Consider also the fruit produced by the five martyrs in Ecuador in 1956. Steve
Saint, the son of martyred pilot Nate Saint, learned the details of their
martyrdom many years after the fact. Steve had frequently worked among the
people who killed his father, since all of them had become believers through the
widows and relatives of the martyred men. (Yes, the widows of the martyred men
led their husbands' murderers to Jesus.) He knew that his father and the other
missionaries had guns, but they had made a covenant never to use those guns in
self-defense against a human attack. What then actually happened on that fateful
day in 1956?
It turns out that the killers-most of whom were teenagers and not experienced
killers-were involved in a dispute with their own tribe, and they tried to shift
the blame to the missionaries, taking out their anger on them. But the
missionaries did not defend themselves or try to flee, a striking fact that the
natives noticed, paving the way for their conversion later. After killing their
victims, the Indians saw and heard strange sights and sounds. They saw people
who looked just like the martyred foreigners (called cowodi in the Indian
dialect) standing above the trees, singing songs that they later identified with
choir music (which, of course, they had never heard before). Others saw the sky
filled with lights, moving around and shining. It seems the angels-or heavenly
witnesses-were singing! What a sacred moment to God.
Five young men were killed in the line of duty that day, leaving widows and
children behind. These men were cut downactually speared to death-by the most
violent of the Huaorani Indians (called Auca, meaning "savage," in their
language). Was it worth it? Steve Saint, who was left as a boy without a father,
looked back 40 years later and gave the answer:
God took five common young men of uncommon commitment and used them for his own
glory. They never had the privilege they so enthusiastically pursued to tell the
Huaorani of the God they loved and served. But for every Huaorani who today
follows God's trail in part because of their efforts, there are a thousand
cowodi [foreigners] who follow God's trail more resolutely because of their
example. The success withheld from them in life God multiplied and continues to
multiply as a memorial to their obedience and his faithfulness.
This is the Jesus way to win the world, the principle of multiplication by
martyrdom. It is the forgotten secret of Church growth, the unstoppable weapon
of our revolution. It is the spark that will ignite a whole generation, just as
one short sentence-"Yes, I believe!"-spoken by two teenage girls facing death
helped spark a youth revival at the end of the twentieth century. This is how we
overcome; this is how we change society; this is how we make disciples; this is
how God's kingdom grows. We die and we multiply!
Excerpt taken from Michael L. Brown's book, entitled Revolution in the Church,
published by Baker Books and available through ICN Ministries
www.icnministries.org , p. 241-243.
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