Fifty years after the famous missionary martyrdom in Ecuador, the blood still cries out | Clint Rainey
Photo by Ron Storer
Toñampadi, Ecuador — It is a January morning in this remote Waodani village in the equatorial rainforest. Word on the sweltering dirt streets is that the man called Kimo and his wife, Dawa, have arrived by canoe for the big weekend conferencia remembering the 50th anniversary of the killing here of Jim Elliot and four other American missionaries. Paa, a short and animated ball of energy with wide duck feet, is motioning wildly because his old friend Kimo is coming and has killed a tapir en route to the village.
Paa hopes they can share this fresh treat with their visitors tonight. Once abundant, these animals—the largest in the Ecuadorian rainforest—are numbering fewer as sedentary lifestyles, forced on Kimo and Paa's people by their newfound need to be within shouting distance of an airstrip, mean they hunt in a smaller area and quickly exhaust surrounding game supplies. The piquianani, or old ones, know their way of life is changing.
Telling their story
"MAF pilot Nate Saint was my earliest and I think only childhood hero. 'Operation Auca' was a secret and we knew nothing while it was taking place. However, I remember vividly as a 9-year-old boy sitting on my parents' bed, listening to radio reports directly from the Amazon region as the search party went into Waodani territory to find out what had happened to the men. I shall never forget hearing those radio reports as one by one the men were found martyred. Two of the actual spears used to kill the men were left at our home in Quito for safekeeping.
"I remember the utter shock among the missionary community, the tears, the grief. . . . Deep within, I felt God was going to honor their effort in some way. In spite of the grief, we expected Him to act." —Chuck Howard, field director of HCJB Radio in Ecuador
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COVER STORY ARTICLE |
Escalating opposition
