From Killers To Converts

From Killers To Converts

Not many missionaries make the headlines, but these did.

IN JANUARY 1956 the news media told the world how five missionaries had been martyred by members of a primitive Ecuadorian tribe called the Aucas. The martyrs became known as the Auca Five.

What happened to the Aucas after that fateful day? Rachel Saint, the sister of slain missionary Nate Saint, had already been learning the Auca language from Dayuma, an Auca woman who ten years prior to the murder of the missionaries had fled from her tribe because of all the killing among them. Rachel Saint had met her in 1955 when Dayuma worked at a hacienda near Auca territory.

In 1957 Rachel Saint brought Dayuma to the United States to what she thought was to be a missionary conference. Rachel took Dayuma to witness a live television program and was completely surprised to find herself featured on the popular network program This Is Your Life. Afterward Rachel took Dayuma to the seclusion of the Wycliffe Bible Translator Home in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, for intensive language study.

As Rachel learned the language, Dayuma learned more and more of what Christ’s death could mean for her personally. She finally confessed her faith in Christ and became the first Auca convert.

In November 1957 Betty Elliot, who had continued serving as a missionary in Ecuador even after her husband, Jim, was slain, learned that two Auca women had left their tribe and were staying in the fishing village of a neighboring tribe. Betty went immediately to meet the Auca women, Mankamu and Mintaka. They turned out to be two of the three women who had visited the five missionaries on the beach, where they were later killed. They had come looking for Dayuma who was still in the United States.

Betty Elliot was able to persuade the two women to come to her mission station, where she began a concentrated study of the Auca language. In the spring of 1958 Rachel Saint returned with Dayuma, and the two missionaries continued to learn the language. Some months later Mankamu and Mintaka decided that they wanted to return to their families. Dayuma, who had been away from her people for twelve years, decided to return with them. In September the three Auca women set out on the jungle trail with three puppies and food for the trip.

Three weeks later Betty was told by another Indian that the Auca women had returned to the mission station. Soon Betty heard someone singing “Jesus Loves Me” with an Auca accent. It was Dayuma. With her were Mankamu and Mintaka and seven other Aucas. They brought the good news that the Aucas wanted the two missionaries to visit them. In October Rachel Saint, Betty Elliot, and Betty’s three-year-old daughter, Valerie, went to live in the Auca village.

Back in her own village, Dayuma shared the gospel with her fellow Aucas. One by one they began to put their trust in the Lord Jesus. Eventually all five men who had murdered the missionaries were converted and became leaders of the Auca church.

Rachel Saint began the translation of the New Testament into Waorani, the Auca’s official tribal name, and it was completed by Catherine Peake and Rosi Jung. On June 11, 1992, the Aucas finally received the New Testament in their language. What a day of celebration! Present was Rachel Saint, who had retired from Wycliffe Bible Translators but had returned to live near the Aucas. All three translators saw the fruit of their labors completed, and today the new generation of Auca believers are reading God’s Word in their own language.

The Auca Five did not die in vain.

Reflection

The death of the five missionaries was initially considered a tragedy by many. Yet in God’s providence the goal the missionaries had set for themselves was achieved beyond their greatest expectations. It is thrilling to have a God who can bring victory out of what appears to be tragedy.

Blessed are those who die in the Lord. . . . They are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their good deeds follow them!

Revelation 14:13