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the FlamingMachete

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A young boy came over and offered Merilyn some meat. She looked up at her father for permission. He

shook his head.

Merilyn was only six years old when her father, Haru, pad-dled his family up the turama river to share the gospel with the cannibals who lived there. He had a burning desire to share Christ with them. He knew it would take time, so he brought his family along. For days, he had searched for any sign of people but hadn’t found any. Secretly, Merilyn hoped he never would. then one day, they spotted a canoe in the distance, but it disappeared from sight.

Seeing bubbles coming from a small stream entering the river, Haru turned their canoe into it. Eventually, the stream led to a village, and Haru pulled up to the bank. Immediately, the family was surrounded by grim natives with arrows on taut bowstrings aimed at their hearts. Merilyn cringed with fear. Was this to be the end of their daring adventure to bring the gospel to the cannibals?

Her father calmly stood up in the canoe and began talking in the native language—one of more than thirty he spoke fluently. thinking him to be an ancestor come back to life, the village chief yelled a command, and the bowstrings were relaxed. the village welcomed the visitors and gave them a hut to stay in. Food was cooking, and soon the evening meal began. though she was hungry, Merilyn was later glad she obeyed her father and declined the meat the boy offered her. Better to have an empty stomach than to fill it with human flesh.

Over the next few days, the chief watched the visitors close-ly. He was disappointed to see that they were quite human, certainly not returned ancestors as he had first thought. They weren’t spiritual beings, so they might as well be food. He gave

the FlamingMachete

by Dale Goodson

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the word, and the villagers began collecting root vegetables, fresh greens and firewood. After the sun went down, the war-riors again placed arrows on their bowstrings. Prepared for an easy hunt, they crept toward the little hut.

But wait! What was that? A huge man, taller than the hut’s peaked roof, stood by the door. He held a long, flaming machete in his massive hand and looked ready to use it. Perhaps this wasn’t the best time to go hunting after all.

For several more days, the villagers waited, their stomachs growling. But each night, the hulking sentinel stood at his post, flames flicking up and down his drawn blade.

Finally one morning, their patience wore thin. the feast was long delayed, but the terrifying guardian wouldn’t leave. they didn’t see him during the daylight hours, so they assumed he stayed in the hut. Determined to find out, they humbly came to the door and respectfully asked if they could come in. Haru invited them in. they wasted no time in turning over every suit-case and blanket, looking into boxes and peering into every corner. they left nothing untouched in their search for the giant with the burning machete.

“Where is he?” they finally demanded. “Where is who?” Haru said, bewildered. “the policeman!” they replied. “No policeman here,” he said.“Oh, but there is!” they insisted. “We see him every night. He

is taller than your house and has a bright, flaming machete.”“Are you sure you saw a man like that outside my house?”

asked the astonished missionary. “We are positive!” they replied. “We have all seen him.” the truth—and the opportunity it presented—slowly dawned

on Haru. “Let’s go outside, and I will tell you all about him,” he said. He grabbed his picture roll and followed the men out. “does he look like this?” he asked as he unrolled a picture of an angel with a flaming sword.

“yes! that’s him!” they replied excitedly. “Who is he, and where did he come from?” And so began a series of Bible sto-ries about angels, God, Jesus, man’s fall into sin and the plan of salvation.

Not too long after this, Haru had to leave on an extended trip. While the family waited for him to return, a village boy got sick and died. When the villagers informed the missionary wife of the tragedy, she told them they should bury him in the ground.

“What? Bury him?” Everyone was shocked at the idea. they normally hung their dead high up in trees. they knew nothing about burying.

With her husband away and a baby in her arms, the mis-sionary mother turned to 12-year-old Zita, the eldest daughter. “Please go with these warriors,” she said, “and conduct a funer-al service for this boy. Instruct them how to dig a grave.”

the village witchdoctor soon heard of the plan, and it angered him. As the men carried the body toward the canoe landing, he invoked his familiar spirits, and suddenly the men were frozen in place, feet poised in midair, unable even to blink.

Seeing the strange sight, the missionary woman stepped for-ward and boldly rebuked the demons in Jesus’ name. Imme-diately, the men were able to walk again, and they continued

on. they placed the body in a canoe and paddled downstream toward the planned burial location.

But the witchdoctor wasn’t done yet. He made a sign with his hands, and the canoes suddenly halted in the middle of the river. The men’s hands and paddles were transfixed, and the canoes stood motionless as the current flowed around them. Zita thought quickly. What was a twelve-year-old missionary girl in a canoe with demons and cannibals supposed to do in a case like this?

remembering what her mother had done only a few minutes before, she squared her shoulders and stood up in the motion-less canoe. In the name of Jesus, she rebuked the demons. She was only a little girl, but she spoke with the authority of the Commander of the armies of heaven. the demons fell back, the paddles dipped into the water again, and the canoes moved forward.

