Saint was a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). On January 8, 1956, he and four fellow missionaries were killed on a jungle beach in Ecuador by the very tribe they were attempting to reach with the Gospel.

Gene with Nate, Shandia, 1955. (Photo, caption courtesy of Gene Jordan/MAF)

For Gene Jordan, a former MAF pilot who spent 22 years serving in Ecuador, the story is personal. Jordan’s parents were missionaries in Ecuador starting in 1951 with a different mission organization.

“My parents knew all the missionaries in those early days,” he says. “I have a picture of myself sitting on Nate’s knee in the little jungle station of Shandia where the Elliots worked. I don’t remember it; I was too young. But what I do remember is always knowing of Nate with an airplane serving other people in the jungle.”

As a teenager, Jordan spent his time at the MAF base in Shell, Ecuador, helping however he could — fueling and washing planes, loading cargo, and buckling in passengers.

(Photo, caption courtesy of Gene Jordan/MAF)

“I saw the difference the airplane made in the jungle communities. But more than that, I saw the impact and the effect that the pilots had in living out their faith and caring for people,” says Jordan.

“I decided this might be something that I could do, and I go back to the influence when I was young — of always knowing about MAF, knowing MAF pilots, seeing what they did, and the main one being Nate Saint because he was in Ecuador. I grew up with his kids and his widow, Aunt Marge. So it was always an influence in my life.”

Seven decades after the killings, it still echoes today – the faith legacy of these men, their widows, and a surrender to God’s will.

Jordan says, “When the five guys were killed on that day, the widows’ worlds fell apart. But…I never heard any of them say or write that they doubted that God was not in control.

“I have a letter that Elizabeth Elliot wrote my mom just a couple weeks after Jim was killed. In it, she says, ‘My house feels empty, but Jim died doing exactly what he felt God would have him do in the fullness of his manhood, and I cannot fault God for anything.’

Elisabeth Elliot with spears retrieved from the bodies. (Photo, caption courtesy of Gene Jordan/MAF)

“Today, we have 70 years of being able to look back and see what God has done.”

As believers remember the sacrifice of these five men and the steadfast faith of their families, the question remains deeply personal.

What mission field is God calling you to?

Learn more about MAF’s ministry here.

Header photo: Five widows in Shell, following the return of the search party. (Photo, caption courtesy of Gene Jordan/MAF)

After several trips to proclaim Christ to villagers deep in a jungle called El Impenetrable in northern Argentina’s Chaco Province, the tribal evangelist was the only one who had learned how to get to their hamlet, the leader of his native ministry said.

“He was happy and grateful because he was able to travel again on these difficult paths that only he knows,” the leader said.

Returning to the area this summer to share the gospel and bring discipleship materials to a small church plant, the worker first mounted a motorcycle into a canoe to enter the jungle reserve on the Bermejo River. Negotiating river currents in a motorcycle-bearing canoe was risky, the native ministry leader said.

“We give glory to God for the courage of our brother who keeps going, and nothing stops him.”

After disembarking, the worker knew the path would narrow quickly.

“The road can only be traveled by motorcycle,” the leader said. “There is no possibility that a truck can enter, because it is very narrow and dangerous. We give glory to God for the courage of our brother who keeps going, and nothing stops him.”

For 10 hours the worker made his way through thick foliage amid wild animals to reach the destitute tribal people, he said.

“As the name El Impenetrable indicates, the difficulty of traveling is due to its wild and dense vegetation,” the leader said. “It’s a risk; the abundance of cacti, bushes and animals such as jaguars, pumas and vipers are a threat to those who try to walk through it.”

Native ethnic groups in the area eke out a precarious existence, with food scarce, malnutrition widespread and sanitary conditions poor, he said.

“The needs are extreme in every way,” the leader said. “Our missionary knows every route and how to reach the indigenous people of this place to bring the Good News of the gospel and show the love of Christ to this remote area.”

In the course of six months, Gospel workers led more than 100 people to eternal life in Christ. Local missionaries need donations to undertake such Gospel outreaches and follow up with new believers.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

With hand-made benches placed beneath trees, the congregation gathered to hear God’s Word.

