“How beautiful on the mountains Are the feet of him who
brings good news, Who proclaim peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaim salvation, Who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7)
Bruce
Olsen is a missionary who has been in the jungles of Venezuela and Columbia for
many years bringing the gospel and a better way to live to the Motilone Indians
and other tribes that reside in that region. He felt called to go to these
Indians at the age of 19 and was obedient to the call of God to go, even though
he did not have a college degree or a mission organization to support him. The
first tribe he encountered there could not pronounce his name so they gave him
the name of Bruchko and that is the title of the book that he penned telling of
life there with this primitive tribe.
He had many hard times learning to live with a stone age culture, living
in the large communal hut with them, eating what they ate, suffering
sicknesses, hunting and fishing with them, constantly bothered by insects,
enduring the heat and humidity, and sleeping in a hammock high in the rafters
of the tribal home. After living with them for four years and learning how to
speak their difficult tonal language, he was frustrated by his inability to
communicate the gospel message so that they could understand what Christ had
done for all mankind by dying on a cross and rising from the dead so that we
might become His disciples. He had one very close companion whom he had named
Bobby, and this is how Bruce explains the breakthrough for the first convert to
Christianity:
“One evening, though, Bobby began to ask questions. We were sitting
around a fire. The light flicked
over him. His face was serious. ‘How can I walk the Jesus trail?’ he asked. No
Motilone has ever done it. It’s a new thing. There is no other Motilone to tell
how to do it.’
‘Bobby,’ I said. ‘Do you remember my first Festival of the Arrows, the
first time I had seen all the Motilonis gathered to sing their song?’ The
festival was the most important in the Motiloni culture.
He
nodded. The fire flared up momentarily, and I could see his eyes, staring
intently at me.
‘Do you
remember that I was afraid to climb in the high hammocks to sing, for fear that
the rope would break? And I told you that I could sing only if I could have one
foot in the hammock and one foot on the ground?’
‘Yes
Bruchko.’
‘And
what did you say to me?’
He
laughed. ‘I told you you had to
have both feet in the hammock. ‘You have to be suspended, I said.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You have to
be suspended. That is how it is when you follow Jesus, Bobby. No man can tell
you how to walk His trail. Only Jesus can. But to find out you have to tie you
hammock strings to Him and be suspended in God.’
The next
day he came to me. ‘Bruchko,’ he said, ‘I want to tie my hammock strings into
Jesus Christ. But how can I when I can’t see Him or touch Him?’
‘You
have talked to spirits, haven’t you?’
‘Oh, I see now.’
The next day he had a big grin on his face. ‘Bruchko, I’ve tied my hammock strings to Jesus. Now I speak
with a new language.’
I
didn’t understand what he meant. ‘Have you learned some of the Spanish I
speak?’
He laughed a clean, sweet laugh.
‘No Bruchko, I speak an new language.’
Then I understood. To a Motilone, language is life. If Bobby had a new
life, he had a new way of speaking. His speech would now be Christ-oriented.
We put
our hands on each others shoulders. My mind swept back to the first time I had
met Jesus and the life I had felt flow into me. Now my brother Bobby was
experiencing Jesus himself, in the same way. He had begun to walk with Jesus.
‘Jesus
has risen from the dead!’ Bobby shouted, so that the sound filtered far off
into the jungle. ‘He has walked our trails! I have met Him!’” (Bruchko by Bruce
Olsen, pp/ 138-139
Bobby
grew in the knowledge of Christ over the following months. His entire
personality and demeanor changed, and the tribe took notice. At the next
Festival of Arrows Bobby sang a song that told the story of Jesus to the tribe.
The singing lasted for fourteen hours with Bobby singing and another repeating
what he sang. At the end of the song the entire tribe asked if they could
suspend their hammocks into Jesus also and become followers of Christ!
Who have you suspended your hammock on: yourself, your
education, your possessions, your family, your job, your boy or girlfriend, your
spouse, your intelligence, your talents, your good looks? Or have you put your trust in the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords?
“Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, to be
reconciled to God.’ (2 Corinthians
5:17,20 NKJV)
Pray:
1.
Lord thank you that I can “hang my hammock on
you” that I can trust you to uphold me and guide my path if I am seeking to
know you better and being obedient to you Word.
2.
Lord help me to daily, hang my hammock on you
and to “cast all my cares upon You,” knowing that only You are ‘the Way, the
Truth, and the Life.”
3.
Help me to look for ways today to tell others
about You and what You have done in my life.
