Following the visit to Greenstead Evangelical Free Church by Mark & Nube Vogan and family, we should remember again the amazing story of the first missionaries to the Auca Indians in Ecuador, which you can read about in Beyond the Gates of Splendor and End of the Spear (both made into films and available on DVD). Here is a summary of their story, updated. (Thanks to Andrew Price from Prettygate) The story is one of the incredible stories of missionary sacrifice, of course, in the history of the church. It was a huge event because Life Magazine put the massacre on its front cover in the fifties when it happened and the world knows the story. Its rehearsed in a book called Through Gates of Splendour and other things that go back to that event. What is remarkable about the event and what were reminded of by Steve Saint as we listen to his testimony was that Steve was three-years-old when his father was killed, just a little boy. He and his mother and the other wives were not in the jungle where the killing took place, they were somewhere else in contact with their husbands by radio. And, of course, when they lost radio contact the story began to unfold. Then the real story began after the death of those five missionaries, massacred at the hands of the Aucas because the wives felt that they should take up the cause. Some of them went into the jungle along with Rachel Saint, the sister of Nate. They went into the jungle, began to evangelize and God used them to win the tribe to Christ. Well thats 50-plus years ago and now that tribe is, for the most part, committed to Jesus Christ and theyre busy evangelizing the rest of the tribes, planting churches. Its a great story. Its a story of Christian love. Its a story of Kingdom love. How do you love your husbands murderer? How do you love the murderer of your friends husbands? How do you go in and put your life on the line? How do you love your brothers murderer, as Rachel did? Its an incredible story. The latest update on the story is that Steve was saying, thats many years ago now, I have a family of my own. One of my regrets, he said, in raising my children was they never met their grandfather, my Dad, Nate. He was such a remarkable guy. He was killed, of course, when Steve was three so obviously he barely knew him, but has filled up his life with the stories of those who did. He said, I always felt bad that my children could never know my father. He said, I have some memories of my father, and, of course, they could never have known him. And, of course, they didnt have a grandfather. Well, as the Lord would have it, through the years Steve who speaks the language very well stayed in touch, even though he came back to the United States and entered into business. It was a few years ago, however, that Rachel Saint died. She was still with the Auca, still, in a sense, the spiritual leader although she never preached a sermon because she didnt want them to get used to women preachers. So from the very beginning, even though she was the only one that knew anything, she prepared all the sermons and taught them to a man who stood up and preached them so as they developed they knew that God wanted men to be the preachers and thats how it is today in their churches. But Rachel went to be with the Lord and so the tribe contacted Steve and said, We want you to take her place. So, he left his business. Packed up his wife and children and they moved to the jungle. No running water, no electricity, no nothing, living in a tribal environment. And he was just giving his testimony saying, you know, he has wished that his children had a grandfather on his side that they never did have. Well, as it turned out, they were down there for a year and a half or more and they were down there just a few months, I guess, when the children adopted a grandfather, an old man in the tribe that everybody called Grandfather, and they adopted him, I guess, because of his warmth and his personality and his charm. And he became their adopted grandfather. And the amazing part of the story is that he was the very man who killed their real grandfather. He has now become their adopted grandfather. Recently the youngest boy in the Saint family graduated from high school. And Steve said to him, What would you like as a present for graduation? To which he replied, I want you to bring Grandpa from the jungle to my graduation. Thats not easy. His tribal people had no documentation. They have no passport. How do you get them out of there? You cant even identify them. But through some amazing circumstances they brought him and his grandfather attended his high school graduation...at least his adopted grandfather who was the murderer of his real grandfather. Thats a story of Kingdom love, isnt it?
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:39:06 +0000
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