TO THE "PALM BEACH" INTERVIEW SERIES
The Waorani are People. People like us with names and families - parents alive or dead, together or apart. The Palm Beach Story begins 41 years ago when the Waorani's palm-thatched homes and jungle lifestyle had never been seen on TV. Few outsiders knew they existed. No one had lived with them and come back alive.
The Waorani's world began and ended between two rivers that flow into the mighty Amazon: the Napo and the Curaray. They named all outsiders "cuwoody" - whatever their race. The Waorani thought the cuwoody were "eaters-of-people". Why? 100 years ago, rubber hunters from Europe had entered their land. They stole their food, killed Waorani men, raped their wives and daughters.
The Waorani hated all cuwoody. Wielding their wickedly barbed nine-foot chonta wood spears, they killed any who came into their territory. Groups of Waorani even turned on each other, setting up a chain of terror with no end.
By 1955, there were only 500 Waorani left. They lived in four groups: the Gikitaidi, Piyaemoidi, Baiwaidi and Wepeidi. Spearing and fleeing, they hid from each other in the dense forest. They had no idea how many other groups existed or where they lived. Surprise attacks split and scattered families. Few men lived beyond their twenties. Gikita, whose life we remember in this series, died at over 80 years old on February 11, 1997. He was then the oldest most respected man in the clan. A spearing raid had separated him and his witchdoctor brother Awaemae for 50 years. They lived far apart and only met again just before Awaemae died a few years ago.
The Waorani became so fierce that the Quichua people who surrounded them, named them "Aucas", their word for 'savages'. By 1955, outsiders knew only a few words of the Wao language (which had never been written down) and so likewise called them "Aucas". Then . . .
GOD CALLED FIVE COURAGEOUS YOUNG MEN:
Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian, who were all highly gifted and qualified. The men had left home in the United States to serve Christ in Ecuador. Nate was a jungle pilot, Jim, Pete and Ed took God's message of new life in Christ to the Quichuas and Roger to the head-hunting, head-shrinking "Shuar".
[Like the Waorani, the Shuar call themselves 'The People' in their language. Outsiders called them "Jivaro", Spanish for 'a wild man'].
These five missionaries came from several different types of Christian churches. Gradually each realised God was calling him to join the others in a secret mission. Alone, then together, they prayed and planned. . .
TO REACH THE WAORANI WITH CHRIST'S LOVE
How could the five prove their friendly intent to "The People" who hated all "cuwoody"? How give them presents without being killed? Nate was not only a skilled pilot but also an inventor. He discovered that if he flew his Piper in a tight circle with the door off, he could reel out a long nylon line with a bucket on the end holding a gift.
October 6, 1955: Nate circled over Gikita's village in his Piper plane, reeled out the nylon line and dropped an aluminum kettle. Marked with streamers, it contained 20 brightly coloured buttons and a bag of rock salt. It landed on a beach near Waorani houses. Every week after that, Nate dropped gifts: machetes, axe-heads, shirts, shorts, kettles. . .
November 12, 1955, was a turning point. The Waorani took their gift of an axe head and returned a feather crown in the bucket. The five were ecstatic.
MEANWHILE, AT A RANCH CALLED ILA . . .
in Quichua territory, Nate's sister Rachel Saint, sometimes partnered by Catherine Peeke or Mary Sargent of Wycliffe Bible Translators, learned words in the unwritten Wao language.
Their teacher? - Dayuma, a teenager. The dreaded killer Moipa had speared Dayuma's father Tyaento. When Dayuma's mother Acawo, in anger and fear, threatened to strangle her with a vine, Dayuma had fled for her life.
Jim Elliot had also hiked over from his Quichua village Shandia to visit Rachel and learn Wao words. He then taught them to his four colleagues - still secretly preparing for their mission.
FIVE MEN COUNT THE COST AND OBEY
All five men were married. All but Pete were fathers. They and their wives recognized the fact that face to face contact with the Waorani could end in death for the husbands. Yet, their desire to share the message of Father God's forgiveness and love for the Waorani overcame their fear. Most of all, they longed to obey God and believed He was calling them to go.
By January 2, 1956, the five thought that some Waorani now believed them to be friendly. Certain God's time had come, they decided to fulfil their secret mission. They gathered at Ed and Marilou McCully's home at Arajuno on the edge of Quichua territory, close to Waorani land. The Shell Oil Company had built this outpost with a good airstrip but had left Ecuador in 1948 after losing 12 of their men to Waorani spearings.
