History Full Circle

There are very few moments in our lives that we get to see something come full circle. I know there are times when I wonder if I'm making any sort of impact with the orphans who we work with every day. There are some good deeds of which we never get to see the outcome, but recently I’ve experienced a full-circle-story firsthand.

This story begins in 1956 when five missionaries, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian, set out to the jungles of Ecuador to teach the gospel to a tribe called the Waorani, also known as the Aucas. Anthropologists describe the Waorani as the most violent tribe in all of history. Three out of four of the males died from being speared and almost none of them lived past their forties. This is due to their tendencies to not only kill other tribes in the region but within their own groups as well. The Waorani were also known to kill any foreigner who set foot in their territories.

Becoming some of the most famous martyrs of the 20th century, the missionaries were speared to death by the Waorani after making contact with them. Amazingly, however, a wife and a sister of the five men decided to continue the project and returned to the Waoranis. This effort was primarily carried out by Rachel Saint, the sister of Nate Saint, and Elizabeth Elliot, Jim’s wife, who went to live with the Waorani.

In 1969, a Polio epidemic broke out among two enemy Waorani groups who were visiting Rachel Saint and her Waorani group while she was still living among them on the Twaeno River. The situation became precarious because the two enemy groups had settled very near each other and Rachel’s group and could not move because of the sick. Rachel knew they needed medical attention, but was afraid to allow any outsider to come in to help due to the growing tensions between the three factions. However, after 12 people died of polio, a doctor named Wally Swanson (or Dr. Wally) decided to come in to help, against Rachel’s warnings. He was the first non-native male who was not speared as a result of meeting and working with the Waorani. Dr. Wally was even able to convince the Waorani to allow him to airlift the really sick natives to his mission’s Amazon hospital in the village of Shell, a feat thought to be impossible. The doctors and medical teams slowly gained the trust of the Waorani over time when the Waorani began to understand that the medical care they received was helping them to get better. What could have been a disastrous massacre between three warring groups ended up saving all of them through the care and determination of medical teams who came to help. From that point, after the polio outbreak was over, the Waorani killings drastically dropped. The generation of Waorani that survived the Polio epidemic became the first generation to live long enough to see their grandchildren, something no Waorani in history had been able to do.

This story relates back to Pete and me because during our time here we have become friends with Dr. Wally. We house-sat for him during our first three months here, and since his return we have occasionally shared meals together. Over dinner last Tuesday, we heard Dr. Wally recount this story. There was a touch of pride in his voice as he explained how he felt so privileged to have been the doctor during this time. Dr. Wally now is 80 years old and is still sharp and always looking to help people.

The story for us ends with For His Children, the orphanage where we work. After Rachel Saint left the Waorani in 1994, she lived the remainder of her days in Quito. Dr. Wally also moved to Quito after about 30 years in the jungle. They ended up living right next door to each other on a 4 acre shared property. Rachel Saint's nephew, Steve Saint, who worked with the Waorani as well, built both of the houses. When our orphanage directors were looking for a permanent residence, they met Rachel, who was then very old. Rachel was trying to sell her place and our directors were interested in it, but it was well out of their budget. They were just about to purchase another place, when Rachel called them and said she and Steve Saint had decided to sell the property to the orphanage directors for the low price that they could afford. She told them that it was her wish to keep the property with people who would continue to spread God’s love.

Now that we have moved out of Dr. Wally's house, we are staying about 200 feet away in the orphanage's Group House where Rachel once lived. It is incredible to think that we are connected to so much history. We also had an opportunity to go to the jungle recently, where we stayed only 10 miles from where those 5 men were killed. The area is now very peaceful, but it was somewhat unsettling to ponder on the events that had occurred 60 years ago in that jungle.

If you would like more information on these stories, there are several books written on it, including Elizabeth Elliot's "Through the Gates of Splendor," which describes her experiences. There was also a movie made by last year called, "The End of the Spear," which is not entirely factual but presents a good picture of the time. In the movie, they even mention Dr. Wally.

Tesha