Book Review: End of the Spear

The story of “Operation Auca” has gripped me all my life. The image of the small yellow plane, on the sandbar of Curaray River deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, and the speared bodies of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian, has haunted my imagination and challenged my values. What will I give to serve the Lord?

However, I have often wondered: what did their deaths achieve?

They dedicated their lives to making contact and getting the gospel to the Aucas (Waodani); one of the most violent societies to ever exist, with a 60% homocide rate. Yet they were speared to death having only just made contact. Why would God allow such a thing? Why would God let these men fail and die in such a noble endeavour?

End of the Spear picks up the story 40 years later, when Steve Saint (son of Nate) returns to the Waodani to bury his aunt, Rachel, who had lived and shared the gospel with the Waodani for half her life. The book is an exciting account of how God leads Steve to take his family and live with the Waodani for a year, to help them interact with the outside world, and the events that follow. Throughout the book, we get glimpses of what happened on that sandbar through the eyes of the Waodani, and how God has changed their lives. How a people in deep darkness, have seen a great light. And how God has used the deaths of those five men.

So what were the highlights for me?

1. That 20% of the tribe are now Christians.
2. The spearing have, by and large, ended.
3. God's providence and guidance. Steve didn't have some vision or hear a voice telling him to move to the jungle, but God's guidance was unmistakably clear.
4. But the most impressive thing of all, the thing that will stay with me, was the amazing love put on display. Steve's deep love for the people who killed his father and their love for him is remarkable. It's divine. That Steve loves the man who killed his father, as a father, is the greatest of miracles. There is no natural explanation. This can only be the work of the Holy Spirit.

This is God's great apologetic. To take two people who should hate each other and cause them to love each other deeply can only be through Christ. He is our peace.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35