Here’s a link to an interesting article discussing the actual history behind the movie “End of the Spear”, discussing where the movie digresses from truth into fiction. The movie comes out on DVD June 13.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2006/003/13.16.html
Three of us (Chaz, Helga and Laura) had the privilege of accompanying our local church’s children’s ministry group on a day mission trip to an Embera community, Parara Puru. It all started at 8:00 a.m., as the children and their parents gathered at the church. There was an hour or so of preparation time, when the children’s pastor talked about being a missionary and a good witness for Jesus and explained what we would be doing. Chaz shared pictures and information about the Embera people and fielded questions from the audience. Some parents were quite concerned about safety - size of boats, depth of the river, flooding, crocodiles, etc. We were able to calm fears, broke up into groups to pray and were on our way.
As we started on the bus ride to the dock where we’d catch the canoes, it started to rain, and rained the whole drive (about 45 minutes). We adults commented to each other, “What a great introduction to missionary life - traveling up river in the rain!†God was feeling merciful that day, however, because by the time we got into the canoes, it was raining only lightly and soon even that cleared up.
(All pictures are courtesy of Andrew Edmonds and Chris Stanton).
A quick 10-minute ride upriver in motor-powered canoes and we’d arrived at Parara Puru.
We were greeted with Embera men playing music and lots of women and children watching and greeting us.
We climbed the hill to the large covered tourist reception area at the base of the village. We admired all the beautiful handmade artesania, then took a tour of the village.
We got lots of information on medicinal plants, the artwork, history and customs of the Embera people, as well as enjoying several traditional dances, one of which we were all invited to join in.
Chaz did lots of translating.
Traditional dance
The tourist version
The kids from Crossroads jumped in to make friends and show interest in all they were seeing and hearing. The kids of Parara Puru were also quick to befriend all of us, joining us for games up on the basketball court, then enjoying lunch together and treat bags that we’d brought to hand out to everyone.
You can see Chaz and Laura in the background.
The Emberas paint temporary tattoos on arms or faces. This is a long-standing tradition for them for special occasions.
Laura and Lisbet enjoyed seeing each other again. They’ve grown a bit since “End of the Spear” days. Those of you who saw the movie may recognize her as “Bibanka”, the little girl who gets eaten by the boa.
After more fellowship and lots of artesania-buying, we all gathered around to share a presentation of the gospel with all the kids of Parara Puru. Then it was time to go - and then came the real adventure! We said our good-byes, with promises to return, then started back down the river towards the landing at the road where our bus was. The river had gotten high and quite wild, with rapids swirling ferociously. As we neared the landing, the whole middle of the river was a surging mass of water, which couldn’t be crossed in these canoes full of children. So the Emberas navigating us went over to the edge of the river and one by one the canoes inched toward the landing, stopping short so we could all scramble out of the canoes up a steep mountainside. Many people waiting for their boats came over to help all the “gringos†up the mountain. We enjoyed adventure and the extra exercise.
Back at church we had a time for the kids to share with their parents what they’d learned about this new culture and about sharing Jesus cross-culturally. Those kids really picked up on a lot of things and were without exception enthusiastic about their experience. We were happy to be a part of this new adventure for these kids. Who knows, maybe someday one of them will decide to become a missionary!
One of the fathers who had been the most worried about the trip approached Chaz the following Sunday and asked if he and his family can come along on our next trip up to the Embera communities. We don’t expect to be able to go before our US trip, but when we return, we’d like to go upriver again for some visits. We’d like to follow up on the distributed Scripture, the people there would like help in reading written Embera and we’d like to show them “End of the Spearâ€. A number of people from Parara Puru are in the movie.