“You Won’t Come Back Alive!”
First Contact
It was 1943. NTM’s first team of missionaries in Bolivia sought to share the gospel with the Ayoré people. Little was known about the Ayorés, and what was known would not put your mind at ease. Their nomadic way of life complicated every effort at making a friendly contact — if a friendly contact were even possible.
For God’s Glory
“You won’t come back alive,” the missionaries were warned. But this did not deter them.
Others asked, “Why go out there and risk your lives?”
The answer was simple: “It is because the glorious name of Jesus is not known here, and must be made known at any cost, … that we are going,” Cecil Dye explained. “I don’t believe we care so much whether this expedition is a failure so far as our lives are concerned, but we want God to get the most possible glory from everything that happens.”
Tragedy to Triumph
Five men went out. And five men were ushered into eternity as martyrs at the hands of the Ayoré people. But God received the glory. On the foundation of martyrdom for the cause of Christ, the Ayoré church was born.
Read the in-depth story of the the Ayoré people from the past to the present in the upcoming February issue of NTM@work.