This Week's Story
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Waoranis in jungle territory of Ecuador resist foreigners.
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
How do unreached Waoranis become friends of foreigners?
part three
Rachel Saint was flying with her pilot brother Nate in Ecuador. She asked, “Why are you not taking a straight path to our destination?”
Nate replied, “The people we would fly over are brutal. Pilots know that if they have plane mechanical troubles and land in Waorani territory, the locals will kill them.”
That information was a surprising magnet to Rachel. “Nate, years ago a picture came into my mind of people with a darker skin than mine. They were standing in a jungle. Words from God came to me. ‘If you are faithful, I will allow you to bring My Word to a people who have never heard it.’
“Nate, I have been getting ready. I attended Wycliffe’s linguistic training program. I received jungle instruction in southern Mexico and I worked among tribal people in Peru.
“Today, I know the Waorani are my people. This is the tribe the Lord has for me.”
Later Rachel met a young Waorani woman named Dayuma. Many of her family had been speared and she had fled from her tribe to the Quichua Indians. She learned the Quichua language. Rachel was eager to learn the Waorani language.
That was a huge challenge, because the language is unlike other languages on planet earth. Dayuma did not know how to explain why her native people killed so freely. When asked, she would say, “They are killers. Never, never trust them. They may appear friendly and then they will turn around and kill.” By 1956 the tribe was in danger of extermination.
By the 1950’s pioneering missionaries in jungle areas in Ecuador were connected by letters from fellow missionaries, friends, family, and sending agencies. They also experienced loneliness and isolation. They did not have email, cell phones, or the worldwide web, but unlike their predecessors, they had the marvelous help of small airplanes and heroic pilots.
Now, jungle pilots like Nate Saint, and the four other men planning Operation Auca had access to medicine, mail, supplies, and food that previously were difficult or impossible to obtain. Days of travel replaced weeks of treacherous ground travel, which had included encounters with poisonous snake bites, anaconda, jaguars and puma. There were wild pigs and monkeys for food.
For the five men planning contacts with the Waorani, small planes provided opportunities for contact, communication, gifts, building trust, and the wonder of sharing God’s love and peace where death was destroying the Waorani.
September 19, 1955 the dream of reaching the Waorani was becoming reality. Nate Saint and Ed McCully spotted thatched houses of Waodani as they flew over their territory. A week later Nate and Pete Fleming spotted more houses. The men began weekly bucket drops with gifts. The first gift was a bright aluminum kettle, decorated with colorful ribbons.
Today we investigated early challenges of Operation Auca. When deaths of its leaders occurred, the news carried in places around the world. Thousands of young men and women in the United States and many other countries were prompted to become Christian missionaries to unreached people groups.
We continue soon the story of Operation Auca in chapter four. Barbara Steiner, Alyce Steiner, and I, Carlos Gamez, are the recording team.
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