This Christian Life

End of the Spear

Here’s another Christian film coming to the big screen you won’t want to miss. Directed by Jim Hanon, End of the Spear recounts the epic story of how five U.S. missionaries - including Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming and Ed McCully - were killed by the Waodani tribe of Ecuador. It also details the moving process of reconciliation that took place after members of the slain missionaries’ families returned to live among the tribe.

The disappearance of the missionaries made international news in 1956 and ultimately inspired more than 50 books. As the first motion picture on the story, End of the Spear takes a unique approach to the events, exploring them from the Waodani perspective.

The film specifically focuses on the father/son relationship that develops between Steve Saint who was five years old when his father was murdered by the Waodani tribe, and Mincaye, one of the tribesmen involved in the spearings. Steve Saint grew up knowing the men who had killed his father and came to love them to be baptized by their hands and to be embraced as a son in their tribe.

End of the Spear will be released January of 2006 in theatres nationwide to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the missionaries’ deaths. During that time the story has never before been told on the big screen. Steve Saint granted the movie rights to Every Tribe Entertainment, as part of an agreement that involved the producers living with the Waodani, shooting a documentary about them (“Beyond the Gates of Splendor” - available on DVD October 2005) and donating 50 percent of all proceeds to the Waodani and other indigenous people.

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