Dan's thoughts on "End of the Spear"

I went and watched the movie, End of the Spear last night it was a great recreation of the lives of the Saint family. In 1956, Nate with his 4 four friends Jim Elliot, Ed McCully Peter Flemming, and Roger Youderian were killed by a tribe of Indians called the Waodani Indians as they were attempting to bring the gospel to the people.

This movie has made me stop and think, "Would I be willing to do that?" Would I willingly lay my life down for the gospel? Would I leave my family behind if it meant that the gospel would be spread to the very people who killed me? That’s such a tough question to work over in my mind.

I look at these men and they were the cream of the crop. Most of them went to Wheaton College (also where Billy Graham attended), and definitely would have been leaders in our own country if they had chosen that route. The book Through Gates of Splendor talks about their lives leading up to the massacre. These were extraordinary men!

How would it change the world if people would be willing to lay down their lives for others? What would happen if we lived our lives like these men? What if we decided that them seeing the light of Jesus was more important than our lives? or even our popularity? or living comfortably?

These guys went and died in a sticky, hot, nasty jungle and left their children without fathers and their wives without husbands-thousands of miles away from their homes-all for the very people who killed them! And we’re worried about what other people think about us in our new clothes.

This movie challenged me to really think about what it means for me to be a follower of Christ. I don’t think that there is any room for me to say, “Those Guys Were Missionaries, they were supposed to die for the people their reaching out to.” No I am a missionary today to the people I see around me. I am a missionary to the guy who I pay at the BP when I put gas in my car. I am a missionary to the lady who takes my change at Taco Bell! I am a called to love the person who hates me the most in the world, and be willing to give everything I have if they have a need. (I don’t know who hates me the most in the world today, I was just making a point.) I need to lay down what I want and what I think I need for those around me, I mean after what the guys down in the Jungle did for a group of murders, how could I not.