Something God planned

So it seems like no matter what way I turn, I am surrounded with references to the story of Jim, Nate, Pete, Roger, and Ed – the five missionaries whose story is shared in Through Gates of Splendor. A friend gave me a magazine today that included a couple of articles about Steve Saint (son of Nate) and his view on his father’s death.

To set the context, know that the families of these five guys stayed in the area and continued to minister to the Auca Indians (called ‘the Waodani’ below). Their wives, their children, their sisters… they STAYED. Can you even imagine what that must have been like?

This is what Steve said:

“I [am] forced to conclude that God didn’t just allow this to happen… I think this is something God planned, and used the Waodani to carry out. And I think it would be a real stretch, from anything I’ve seen over the last fifty years, to think He planned it primarily to reach the Waodani….

“[The deaths] had some impact on them… But [the Waodani] lived in a culture in which they killed all the time. They expected to die at any time. So one more killing of five foreigners wasn’t any big deal to them. What it was a big deal to was the outside world. The people here in the U.S. and Europe and Canada and much of South America were transfixed by the disappearance of these five missionaries, wondering, ‘Why would they risk their lives to do something like this?’”

Indeed. Why WOULD they risk their lives, except for the fact they had already surrendered their lives to Christ and were living for HIM and HIS glory…

What does God have planned for me?