In a short time, they landed on the shore. the men dug a little hole and then stepped back. “No, deeper,” Zita directed. they dug some more. “Not nearly enough,” Zita said again. On and on they dug. Finally, when the girl was satisfied, she opened her little Bible and started preaching to the cannibals about the plans God had for the dead in the resurrection. It was the first Christian funeral ever conducted in the tribe’s history, and it doubtlessly shook her audience to the core. Could the people they had eaten really come back to life? did the God of this little girl care for those whose flesh they had steamed over the fire in sections of bamboo?

Many years later, as I listened to Merilyn telling the story of her childhood, I was struck with the bravery of that little family that laid everything on the line, venturing out boldly to stare death and demons in the face in a cannibal village. What kind of a place was that to raise a family?

With tears of joy streaming down her face, Merilyn con-tinued to tell of her father’s great love for Jesus that carried him through hunger, sickness and pain. danger was simply an obstacle between him and the lost. He had to push through it. He continued to work among his chosen people until his body had nothing more to give, and he was finally laid to rest. She then went on to tell about Zita and their other brothers and sisters who all grew up to become missionaries, pastors and teachers. With every word, she impressed upon my heart how the work goes forward only with sacrifice. She begged her audience to embrace the pain and keep the flame moving forward.

Before her sat the children and grandchildren of those who once thought to eat her. their hearts were moved, and their cheeks were wet with tears. they had to keep the work moving forward. After all, where would they be if it hadn’t been for Haru and his dedicated family?

When I heard Merilyn’s story a couple of months ago, I was deeply impressed, and I immediately began taking notes. Reviewing the notes later, I considered the impact Haru’s first visit must have had on the cannibals’ worldview. Every world-view has its major players—its gods, demigods, and supporting cast and their roles and interrelationships. In the worldview of the cannibals, Haru and his family kept shifting from one cat-egory of player to another, and the people struggled to figure out who they were and how to relate to them. Haru went from

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being an outsider and therefore an enemy (food) to being an outsider but a language speaker (a returned ancestor worthy of respect). then he descended to the level of human outsider with no great power (food). Finally, he ascended to the status of one protected by superior spiritual powers (a great spiritual teacher/leader). They tried to fit the newcomers into various molds cast by their life experiences. It took time to find a good fit, and they were prone to making mistakes along the way. Eventually, they had to develop a whole new profile for them.

As you read this story, you went through a similar process, subconsciously trying to fit the missionary family into molds your society and life experience have helped you develop.

So, what’s your verdict? What kind of a man was Haru? What kind of man would move his wife and children into can-nibal territory to share the gospel? Was he a foolish, irrespon-sible father or a dedicated frontier missionary? How about the mother who sent her young daughter out alone with demons and cannibal warriors? Was she praiseworthy or irresponsible? It all depends on the list of critical players in your worldview. Do you focus on the cannibals or on the angel with the flaming sword? If you focus on the cannibals, then the missionary par-ents were foolish and irresponsible. If you focus on the angel with the fiery sword, then they were admirable role models.

Many American Christians don’t see angels as reliable, pre-dictable participants in daily life. they don’t feel they can count on angels to play a clearly defined role. Angels don’t appear on their list of worldview players. these people would prob-ably doubt the factuality of Merilyn’s story and would consider Haru and his family fools.

Other Christians are like Haru. they not only believe in angels and God’s consistent, direct intervention, they depend on them.

Probably the majority of professed Christians are in a third category. they know angels are supposed to be real, but they don’t have a good understanding of their functions and have no idea how to relate to them, so angels don’t rate very highly on their list of worldview players. they admire Haru. He did something they can only talk and dream about. they wish they could have his faith, but they fear the experiences necessary to develop it.

As Merilyn told her story, she expressed nothing but pride in her father. By example, he taught her that her own spiritual blessings had come from the sacrifice of others. Her sacrifice would bring those same blessings to a new generation. One of the greatest ways to demonstrate the value of a blessing is to deprive oneself of it in order to give it to somebody else. It’s that way with salvation. Haru placed himself and his children into hardship and mortal danger to bring a lost tribe into the blessings and eternal safety of the kingdom of God. And his children praise him, pattern their lives and worldviews after his and call for a new generation to do the same.

roughly a third of earth’s population lives in language groups that lack a living Christian witness. Will this present generation rise to the challenge or shrink from it in fear? Will we focus on the cannibals or the angels with flaming swords? the power of demons or the authority of Jesus? Our world-views make all the difference.

Dale Goodson

Training assistant and church-planting consultant