Just a few days before, they had a great interaction with two women and one man from the Waodani, a tribe known at that time to be incredibly hostile and violent to outsiders. The men spent several hours together with these guests, sharing gifts, pleasantly trying to communicate with them, and Nate even took the man in his plane on a short flight over the Waodani village.
Nate Saint and "George"
When then did the Waodani people come back only to spear these five men to death?
I have found the stories of these five men, their families, and that of the Waodani people, incredibly fascinating. I have read every book that I could about each of them and seen related movies. It is a story full of adventure, intrigue, and drama. Check out this link for the 1956 Life magazine article detailing the final days of these five men. . Really it is amazing to see how the events unfolded from the Waodani side. It feels so much like a Latina soap opera. It came down to a guy being jealous that another guy was alone with his girl and so he rallied up other Waodani to take out their vengeance on the white men who happened to be close by. (Check out the book End of the Spear for the Waodani side of the story)
A tragedy, a pitiful waste of these men’s lives, so unnecessary. Or was it? The one thing that draws me to this story is the total compassion that the five men and their families had for the Waodani. They longed for the Waodani to have freedom from the vicious killing cycles that they were trapped in. They wanted the Waodani to know that they are loved by their Creator, that God wants a relationship with them, and that they can have hope, joy, and peace rather than anger, pain and death.
These five men willingly died so that the Waodani can have life. It is so beautiful to see how the story unfolds beyond that sad day on January 8, 1956. A year later, Nate’s sister Rachel and Jim’s wife and daughter go and live with the tribe, able to live out as a daily examples of what it means to love and not retaliate. The Waodani culture at the time necessitated that if someone in your family was murdered, you would have to go and reciprocate by killing someone in the murderer’s family. Rachel and Elizabeth broke this paradigm by choosing to live with the very people who had killed their brother and husband. As a result, a number of the Waodani decided to break the killing cycle themselves and to learn how to walk the path that Jesus walked.
What seems to be a tragic story actually blossoms into an incredible story of forgiveness, redemption and restoration. Nate’s son and daughter , Steve and Kathy, had the same love for the Waodani that their dad and Aunt Rachel had. They spent their summers with their qunt living with the Waodani. Nine years after their father died, they both chose to be baptized in the same river where their father and the other four men had been murdered. Who baptized them? Kimo, and Dyuwi, two of the Waodani men who had killed their father. Wow, isnt’ that amazing?! It gives me the goosebumps just thinking of the miraculous transformation that happened in all of their lives!
Kathy Saint getting baptised by the men who killed her father.
This story highlights to me that whatever we give to God isn’t taken away from us. Rather it is redeemed and multiplied in a way that revolutionizes lives. The death of these five men brought hope and life not only to the Waodani but to countless others around the world.
This is the story that has planted in me long ago the desire to be willing to give up the comforts and security of what I know to go and live in the unknown . Why? Because God takes what you give to Him and returns it to you in a gift that is better than you could have imagined!
What are you willing to give up? You may be blown away at what you get back!
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