Dr. Wally

Today we had a picnic with some of the Samaritan's Purse staff in Ecuador.  The man that lives above Judd Johnson, SP's country director for Ecuador, has been here for many years as a medical missionary.  Wally Swanson was the doctor in Shell during the polio outbreak of the Waorani (Auca).  While he was in med school he did a study to learn more about the tribes in the Amazon.  All that he read and all the people he interviewed said that they could not recall one male Waorani who had died, but by the spear.  The death rate from spearing for women and children was 75%.  When polio broke out within some of the tribes it opened up the door for Christians to share compassion with those who had never experienced anything like it.  Doctor Wally couldn't personally go in help to help the tribes since as male he would likely have been speared on the spot, but he dropped medicine and prepared the teeter-totter beds that kept the people breathing.  (If you've read the history/seen the movie, you know about these.)  At first, the Waorani that were dying believed that if they allowed themselves to be helped by the few Waorani that had accepted Christ they would be killed; it was a ploy to spear them while they were weak.  However, as more died, they figured they were as good as dead anyway.  When they accepted help and were shown compassion and love instead of 'the end of a spear' it completely caught them off guard and many came to know Christ as their Savior.  God used medicine to play a big role to end the killings.  We're excited to get to use this tool He has blessed Dan with to reach the hurting in Shell now, 50 years later.  What a blessing to have others who have gone before us like Dr. Wally, as well. 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Hebrews 12:1