{"id":784650,"date":"2011-10-27T17:30:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T17:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/?p=784650"},"modified":"2011-10-27T17:30:17","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T17:30:17","slug":"visit-with-missionaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/2011\/10\/27\/visit-with-missionaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit with Missionaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The boys and I were extremely blessed to be able to attend a lecture by retired missionaries, Dan and Elly Derr. \u00a0A local newspaper ran an article on them Auburn Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You might be aware of the incredible story about the missionaries Nate Saint,\u00a0Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian. \u00a0In the mid-1950’s,these men, along with their families, traveled into Ecuador’s Amazon Rain Forest to share the gospel with an indigenous tribe known as the\u00a0Waorani\/Auca . \u00a0This tribe was well known and feared by other tribes. \u00a0They were fiercely private and attacked all intruders without provocation.<\/p>\n

Mission stations had been established and other area tribes had built relationships with the missionaries. \u00a0They traded medical care and services for local fruit and game.<\/p>\n

Getting to the mission station from Ecuador’s capitol, Quito, used to be a two week trip, partly by truck and partly by hiking. Nate Saint was a pilot who build a small landing strip that cut the time getting to the station to 40 minutes by plane.<\/p>\n

(By the way…this area has an average of 20 feet of rain per year! \u00a0Yes, I typed that correctly….)<\/p>\n

These five men began to establish communication with the Auca’s by flying over their land a few times a day, in the same plane with distinguishable markings. \u00a0Then, after a few weeks, they began circling the area and lowered a bucket containing gifts. \u00a0The Waorani received the gifts and after a while reciprocated by placing gifts of their own in the bucket. \u00a0One was a roasted monkey.<\/p>\n

After several months of these exchanges, the men decided to land their plane on a strip of sand along the river. \u00a0They met a man and a woman and spent the day with them. \u00a0Encouraged by this encounter, the men began to make plans to visit others when they were attacked and killed.<\/p>\n

Life Magazine found out about the incident and had a 10 page photo essay printed by famous photographer Cornell Capa. \u00a0(I’ve been trying to find these photos online, but have had no success. \u00a0If anyone finds them, I’d appreciate the link.)<\/p>\n

A movie was made about this, titled, “The End of the Spear.”<\/p>\n

Incredibly, some of the wives of the slain missionaries decided to stay in Ecuador with their children, and continue the work their husbands had started. \u00a0Elizabeth, the wife of Jim Elliott, wrote \u00a0a couple of books and created a documentary, titled, ” Beyond the Gates of Splendor”. \u00a0It was during this time that the Derr’s served alongside Elizabeth Elliott.<\/p>\n

The Derr’s showed this documentary and we saw how they were able to continue communication with the\u00a0Waorani, then make contact and establish relationship. \u00a0There is some sweet footage of Elizabeth Elliott’s little girl swimming in the river with some of the\u00a0Waorani children. \u00a0They had made friends with two\u00a0Waorani women who had left the tribe. \u00a0These women learned to communicate with the missionaries in either english or spanish (I’m not sure which), then went back to their tribe to explain why the missionaries were there.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Waorani believed that everyone who was not a part of their tribe were cannibals and hence, had to be killed. \u00a0When they learned that not everyone was a cannibal or a threat, they were open to establishing relationship with the missionaries and other local tribes.<\/p>\n

The Derr’s shared their story and items that they brought back with them…<\/p>\n

Dan Derr showing us the blow darts that the\u00a0Waorani added poison to…<\/p>\n

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A headdress that a man would wear…<\/p>\n

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My friend, Shanti, “kissing” the shrunken head of a sloth…
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These are earrings that the men wore. \u00a0They pierce their ears and expand the holes to accommodate larger sticks, etc. \u00a0These adornments are made out of beetle wings!
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‘R’, modeling the headdress, earrings, and blow darts…<\/p>\n

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‘A’, doing the same…
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\nMore adornments: chief headdress and earrings
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<\/a>‘R’, with the shrunken sloth head…
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Having fun with ‘K’…
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‘N’, showing the handmade comb…
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A picture of a \u00a0Waorani man…
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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The boys and I were extremely blessed to be able to attend a lecture by retired missionaries, Dan and Elly Derr. \u00a0A local newspaper ran an article on them Auburn Journal. You might be aware of the incredible story about the missionaries Nate Saint,\u00a0Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian. \u00a0In the mid-1950’s,these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-784650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-homeschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784650"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784673,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784650\/revisions\/784673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}