“They worship Christ regardless of whether the heat or the cold hits them,” the leader said. “Without luxuries or modern constructions, our missionary preached the Word of God. Many people, crying and broken, received Christ in their hearts after the message and evangelistic materials were delivered.”

The Lord delivered the worker from all evil and danger, and he was deeply grateful for the opportunity, the leader said.

“We thank God for his life and ministry, his service to God and his commitment,” he said.

Mission Accomplished

The local missionary, whose name is withheld for security reasons, visited several jungle communities on the trip despite forecasts of rain and harsh heat, the leader said.

“After making a journey of several days preaching the gospel in various places and villages of El Impenetrable, he returned to his home very tired,” he said. “He fulfilled his commitment before God. He is grateful to the Lord for allowing him to travel again and preach the gospel, since in the time of the pandemic it was impossible to leave.”

Tribal people have experienced God’s love in various ways thanks to the ministry, including meeting emergency medical needs, offering basic health care, sending those who need greater care to a city hospital and providing medicines. A local official was grateful for these outreaches and has lent his support, the ministry leader said.

“The hospital authorities and staff, moved and grateful, thanked God for this, since medicines are scarce, and patients otherwise cannot continue their treatments,” he said. “Let us pray to the Lord for new projects and continuity of the good relationship with local authorities, in order to be well received to continue witnessing for Christ.”

Families in Argentina came to know the love of God when workers provided food through “communal pots.”
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

Tribal workers have also reached non-tribal people. A 49-year-old Argentinian of mainly Spanish descent recently approached the tribal missionary in tears, saying he did not know how to get free of depression. The workers spoke to him about the love of Christ, and the man humbly received Him into his heart.

“This testimony is very important, since in the region where our ethnic missionary serves, it is very difficult for a person who is not an aboriginal person to seek advice from an indigenous person and approach him,” the leader said. “The Holy Spirit worked in the life of this man, opening his heart without distinction of race or color. Double miracle – hallelujah!”

Such dedicated local missionaries are working throughout Argentina. Help them bring Christ’s love to the lost.

Header and story images courtesy of Christian Aid Mission.

The leader of a local ministry said he and co-workers proclaim Christ in cities and towns, but sometimes their commitment to bring God’s kingdom to the unreached takes them to remote villages – walking five to seven hours daily through jungles where there are no roads.

“Sometimes we encounter mosquitoes, snakes or lions, among other animals, and we get sick,” he said.

“Idol worshippers sometimes threaten us, saying that if we don’t leave their village, they will kill us. We have to contend with all of that relying on God, the author and finisher of our faith.”

Winning the lost to Christ in these conditions requires commitment and sacrifice.

“In some places we go, there is nowhere to sleep; we just lie on the dirt floor,” the ministry leader said. “There may be no good, safe drinking water or light. When the battery in the flashlight I carry is finished, there’s nowhere to get additional light at all – there are no shops or stores in the jungle. It is difficult to do missions; pray for God to provide.”

Workers use various means to share the gospel, from radio programs and revival meetings to visiting homes and offering to pray for needs. Team members also win opportunities to be heard by offering to help villagers work their farms.

“I plan a day with them, finding out the hour they usually go to their farms and what are some of the things they do there, and sometimes I take some manpower to work, without asking for a dime,” the leader said. “I also help them with some agricultural seeds free of charge, such as corn, tomato and eggplant, though it is very expensive.”

He and other team members led 270 people to put their faith in Christ over the course of six months, he said. One young woman who accepted Christ had spent much of her life steeped in smoking, drinking and drugs.

Her lifestyle had driven her to living conditions that reminded him of the prodigal son, he said.

“When I shared the gospel with her, I told her the story of the two sons in Luke 15, then I told her, if you will only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to forgive you, He will,” the leader said. “Without hesitation, she immediately accepted the Lord Jesus, and she was baptized and is serving in the church as an usher, doing it with joy.”

Power of the Word

While Liberia has a history of church growth due in large part to the movement in the 1800s to resettle free and former slaves from the United States, followers of traditional ethnic religions still make up the largest religious group by a slight margin, at 42.5 percent of the population, according to the Joshua Project.

Those professing Christianity stand at 40.2 percent, though evangelicals make up just 11.68 percent of the population, according to Joshua Project, which puts Muslim adherents at 13.7 percent.

