Touched by The End of the Spear

It was the most beautiful Valentine's Day Gift I could have imagined...it was better than diamond rings and chocolate...it was a night with my Beloved and he took me to see The End of the Spear.

I tell you, there is a missionary pent up inside me somewhere! This movie so touched a place in my heart that I literally wept in the theatre. Okay, okay, granted, this is not your average "chic flick"...but the tears were real and the emotion the film evoked was overwhelming...POWERFUL!

I was reading a friend's blog that pointed out that a leader in the Christian community had serious issues with this film and said that it did not present the gospel...so after seeing the movie myself I was stunned and wondered how this leader missed the obvious? So I read the commentary for myself this morning and was just stunned. I somehow got the impression that we saw two different movies...but no, it was one and the same movie.

Why do you suppose there is so much controversy over anything that is Christian in the public square--and suprisingly it is NOT the non-believers doing the complaining! The believers have taken on a new canabalistic tradition of eating their own...much more gruesome than the original state of the Waodoni tribe in the real life version of The End of the Spear if you ask me!

Christian canabals? Don't believe me? Just do a google search of "christian controversy" and add "Passion of the Christ" or "Chronicles of Narnia", or to be true to the idea of canabalism, try RICK WARREN...one Christian human being that is devoured by his own! For more proof of Christian canabals, try a search on the KJV only debate...OH MY!! ....but I digress....

Last week I was making some visitor packets for our church administrator. As I was putting the info packs together I read through one of the flyers on "How We Worship". It went through a small bible study on the 7 Hebrew words used to describe worship in Scripture. There were many outward expressions of worship discussed in Word. And as I sat there in the theater with tears running down my face as the movie closed, the thought of shouting AMEN just did not seem appropriate...but I immediately was drawn back to that study on 7 ways to worship...and with tears streaming down my cheeks I simply began to clap my hands. The first 3-5 seconds was awkward because I was the only one clapping...but it was like permission was granted to everyone simply by my expressing what was in my heart at that moment, and the whole theater joined me in my expression of WORSHIP to God for what I had just seen on the big screen...the amazing story of Christ's love and redemption.

One of the criticisms of this movie that I read about was a claim that the Gospel was not presented. I am not sure how they missed it, but it was clearly there! The Waodoni tribe did not know the name "Jesus" or "God" but they had a clear understanding within them about what they called "Waengongi [the Creator]".

Earlier in the movie a young girl named Dyaume was sent out of her village and she sought refugee with the Missionaries. She lived with them and became a Christian. Later in the film Dyaume took the wives of the slain missionaries with her as she went to try and make contact with her people, now as an adult. When her family realized she was not dead they were glad to see her. She explained to the people that the reason the "foreigners" had come to them was to tell them that Waengongi [the Creator] had a son. The son was also speared, but he did not fight back. He died so that they all could live. That is the gospel in a nut shell.

It bothers me sometimes that we lose sight of communicating to people in terms they understand because we are so blinded by our western mindset. This movie was filmed from the perspective of the Waodoni tribesmen. Would it not make sense to use terms that could help them comprehend the message? They may not have understood the term "GOD", but they did understand Waengongi [the Creator] ...and from that understanding the foundation of truth was laid. Is it really that important that our western terminology was not used, but rather one that they understood? How is this any different that the Apostle Paul standing on Mars Hill in Athens using the statue to "The Unknown God" to preach Jesus? It is the age old wisdom of using what is known as a bridge to teaching the unknown. I vaguely remember another man who used this same technique as well...anyone else remember a story about a pearl of great price, or the sheep and the goats, a lost coin?? Oh...but He was not just a man, He was God in the flesh...so maybe we could learn something from His teaching techniques. And God forbid, in Jesus name, that we get labled as heretical people who are watering down the gospel to try and be "culturally relevant" to the lost around us because we seek to communicate to them in ways, or terminology they understand. This whole controversy thing really suprised me. Do you suppose the Christian Cannibals have a bit of the "Jonah problem" in them and they would really like to see the lost burn in their sin and be frustrated if they truly repented?

For what it is worth, we are going to see it again and take our children with us. There are only two things in this world I have ever told my children that is worth sacrificing your life for. One is for your faith in Christ and the other is the soverignty and freedom of our nation.

Our kids have grown up in a post 9-11 world...so they see on a daily basis the cost of freedom and the cost of helping others get free- from a militaristic point of view. And though we have read great missionary stories and personally know missionaries in the field, there is something about showing these 21st century kids something visual, in a medium that will stick in their minds, just why it is worth the willingness to lose your life, if necessary, for the cause of Christ.

The most moving part of the story to me was when the young son of a missionary ran to him before he boarded his plane to try and make contact with the Waodoni people and asked him (when he saw the gun in the plane), "Dad, if they attack you will you defend yourself?" The dad knelt down to his son's eye level and caressed his cheek and said, "Son, they are not ready for Heaven, but we are...I will only fire my gun in the sky, if I have to..."

So...all that to say, I was DEEPLY touched by the End of the Spear!

Love, Dawn