Bruchko

“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.