Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the death of five American evangelical Christian missionaries whose tragic – yet inspiring to Christians worldwide – story was depicted in the 2005 film “End of the Spear”.
In 1955, under what was called “Operation Auca”, Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian embarked on a journey to evangelise the then-isolated Waorani or Huaorani (also called Waodani) people of the rainforest of Ecuador.
They began making contacts with the tribe by making regular flights over the areas where the tribe lived, dropping gifts, which were reciprocated. These gift exchanges went on for several months until 3 January 1956, when the missionaries set up a camp at a sandbar along the Curaray River, a few kilometres away from the tribe’s settlements.
Their efforts came to an abrupt end on 8 January 1956, when all the five missionaries were attacked and speared by a group of Waorani warriors, according to Wikipedia.
Several years after this incident, Elliot’s widow Elisabeth and Saint’s sister Rachel returned to Ecuador as missionaries to live among the tribe, learning the tribe’s language and teaching them the Bible.
The movie “End of the Spear” tells the story from the perspective of Saint’s son Steve, who, at 10 years old, began to join his aunt Rachel to live with the Waorani during the summers, where he eventually developed relationships with many members of the tribe, including Mincaye, one of the tribesmen who participated in the attack.
Steve, known as “Babae” to the tribe, was baptised in the Curaray River in 1965 – at around 14 years old – by two of his father’s killers who had since converted to Christianity, according to Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, Mincaye, believed to be one of the tribesmen who speared Saint and McCully, also converted and eventually became a preacher. When the Saint family came to live permanently with the Waorani in 1995, Mincaye was reported to consider Steve’s children his grandchildren. He died on 28 April 2020. (Gilbert Humphrey)
Image: The “End of the Spear” film poster
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