End of the Spear Tells of Forgiveness, Reconciliation
by Warren Smith
January 16, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Several years ago, Steve Saint stood in front of hundreds of people at a chapel service at JAARS, the legendary missionary organization just south of Charlotte, NC. Saint was there because nearly 50 years earlier, in 1956, his father Nate Saint was killed by members of the Waodani tribe of Ecuador. No, not just "members" of the tribe, but one particular member: Mincaye. Mincaye had been the very man who had speared Nate Saint. It was an act that took the then five-year-old boy's father from him, an act that could easily have caused anger and bitterness.
But at the chapel service at JAARS, Mincaye stood on the platform with Steve Saint, now a grown man with children and grandchildren of his own. Mincaye was now a Christian believer, or "God follower," as Saint says. Two men who could easily be separated by anger and shame embraced and told their story together.
And then Steve Saint asked a question of the JAARS missionaries and their families. "How many of you have had your lives changed by that story?" he asked.
Later, in an interview with The Charlotte World, Saint said he really wasn't sure what sort of a response he would get to that question. He knew that JAARS, which stands for Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, would be one place where the story of his pilot father would likely be well known. But he said he was "overwhelmed" when almost everyone in the room stood up.
"This story has already had a huge impact," Saint said. "Now, through this movie -- which is a real movie, and not a 'Christian movie,' if you know what I mean -- I'm praying that the story will reach millions more."
Movie website for End of the Spear
Steve Saint himself is quick to admit that the story has been told many times before. When Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, and three other missionaries were killed in 1956 by Ecuadorian tribesmen, the story riveted the nation and the world. It was on the front page of the New York Times. Life magazine did a major photo spread. Elizabeth Elliott, Jim's widow, wrote a best-selling book called Through Gates of Splendor. And Jim Elliot's own journals were subsequently published, giving post-war evangelicals a glimpse of a man who was like them in many ways -- but in other ways like the missionaries of the Bible.
And Steve Saint said that the "myth" of the story was one reason this story needed to be told again. For one thing, no one had ever told the story from the perspective of the Waodani. And for another, a movie would allow people to see the gritty reality of that jungle world.
But the main reason Saint believes the story needs to be told again is because the complete story has never been told. The story of the slow process of evangelizing the Waodani, and how Steve himself had gone on to live among them. The story of the five missionary martyrs is remarkable, but what is really remarkable is the reconciliation, and the Waodani's abandonment of a violent lifestyle, all of which are, according to Saint, a result of God's grace. That's what End of the Spear is really all about, according to Saint.
Effectiveness of Method and the Movie
The legendary story of the five slain missionaries -- Saint, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian -- opens in theaters on January 20, almost exactly 50 years after the January 8, 1956, killings. End of the Spear was directed by Jim Hanon, founder of the Compass Arts Christian media firm. It is co-produced by Mart Green, a former businessman who founded the Every Tribe Entertainment film company after being inspired by a Steve Saint speech to make the movie.
Producers hope the $30 million production will expose a wider audience to an incident long famous in the annals of missionary history. Their recently released documentary, Beyond the Gates of Splendor, tells the same story without fictional embellishment.
Both the movie and the original story of the missionaries have been the subject of debate in the Christian community. Some say the movie is not "Christian" enough, that it does not make clear the role of belief in Christ as the reason for the transformation of the tribe. Others have used the movie as an opportunity to criticize the five young martyrs. Ruth Tucker, a professor of missiology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids and author of From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biography History of Christian Missions, said their techniques were "fundamentally flawed."
"It breaks every rule of good, solid method," Tucker told Religion News Service. "To me, it would have been surprising if they had not been killed." She concedes that some good was done, but said that more good would have come of the situation if the five martyrs had done things right.
Steve Saint is dumfounded by both criticisms. To answer the first criticism, he said that a movie doesn't have to have an invitation to receive Christ at the end of it to make it a deeply Christian movie.
As to the criticisms of the methods of his father and his comrades, Saint notes that within a few years of his father's first contact with the tribe, the tribe's homicide rate dropped by 90 percent. About 20 percent became Christians.
"I cannot believe that someone who purports to know this story would say some of those things," Saint said of Tucker's criticism. "Where were they supposed to go to come by this cultural wisdom? No one had ever had contact. To suggest that they had not taken every precaution is ludicrous."
Saint also noted the response he got from the crowd he addressed at JAARS. "This story has had an impact far beyond human wisdom," Saint said. "If they broke every rule of good solid method, then I say we perhaps need to have fewer rules."
Want to know more about the movie? Visit the official movie website. The movie is scheduled to open on 1,200 screens on Friday, January 20.
Warren Smith is founder and president of World Newspaper Publishing as well as editor and publisher of The Charlotte World.
