Free Republic

Posted on Thu, Jan. 19, 2006 Famed missionary martyrdom ultimately saved the assailants' tribeRICHARD N. OSTLINGAssociated Press NEW YORK - Far from home, five American missionaries died in brutal fashion: speared and hacked to death by tribesman in the dense jungles of Ecuador.That nightmare moment 50 years ago this month evolved into a remarkable example of reconciliation, and one of the most influential incidents in 20th century Protestant mission lore.Now the saga is being retold in "End of the Spear," a moving feature film about redemption in the jungle with a bigger budget ($17 million) and broader release (in...

END OF THE SPEAR By Cal ThomasJanuary 18,2006 Tribune Media Services Fifty years ago this month, five young missionaries were killed by an Ecuadorian tribe known to the world as the Auca Indians. Auca means savage. The tribe called itself, then and now, the Waodani. The real story isn't only the death of those five young men. It is also the incredible reconciliation that took place not long after, as relatives of the dead men returned to offer love and peace to the very people who had murdered their loved ones. That incident and that reconciliation have been told in...