Book Report: End of the Spear
Author: Steve Saint
Publication: 2005
Pages: 338
3/13/25
In 1956, Steve’s dad along with four other missionaries were killed by a tribe of people residing in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. They had been dropping supplies to the Waodani people for several weeks and then decided to land in a clearing to introduce themselves and attempt to develop a relationship. They were instantly speared to death.
In approximately 1958, Steve’s aunt Rachel moved in with the Waodani, learned their language, translated the New Testament into their language and acted as a Christian missionary until her death in November of 1994. When Steve went to Ecuador to attend her funeral (she was buried with the Waodani), they (several were the exact people who speared the missionaries) asked Steve & his family to come live with them as well for more training and assistance. Steve, his wife, a son & daughter moved there for ~1.5 years. In order to more properly assist them, they asked them to build a more centralized village )in the center of the area where all of the various Waodani tribes) with a longer runway so that more supplies could be brought in. They built a runway using only hand tools in about 9 months when it was projected to take over a year to complete. Steve’s family then built a school and added a medical/pharmacy facility (in their house) and trained the people to build more permanent housing, do some basic chemistry, use a computer, make clothes (the Waodani were practically naked before), grow rice, etc. They were essentially trying to drag them into the 21st century without drastically changing their culture.
After 1.5 years, he realized that he needed to leave to make the Waodani assume more authority and responsibility for their own lives. The Waodani elected a select few to be further trained on how to buy & sell for the pharmacy, build in margins, manage inventory, negotiate bulk purchases, etc. Tementa was one young man who stepped up to learn these skills. The Saint family left for the US in July of 96.
Steve returned in September of 96 to check in with them. It became apparent that one of the things the tribe missed the most was Steve’s ability to fly people out & supplies in for emergencies. They wanted their own plane, which was practically impossible. Soon after this, Steve realized that an ultralight could do the job, so he bought one and retrofit it with a larger engine & better fuel system. He disassembled it to be put in a crate and taken to Ecuador. No license was required and he trained Temente to be the pilot. While there, he realized the importance of reaching more people and improving their skills (teaching a man to fish vs. giving him a fish), so he developed the Indigenous Peoples Technology & Education Center (I-TEC) to help with this.
Two years later, their son’s Waodani godfather (Mencaye) wanted to attend Jesse’s (Steve’s youngest son) high school graduation. They obtained an Ecuadoran passport & US visa for him. Upon arrival, he was amazed at all of the food in grocery stores, elevators, cars, credit cards and hot showers. Soon after, Steve started getting speaking engagements for them in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington DC, etc – first for educational purposes and later to raise money for I-TEC. Tementa later joined them for this as well. During this time, the Saint’s youngest child, their daughter Stephanie, returned from a year-long Youth For Christ international traveling choir. The night she returned, she died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 21 – testing the faith of the Saint family.
A week later, Steve, Mencaya & Tementa went to Amsterdam for an evangelical conference with ~11,000 from 209 countries in attendance. As a result, there was a great amount of exposure to I-TEC and a large amount of money was raised. Additionally, an investor wanted to make a movie about the Waodani. This portion of their journey is covered in the next book about the Saint family entitled “Walking His Trail” by Steve & Ginny Saint.
What I learned from this book that will increase my prospects for success after prison:
1) It took an amazing amount of fortitude and forgiveness for Steve Saint to assist the exact same Waodani who killed his dad. To not only agree to assist them, but to subject his wife and children to the different and lacking food system, malaria as a disease, no running water and outhouse toilets for 1.5 years is almost incredulous to me. I do not think I have that same gene in me and most people I know do not.
2) There is always the spectrum of how much to assist indigenous or developing people vs. teaching them to help themselves. Based on Steve’s book, it sounds like he found a good balance here. He wanted them to not just take the authority for their future, but also the responsibility or it. In the US, we could never subdue some of the tribes, so we gave them reservations, houses, blankets, food and let them grow bored and unable to do for themselves. Once the people became sufficiently dependent, they could be manipulated at the whim of federal government handlers. Steve was trying to prevent dependence on others as he saw that as the greatest threat the Waodani faced. I see this dependence on the U.S. government as a great threat faced by a great number of U.S. citizens and how to stop this trend seems almost impossible to me. Too many of us are paying for people who don’t care, aren’t responsible and have little to lose.
3) Steve wrote that “true love doesn’t mean never having to say you are sorry. It means expecting the best of those you love and giving them every reasonable benefit of the doubt.” As someone in prison who has hurt and shamed his friends and family, this statement made sense to me.
