Saturday, July 01, 2006

The End of the Spear

Last night, John & I rented this movie which is the story of 5 missionaries who were killed by a tribe in the Ecuadorian jungle in 1956. This movie had a great message.

I don't think the people in this movie ever say the the English words "Jesus Christ," but rather, they talk about how "Waengongi (Creator God) sent His Son to the earth and He was speared, not spearing back so that those who speared Him might learn to live well." To them, the Bible was called where Waengongi "marked his trail with carvings." This movie showed how the missionaries came in to live among them to show them who Jesus is and to translate that message into things they know.

One part that really stood out to me was when one of the missionaries, Nate Saint was leaving in his yellow airplane, which the native people called the "yellow wood bee", and his young son, Steve, did not want him to go because of the danger involved. He asked his dad if he would shoot the Woudani tribe if they attacked him. He said to Steve, "We can't shoot the Woudani, they aren't ready for heaven, we are."

Steve's father was speared and killed by the missionaries. Later in life, when the Woudani man who killed his father asked Steve he was going to avenge his father's death, he replied, "No one took my father's life, he gave it."

The scenery in this movie was very green and lush which appealed to me in the near draught Michigan climate we have been having. It rained a lot during this movie and the sound of that was wonderful to my parched ears!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Julia,
I saw this movie and it was very moving!
Mother

Anonymous said...

i watched the movie once and i instantly took a liking to it..i became more interested with the lifestyles of native people around the world.. i hope that more films or documentaries like this one would be shown to people to make them aware of other cultures and tribes..