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CHRISTIANS KILLED
This week Muslim extremists massacred at least 161 Christians in the E Indonesian island of Halmahera. A further 70 were injured and three truckloads of women and children were abducted.
Pastor Roberto Galindo (55) was murdered in Cali, Colombia along with his wife, her sister and a neighbour last month. This year the National Liberation army has kidnapped 14000 people in Colombia.
Tania Araus, a Pastor's wife and mother of two small children was stabbed to death in Quito, Equador on June 4.
BIBLE COLLEGE AMONG THE AUCA (Adapted from MAF News)
It was only 44 years ago that Auca warriors massacred five missionaries, including MAF pilot Nate Saint, on Palm Beach, a sandy spit of treeless land around a bend of the Curaray River in the dense jungle of Ecuador.
That tragedy led to a massive increase in the number of Christians volunteering for missionary work, including pilots and engineers wanting to serve with MAF. A survey some years ago revealed that one in three MAF pilots world-wide named Nate Saint's testimony as instrumental in their calling.
Since then many Aucas have turned to Christ. In place of the sandy beach landing strip, a new red-clay strip has been hacked from the jungle by machete-wielding warriors. In this remote area of Damointaro, Colombian-born Renaldo Bernal, his wife Blanca, and their three-year-old son Michael, welcome the MAF aircraft.
Renaldo and Blanca Bernal went to Ecuador seven years ago from Colombia as newlyweds after Renaldo had finished training at a Bible seminary in Argentina. They have been working in the jungle since their arrival, four years of these with the Waorani.
Now in an exciting development, they are building the very first Bible Institute for the once-feared Waorani. It is set 60 miles from Shell, the nearest major town in the centre of the dense Ecuadorian rainforest.
They selected the Damointaro region because of its central position and because the Waorani villagers there have developed spiritually. People from a dozen or so villages in the area will be invited to the college to be trained further in reaching their own people with a clear Christian message. The courses will include evangelistic treks to other communities.
Already MAF aircraft - used to bring the message of Christ into the area for the first time - are now heavily involved in the building programme to help strengthen the Waorani church.
A dozen flights have been made specifically to help the far-sighted missionary couple, and many other flights have brought bags of cement, boxes of nails, fuel for chain saws, cement posts, generators, and the many other items which could not be taken along the foliage-choked jungle paths.
Damointaro village is built round the short grass airstrip - demonstrating the people's confidence in the need for contact and communication.
Renaldo and his family intend to live on the second floor of the dormitory of the new institute, with the bottom floor used by up to 24 students. A second building will house classrooms.
Without the aircraft, Renaldo admits he could not even contemplate building the institute, much less think of staffing and supplying it.
The move towards opening the Waorani Bible Institute next January is one more step in the progress of one-time warriors from the Stone Age, as they move into the third millennium after the coming of Jesus.
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