It was only a short 15 minute flight for Nate from Arajuno to a sandbar on the River Curaray, code-named "Palm Beach" by the five. No pilot had ever landed there before. If the sand was too soft, the plane's wheels could sink in or worse, it could flip over.
* Day 1 [Tuesday, January 3rd]
After the 7am radio contact with Nate's wife Marj, back in Shell Mera, the five had breakfast. Each one prayed aloud, then together sang a favourite hymn to Sibelius' tune "Finlandia". The last verse climaxed months of preparation and expressed the deepest thoughts of men who totally trusted God:
A DAY OF SIX FLIGHTS
On flight one, Nate ferried in Ed. He buzzed the sandstrip once to check for obstacles, then slipped steeply down between giant trees to touch gently on to his 200 yard natural airstrip "Palm Beach". When he finished his roll out, his right wheel came to rest just six feet from the water. Nate and Ed jumped out, praising God for a safe landing. Then, to their horror, discovered the sand was soft. Would Nate be able to take off again? Yes! but only after he had pushed the plane back on to firmer sand, while Ed lifted the wing.
On flight two, Nate's passengers were Jim and Roger. Jim brought a harmonica, a View-Master with picture reels and a yo-yo to entertain Waorani visitors. He also had a flashlight, snakebite kit and his notebook full of Wao words learned from Dayuma.
Flights three to five were for cargo: two-way radios, food, boards and aluminum. Nate took off again, leaving Ed, Jim and Roger on the beach to assemble the pre-fabricated tree house. They were to sleep in it 35 feet above the ground - safe from a surprise attack. On the way back to Arajuno, Nate overflew Gikita's village and invited the Waorani in their language through a PA, "Come tomorrow to the Curaray!"
LIFE ON PALM BEACH
* Day 2 [Wednesday, January 4th]: Nate shuttled in Pete. Landing on Palm Beach, they found Ed, Roger and Jim walking about, holding out gifts and calling Waorani phrases towards the jungle. Nate radioed his wife Marj in Shell Mera, who tuned in at agreed upon times. Then he and Pete flew out to stay overnight at Arajuno. [They could not leave the plane uncared for because the Waorani had a habit of trashing everything foreign. Another consideration was possible sudden flooding of the beach from heavy rain upstream]. In his diary that night, Nate thanked the Lord Jesus for a good team.
* Day 3 [Thursday, January 5th] started with a disappointment - Ed, Jim and Roger found the gift they had left at the foot of the tree house for the Waorani, the night before, untaken.
Just before landing, Nate and Pete saw footprints from the air. They thought Waorani were watching them on the beach. Jim, wearing almost as little as the Waorani, [who thought they were completely outfitted with only a string around their waist], caught a fifteen inch catfish. Smoke from their cooking fire, repellant and swims helped ward off billions of bugs. At 3pm Nate took off, rising to 6,000 feet. From there he could see both Palm Beach and Gikita's village. As he let back down, Nate circled over the village while ferrying Pete back to Arajuno, calling "Curaray Apa" [River]. They hoped the Waorani would come next day to the Curaray.
* Day 4 [Friday, January 6th] 11.15am: Nate and Pete were at their cooking shelter, while Roger, Ed and Jim shouted Wao phrases at the trees. Suddenly, a man's voice replied and a young man [Naenkiwi], a teenage girl [Gimari, Dayuma's sister] and a woman [Mintaka] appeared - naked but for the strings around their waists and decoratively tied around their wrists. Two-inch diameter balsa wood plugs filled their enlarged sagging earlobes.
The delighted missionaries welcomed them, using all the Wao phrases they knew. The Waorani answered, speaking as though through their noses. They did not realise that the "cuwoody" could not follow their rapid speech but gladly accepted Nate's gifts of a machete and a model plane. Eager to ride in the Piper, Naenkiwi, in amazement soon soared with Nate above his own village, shouting down to his people. Some were delighted, others perplexed to see him in the plane. After Nate and Naenkiwi had touched down, the five tried to explain to their new friend, whom they had nicknamed "George", that they wanted to land the plane in his village. With sticks in the sand to represent trees, they brought the model plane down, showing how it would crash unless the Waorani felled trees and made an airstrip.