At one revival meeting, a woman involved in witchcraft confessed that she had tainted the water supply for five years, resulting in the deaths of seven pregnant women. She wept in repentance on the ground for three hours, demonstrating the power of Christ’s name that also softened others to the Gospel. Through Bible studies and one-on-one sharing, Gospel workers led 198 people to faith in Christ.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

Whatever the method used to proclaim the grace of Christ, local missionaries rely on the inherent power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit to bring people to faith, the leader said.

“Only the words of God can make the difference,” the leader said. “As they come to meetings and hear the words of God, and especially when they begin to see the true love of God being demonstrated before their eyes, they believe and turn their lives over.”

The Holy Spirit continues working in those who trust in Christ, he said.

“As we continue to reach out daily for Christ, some of the bad boys and girls in the communities that were living on drugs, alcohol and stealing, causing trouble all day long, are now becoming good guys,” he said. “But you first need to pray for God to give you the passion.”

Passion must be accompanied by compassion, he added.

“When I begin sharing the gospel tracts and inviting the community dwellers to worship services, some of them will tell me, ‘I want to come to church services, but I don’t have the clothes to wear,’ while others say, ‘I’m hungry,’” he said. “I try to meet some of those immediate needs; soul winners must have compassion.”

Where the gospel has transformed communities, people from nearby villages hear about it, visit and bring the message of the kingdom to their own areas, he said.

“Just as Jesus told His disciples that the harvest is ripe and ready but to pray that the Master of the harvest employ more laborers, so we have been doing just that with commitment and dedication, and as a result, souls were won to Christ,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.”

Workers are showing such dedication throughout Liberia. Help them bring the light of Christ’s salvation amid great darkness.

Header image courtesy of Christian Aid Mission.

Brian Dennett of AMG International says, “I’m hearing from our people that currently there are somewhere around 5,000 people hiding in the jungle, really afraid of the fighting that’s happening. And then you have thousands fleeing to India, for example, on foot. And then you have people in the jungle hiding with really no access to any basic supplies.”

The military has created chokeholds in different parts of the country that prevent many people from getting the supplies that they need. Dennett says, “You have the young and the old walking in some cases hours to get food and water.”

Getting involved

You can help send the love of Jesus to Myanmar by getting food and supplies into the country. Partner with AMG at amghelp.org. Dennett says, “We have been trying to be very creative at getting supplies in. We use motorcycles, the church network that we have there, and our team in Thailand. And please pray that this coup group will stop these chokeholds.”

(The header photo comes courtesy of AMG International)

World Missionary Press (WMP) is now working with local partners to distribute thousands of translated booklets.

“These Scripture booklets in the language of the people are the only written word of God that these people have ever seen,” says Helen Williams of WMP.

Meeting Local Needs

Honduras holds nine million people and half of them are children. The need for medicine, school supplies and more is great and on-the-ground organizations work to provide for them.

By working with these local partners, WMP is able to get booklets to unexpected places and supply existing work.

Believers often use the Scripture booklets as Bibles.

(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)

“When the booklets…hit the field, the Spirit uses them and because they’re all Scripture…this is exciting for us to see. We work hard to get things out the door, but we know that when they leave here the work has just begun,” Williams says.

One ministry transported 100,00 booklets 23-hours into the Mosquitia jungle to villagers; there was an immediate demand for 200,000 more. Another reaches children with gift packages and yet another works to get mobility devices and aid to the disabled. Medical missions and school support outreaches are all among those using these Scriptural resources in outreach. Thousands of booklets are going out across the country and translation efforts continue.

These efforts have been ongoing. Last year, WMP sent 256,000 booklets and July saw a large outreach in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Today, the fruit is becoming apparent with one ministry reporting an established church, and discipleship program. Learn more about WMP work here.

“The door is wide open. The need is great and people are responding and we have active partners that are…meeting needs in so many different areas,” Williams says.

How you can Help

Plans are underway to send another 20-foot container of over 1 million Scripture booklets. Preparing and sending out a container takes significant support.

“We need to be able to get the material there. And that means we need to increase our production and that’s just a matter of funding for buying the paper and the ink and… shipping the containers,” Williams says.

Join this movement by helping fund increased Scripture production, translation, and distribution to meet the demand. Pray for the partners on the ground and their successful outreach and the volunteer translators who make this work possible.

