He Is Here

I look for encouragement wherever I can find it. I just finished reading the book, “The End of the Spear,” by Steve Saint. Steve Saint is the son of Nick Saint. Nick Saint was one of the five missionaries killed by Waodinis in 1956.

Most middle aged people and older remember the event. These five missionaries were determined to make a bridge between the Waodini and themselves, desiring to bring the gospel to these very primitive people. They spent time dropping gifts from a plane in order to build a friendship with the people. On the day, they were slaughtered, it started out differently. Several of the Waodini had met them. The missionaries fed them and let them explore the plane. Nick Saint even took one of them up in the plane. There was a misunderstanding among the Waodinis, so they ended up attacking and spearing to death all five missionaries.

As a result of the missionaries deaths, Nick Saint’s sister was able to live among them and preach the gospel. About twenty percent of them converted to Christianity.

Steve Saint always wondered if his dad ever knew he didn’t die in vain. If he knew that his sacrifice gave life to the Waodinis. Right after the massacre, as the Waodinis talked about it, there was talk of other foreigners chanting above the trees as the foreigners lay dying. Because of the difficulty with the language, no one quite knew what to make of the “other foreigners chanting above the trees” until years later.

Steve was with the Waodini, filming a documentary some forty years later. They were hanging out in one of the houses, listening to music, when one of the old warriors who had been there that day, sat up and declared that the music he just heard was the chanting he had heard above the trees. They played back the music and when the old warrior heard it, he declared again that that was the chanting above the trees that he heard while the other foreigners lay dying. When they asked him further questions the old warrior explained that there were lights above the trees after they had speared the other foreigners and music was playing like the music he just heard. In that instant, Steve Saint knew that his dad had known that they didn’t die in vain. He knew the foreigners who chanted above the trees were angels, singing about what God was about to do. And the missionaries that lay dying heard them too. The old Warrior made it clear to Steve, “as they lay dying.” He told them that the foreigners above the trees had scared them, and they immediately knew they had “done badly.”

I loved this story. When I take my eyes off my problems and look to God, I’m lifted up. This story fills me with such hope. In the midst of a horrific tragedy, God was announcing to the Waodini and the men that lay dying, that He was there, in the midst of it all. And that’s where God is with me. He’s right here, in the midst of it all. And that’s gives me so much comfort.