At the end of that day, Nate flew Pete back to Arajuno, taking the colour footage he had shot of his four friends getting on well with their new Waorani friends. He also took his diary of their historic contact. Gimari and Naenkiwi slipped into the forest, Mintaka, who should have been chaperoning them, stayed by the fire. [Strange to say the Waorani had a strict cultural moral code that didn't permit an unmarried couple to be alone]. Ed, Roger and Jim slept in their tree house. * Day 5 [Saturday, January 7th]: no Waorani came to Palm Beach. The five read, wrote, swam and practised the Wao language for when their visitors returned.
* Day 6 [Sunday, January 8th]: Nate flew alone over Gikita's village, seeing only a handful of women and children there but then spotting a pack of about ten men rapidly approaching Palm Beach. At 12.30, Nate radioed Marj, "Looks like they'll be here for the early afternoon service. Pray for us. This *is* the day! Will contact you next at four-thirty."
At 4.30pm, Marj tunes in to Nate's frequency on their two-way radio.
Only static.
THROUGH GATES OF PEARLY SPLENDOUR
*Dawa, wife of Kimo, one of the novice spearmen, stood on the ridge behind Palm Beach. Other Waorani joined her. From their hiding place, they watched Gikita lead the spearing raid, yelling, "If we die, we die but let's kill these cuwoody once and for all!"
Shortly after all five cuwoody had been killed and their bodies thrown in the river, the jungle night fell like a black velvet cloak. In the midst of the blackness, the sky suddenly became alive and alight with singing shining people. Angels? Perhaps so - ushering the five martyrs through the Gates of Pearly Splendour of which they had sung before takeoff for their secret mission? As suddenly as they had appeared, the heavenly host were lost to view but, **"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined."
That light still shines. We want to tell you about it.
*This account was based on a newsletter from Rachel Saint (who interpreted for Dawa and Olive Fleming Liefeld, when she visited Palm Beach in 1989). This was printed by Nancy Woolnough in "el periodiQUITO", Vol 12, Issue 1, p 21, May 1990 and used with permission from Marj Saint Van Der Puy, as were the actual words of Nate's last radio contact.
**Isaiah 9:2 [New King James Version].10:07
Monday, January 9, 1956: All attempts at radio contact with the five men still only yielded silence. Nate's colleague Johnny Keenan took off at 7am from MAF at Shell Mera to search for signs of life. 7.30am, with thumping heart, he overflew Palm Beach - empty but for Nate's Piper stripped of its fabric, like a skeletal bird.
Elisabeth Elliot waited in Shandia for Marj Saint in Shell Mera to relay Johnny's radio report, clinging to Isaiah 43:2, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers they shall not overflow you." Praying silently to the Father in whom she trusted, Betty continued her Quichua girls' reading class.
JAARS pilot Larry Montgomery should not have been in Shell Mera at that time but God had brought him there en route to Panama. As a reserve officer in the USAF, Larry rallied rescue from the United Sates Air Rescue Service in Panama by contacting Lieutenant General William K. Harrison, Commander-in-chief of the Caribbean Command. Missionary Radio Station HCJB in Quito alerted the world that five men were missing in Waorani Territory.
GROUND AND AIR SEARCH
Frank Drown, missionary for twelve years to the head-hunting Shuar/Jivaro people, broke out into a cold sweat when unanimously elected leader of the ground search party. Frank's wife Marie urged him to go, ending his hesitation. Dr Art Johnson offered to go as physician. Several missionaries from different parts of Ecuador, among them Dee Short, Morrie Fuller, Jack Schalenko and Don Johnson volunteered to join the search for any survivors.
Tuesday, January 10, Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint, who had been with her during her brother Nate's time at Palm Beach, were flown to Shell Mera. The ground party converged there. A helicopter, manned by Captain McGee and Major Nurnberg, set out from Panama.
Wednesday, January 11, not knowing whether her husband Ed were alive or dead, Marilou McCully prepared a large meal for all the volunteers. Around 10.30am, Frank prayed for God's protection and the party of 30, including thirteen Ecuadorian soldiers and some Quichua carriers, set out on foot from Arajuno towards Oglan on the River Curaray.
Meanwhile, Johnny Keenan radioed Marj from his fourth flight over Palm Beach with the heart-breaking news that he had sighted a body, floating face down in the river.
