>End of the Spear
We went to go see “End of the Spear” tonight. For those of you not familiar with the story, I don’t want to ruin it. Briefly, it’s a true story about the group of missionaries who made contact with Waodani tribes in Ecuador in the 50’s. The Waodani tribes were known as the most violent ever documented.
If you’ve ever heard of Elisabeth Elliot (author of “Passion and Purity”), then you’re probably familiar with the story about her husband, Jim Eliot. This movie tells the story from the viewpoint of Nate Saint, one of the missionaries trying to find and contact the Waodani along with Jim Eliot.
David Howard, Jr., nephew of Elisabeth Eliott, wrote a great editoral piece for the Wall Street Journal, Triumph From Tragedy, though it does give some of the story away.
This story is extremely applicable to us now, as we try to make sense of the paths our lives are on, and struggle with the sense of being on a mission in the world. Here is a vivid portrait of some young Christians who risked everything to reach out to those who might otherwise have no chance of hearing the gospel. As a movie, while not perfect, I think they did a pretty good job telling the story in two hours. I won’t talk more about specifics of the movie yet — though I might in a week or two. There were some moments in this movie that I thought were extremely well done.