to continue what was begun. Elizabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint had studied the Waodani language with Dayuma, who had escaped the tribe in a killing raid and was now living in a nearby village.

One day three Waorani women emerged from the jungle. they came with an invitation to the women: “Come live with us, and tell us of the Manmaker.” Rachel Saint, Elizabeth Elliot and little Valerie Elliot took a step of faith and followed a trail never before walked by an outsider. One by one, the tribe responded to the Good News. Little by little the Bible was translated into their language. Tania and I were privileged to hear some of the story from Elisabeth Elliot in a meeting in Melbourne. She spoke of living among the tribe on an open platform they built for her and Valerie. The Waorani observed everything Elisabeth did all day long, some boys giving a continuous commentary for the tribe describing everything Elisabeth did throughout the day. She felt betrayed when Valerie learned Waorani and took over the role of providing the commentary for the village.  Rachel Saint lived out her entire life with the people she loved so dearly and is buried there in the village with the people she loved and with her brother. At her funeral in November 1994, the Waorani offered a second invitation for an outsider to live with them, a boy whose history was intertwined with theirs was asked to walk Waorani trails with them into the future and teach them how to follow God’s trail. The original vision of Operation Auca 1956 came full circle when Nate Saint’s son Steve uprooted his family and headed for the Amazon to join the Waorani as they followed God’s trail. And now they are no longer the Auca, “the Savages”. They call themselves simply “the people”, the Waorani. God’s people!

Song: “God Follower” by Steven Curtis Chapman

My heart is restless as I wander through this jungle
The trees above refuse to let the sunlight through
And somewhere deep inside I hear the whispered longings
That tell me I was made for more than this

A blinding flash of light falls down into the darkness
Slowly I notice strange new markings on the trail
The crimson drops are calling out to me come and follow
“I am the God who made you, let Me show you how to live”
And I cry…

I want to be a God follower
I want to go wherever He leads
I want to be a God follower
I want to walk the trail He’s marked for me

And when I reach God’s place
I will look into His face
And then I’ll look for you
Will I find you there?
Can you say with me…
I want to be a God follower

Steve Saint and his sister Kathy were baptized by the Waorani in the village. Nenquihui’s son Tementa is now a God Follower and pilots a powered microlite taught by Steve Saint, which enables the Waodani to reach out to the neighbouring tribes. 60% of Waodani deaths over 6 generations were estimated by anthropologist Jim Yost to have been the result of homicides. Waodani children were taught “spear and live or be speared and die”. All tribes killed one another on sight.

Nate and Marj Saint were at Wheaton College five years after Dayuma escaped the Waorani region. God was beginning to write His Story. Rachel Saint at that time was also training to work with Wycliffe. God was putting the pieces together with the players He had called to His team of God Followers.

What an incredible story of the power of God’s Word and of God’s grace, a transforming power. I don’t want to make light of the impact of this story on you my dear reader by giving you my canned synopsis. Rather I have given you below the links to the movies / video footage of the continuing story of the Waorani and the Saints. Don’t miss out on the experience. You will gain insight into the way God uses the death of His saints.  

Don’t miss out on the experience of knowing more of this story through the links I have give you below.

Especially Steve Saint’s account of Menkaye’s part in being with him and giving him perspective at a time of his own tragedy.

Grandfather Menkaye’s Testimony:

A long time ago, I wasn’t a God Follower. Nobody had ever come to teach me how. Even my parents and grandparents, the ancient ones, too, nobody had ever come to teach them, how could we walk this trail.

We hadn’t seen the markings that mark this trail, so how could we find it? What were we going to do? And then one day two women came to live with us. One was Dayuma, who had fled from killings in the tribe. And the other one he said, was Nemo, “Star”, my Aunt Rachel. Coming, they said, “Are you people living angry and hating like you used to? Haven’t you seen God’s markings?” And we said, “How could we see it?” And then they said to us, “People, if you keep walking your own trail, when you come to the end, what’s going to happen to you, where will you be?” And we had to say, “Coming to the end of our trail they’ll just put us in a hole in the ground and we’ll be dead.”

Grandfather said, “And then, something that I didn’t expect happened. I had been listening to this talk and I knew it was a good talk. But because my heart was so dark, I couldn’t understand it. But then the Creator Wangungi, he sent Wangungi Onowoka, His Holy Spirit. Coming, he took a very strong blood that Jesus, His Son, dripped and dripped for me. And with that strong blood He did what you foreigners do with soap when your clothes are dirty, and they have stains on them and you have to wash them. Wangungi Onowoka took Itota’s blood, and with that very strong blood he washed my heart until it was clean like the sky when it has no clouds in it. If you go and speak God’s carvings, there will be some people who will say, “Ba! I don’t wanna walk this trail.” Well, you just keep walking, but you keep inviting others, because others are gonna say, “Yes,” and they’re going to come walking this trail with you.

All neighbouring tribes have made a pact to stop the killing. The Waorani realised if they did not follow the way of Wangungi Onowoka’s markings then there would be none left. Menkaye wondered why Steve (Babe) didn’t know how to do the basics things in life. Until Steve reminded him that he had killed his dad. Who was going to teach him?

Follow the Full Story

• A video summary of the History of Operation Auca by Nate Saint – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FPehZC4tI
• Steve Curtis Chapman tells the story in Beyond the Gates of Splendor Tour – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD8LZFht9i4
• Beyond the Gates of Splendor – Steve Saint’s Testimony of Stephani his daughter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekGxJEd0Tc0
• Beyond the Gates of Splendor – Mincaye’s testimony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9z6oK3Y-zM

There are also a number of books written about this incredible God-story:

• Through the Gates of Spendor by Elisabeth Elliot and others by Rachel Saint, Marj Saint
• The Dayuma Story: Life Under Auca Spears by Ethel Emily Wallis
• Beyond the Gates of Splendor by Steve Saint
• The End of the Spear by Steve Saint
• Gentle Savage Still Seeking the End of the Spear by Menkaye Aenkaedi (Kemo)

I trust you didn’t miss the layers hidden in the Title I gave to this Nugget. The Eight Saints are: Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully and Pete Fleming along with Rachel Saint (Nemo), Marj Saint and Stephani (Nemo) Saint.  Four non-Saint saints and four Saint-saints.

In the following two Puzzling Paradox Nuggets I will tell you two more incredible stories to give you a clearer perspective on God’s “Why” related to death and suffering.

Every time I take off, I am ready to deliver up the life I owe to God. 

Nate Saint

I want to be a witness for Him, following Him every day of my life. 

Roger Youderian

I would gladly give my life for that tribe.

Pete Fleming

I pray that God will spare the lives of these Indians. 

Ed McCully

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Jim Elliot

Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be in the will of God. 

Jim Elliot

We would never kill the Aucas because they are not ready for heaven but we are.  

Nate Saint (said to his 5 year old son Steve)