Header image courtesy of sbmatherson via Pixabay.

E3 Partners is partnering with a ministry called "Pure Charity" to provide vitamins to people living in the jungle in Peru.

With very little-to-no healthcare–on top of a lack of nutrition, many health issues arise within the villages. In March, a medical team is heading to remote communities along the river that flows through the Amazon jungle to provide the people with a month's supply of vitamins.

The team will set up a 5-day medical clinic for villagers to come and receive medical attention, as well as their supply of vitamins.

Pure Charity's goal is to raise $750.00 by March 12 for this program. These vitamins can impact up to 1,200 lives. Click here to help.

Pray that the funding for this project will come in. Ask God for opportunities for the medical team to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Pray that the vitamins will improve the health of the villagers who receive them.

The Garasias are an ancient tribe to Rajasthan, India. Almost a year ago, Mission Network News reported about the way the tribe has been ostracized and left to scavenge in the jungle for the last 500 years.

When a missionary came to the 221,000-person tribe a few decades ago and found that the Garasias had never heard of Christ and had no Bible to speak of in their own language, he set out to translate the Scriptures. When the New Testament was finally complete, there was still one problem: less than two percent of the Garasias can read.

We told you last April about the desire of Audio Scripture Ministries desire to record the Garasias New Testament by the end of 2011. Today ASM can proudly announce that they reached that goal. And not only did they reach the goal, but they have finally been able to distribute 150 audio Bibles to the Garasias.

"So far, all that they have understood about Jesus, about God, has come through the mouths of their pastors and local evangelists.. But now, with audio Bibles in their communities, it's like we've just unleashed 150 new missionaries who speak nothing but God's Word in people's heart language," says ASM's J.P. Sundararajan.

This is quite an exciting feat for believers among the Garasias, who have suffered much for following Christ over the last few decades. One of the men who helped do the reading for the audio Bible was strongly chastised for leaving his family and pregnant wife to read for ASM. "Pappu" considered it a necessary sacrifice for his people to get God's Word, however. Now Pappu is back, and the people's thirst for Scripture was astonishingly clear at the distribution.

"A lot of people were gathered, and only 150 Bibles were able to be distributed," says Sundararajan. "The missionary told us, ‘We need 100 more immediately'–not even over the course of the next few months, or weeks or years."

There are very few believers among the Garasias, so such a response was very exciting. Perhaps even more amazing than that hunger, though, was one immediate transformation of the community. The Garasias do not have a word for "thank you." Due to their trying past, they have historically been an ungrateful people. But when ASM workers distributed the audio Bibles, they continued to hear "Aabar! Aabar!" from the people.

When asked what that word meant, the translator told ASM that the Garasias were using a phrase from a nearby community. "The word ‘aabar' means ‘thank you,'" says Sundararajan. "It seems like a seemingly insignificant phrase, but for the Garasias this is a big deal."

The Garasias were becoming a grateful people right before the eyes of the ASM team.

Since the distribution, ASM has heard many more exciting stories about the way God's Word is transforming this tribe. Pray that pastors and other Christian leaders would be able to answer the questions that come up as the Garasias hear God's Word. Pray for hearts to be fully transformed.

Sundrarajan adds, "We are excited for what God is going to do, but we are also a little burdened to get more Bibles into the community because the thirst is unfathomable for all of us."

ASM wants to get 100 Bibles into the community as soon as possible. To help them reach this goal, click here and designate a gift for the Garasia project.

Living in the jungle, it is hard for villagers to get the proper nutrition they need. E3 Partners talked about a ministry called Pure Charity, which is taking vitamins to the jungle in Peru.

With very little to no healthcare, on top of a lack of nutrition, many health issues arise within the villages. In March, a medical team is heading to many small villages along the river that flows through the Amazon jungle to provide the people with a month supply of vitamins.

The team will set up a medical clinic for five days, where the villagers can come and receive medical attention, as well as their month's supply of vitamins.

Pure Charity's goal is to receive $750.00 by March 12. These vitamins can impact up to 1,200 lives.

Pray that the funding for this project will come in. Ask God to use the medical team to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Pray that the vitamins will improve the health of the villages that receive it.