Late that afternoon, US Air Force planes roared past the smoking snow-capped cone of the volcano Sanguy. They swooped in to land at Arajuno where The US Navy C47 plane, the H13 helicopter from the US army and Johnny Keenan in the MAF Piper had already landed.
By late afternoon, the ground party reached Oglan. There, Frank organized the hire of canoes and stowing of cargo. Then they slept on beds of banana leaves, taking turns to keep watch all night.
Thursday, January 12, Frank again prayed for God's protection and so did the Ecuadorian soldiers. The party continued their journey in canoes, Johnny circling overhead. He warned Frank by two-way radio that two canoe loads of Quichuas were approaching, lest the Ecuadorian soldiers shoot them on sight.
The canoes of both parties met. Quichuas and missionaries, eager to exchange news, jumped out into the shallow river. Frank wished he could understand Quichua. Those brave Quichuas were friends of the McCully's. Yearning for news of him, they had pressed through to Palm Beach and found Ed's body by the water. One of them, who had come to know the Lord through Ed, had brought his watch and the radio from the tree house. He handed them to Frank. Some Quichuas turned round to accompany the search party to Palm Beach.
Meanwhile the air rescue party circled above. Johnny Keenan lowest in MAF's Piper, then the U.S. Navy R-4D and highest of all, the big amphibian of the Air Rescue Service. The Ecuadorian Air Force helped in the search, sending Colonel Izurieta in one of their planes. flying in a wider circle nearby, ready to help in case of need.
Captain McGee and Major Nurnberg in the H13 helicopter preceded them to Palm Beach. Nurnberg landed, but found no one. Then sweeping the surface of the Curaray River, he stopped four times to hover - each time over a body.
Now all five wives were together at Shell Mera with their children: Marj manned the radio and looked after Steve, Cathy and Phil. Betty cared for Valerie, Marilou for Steve and Mike, Barbara for Beth and Jerry. Only Olive did not have a child. They also catered for a procession of rescuers and reporters - all amazed by their serenity.
On one of his frequent radio reports from Shell Mera to HCJB in Quito, Abe Van Der Puy spoke of the wonderful strength and grace displayed by these five women in their hour of utter anguish, because they trusted in the Lord.
Thursday night, the ground party slept at El Capricho, more jittery now Palm Beach was near.
DAY BECAME NIGHT . . .
On Friday January 13, 1956, as the search party rounded the bend before Palm Beach, they saw Nate's stripped plane. Frank cried inwardly to the Lord for grace and strength. Knowing the Waorani used to throw their victims' belongings in the river, the missionsaries searched the Curaray. They found Nate's and Roger's cameras, broken spears, aluminum sheeting torn from the mens's beach shelter and a shovel. This they used in turn to dig their friends' grave.
Cornell Capa, "Life" magazine's photographer-correspondent, who had come in the helicopter, captured in immortal portraits the grief and horror of the scene. However, no storm could drown nor darkness erase the faith of those courageous missionaries who had risked their lives to bury their beloved friends. Though feeling the power of Satan as never before, they trusted God.
Frank Drown knelt on the grave and asked the Lord to watch over the bodies of their dear loved ones until the resurrection morning. He prayed too that many Waorani would become believers because the five men had died for Jesus' sake and been buried in their land.
That night, as the ground party camped on the long trudge home, Don Johnson gave thanks for their meal. Cornell Capa caught the sadness of Don's face on film but was deeply moved by the joy and trust in his voice as Don thanked our loving Father for each of the lives of the dear friends whom he had just helped to bury.
HE HAS PROMISED US FULNESS OF JOY
Meanwhile back in Shell Mera, Marj continued radio contacts with the pilots. The widows adjusted to the use of that word and began to accept that God had a plan in allowing their husbands to be killed.
Different Bible verses comforted each one. Olive Fleming recorded on tape her thoughts on Psalm 16:11, *"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
"Our future is in God's hands. Only to those who believe does life have any meaning. Those who know God have life. . . . He has promised us fulness of joy. He is the God of all comfort and as our hearts and minds are stayed on Him, our lives are filled with joy but as we look to ourselves and take our thoughts off the Altogether Lovely One, we lose our joy. He has promised us 'pleasure for evermore'. This promise is not only for now but for eternity."
* Used with the permission of Olive Fleming Liefeld