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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Ruby Jones.
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And I’m Adam Navis. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Today’s Spotlight looks at the life of Steve Saint. His organisation helps tribes and communities around the world to use modern technology. He first created the organisation to help one particular tribe in South America. Once, people of this tribe expected Steve Saint’s family to attack them. Instead, Steve brought them help.
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Steve Saint’s organisation is called I–TEC – ‘Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center’. I–TEC teaches local people how to use technology. This means that native people do not have to depend on foreign groups giving them aid.
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Steve Saint started the organisation because he wanted to help the Waodani tribe. They live in the Amazon rainforest. He had known them for much of his life. The story of how they came to know each other is a story of violence – and forgiveness.
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Back in the early 1950s, a group of young men from the USA went to Ecuador. Some of them had heard about a tribe that lived in the huge rainforest around the Amazon River. Many local people were afraid of this tribe. Few people had met the tribe and survived. People called them the Aucas. This name was an insult in the local language. It means ‘wild people’. However, the group of five men tried very hard to meet them. The men were Christians – followers of Jesus Christ. They believed that Jesus’ teachings could bring the tribe peace.
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First of all, the men used an airplane to fly over the rainforest to search for the Aucas. After months of planning and searching, they found the tribe. Next, the men tried to gain the tribe’s trust. They dropped gifts as they flew over. But the men wanted to meet the tribe face to face. So, in January 1956, they landed the airplane on an area of sand by the river. This was not far from where the Aucas lived. Then the men waited for the tribe to come.
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A few days later they had their first meeting. Three members of the tribe came to them. It was a friendly and peaceful visit. Two days later, more people from the tribe came to them. However, these people were not friendly. They did not trust the foreigners. The Aucas attacked the visitors with long sharp sticks. These spears killed all five men. The men were all around thirty years old. They were all married, and most had children. One of these children was Steve Saint. His father, Nate Saint, had been the pilot of the airplane.
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Steve Saint was only five years old when his father was killed. And yet when Steve was ten years old he began visiting the tribe. He lived with them during his school holidays. How was this possible? Well, his father’s sister had gone to live with the Aucas. Rachel Saint had successfully continued the work started by the group of five men. She discovered the tribe’s real name – the Waodani. Rachel told the tribe that she believed in peace and forgiveness. This was very new to Waodani people. They expected that the dead men’s families would come and attack them. But instead the families forgave them. This idea helped the tribe to become much more peaceful.
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Rachel Saint lived with the Waodani for many years. And, in 1994 she died. She was eighty years old. Steve Saint came to bury her in the rainforest. The Waodani persuaded him to stay and live with them. So Steve Saint came with his family to live in the rainforest with the tribe. However, after a year and a half he decided to leave again. He was worried that the Waodani depended on him too much. So, he moved away and decided to find another way to help them.
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Foreign aid groups had been using their skills to help the Waodani for some years. But the Waodani wanted to learn how to do things for themselves. They wanted Saint to teach them the skills that the foreigners had.
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So that was when Steve Saint created I–TEC. One way I–TEC is helping is by teaching people how to do the work of a dentist. Fixing people’s teeth is difficult without the right equipment. So I–TEC has designed a dentist’s chair. It is easy to carry so it can be taken to where it is needed. And, it is not just the Waodanis that I–TEC has helped with this. I–TEC has taught dentistry to tribal people in a number of different countries. One such person is King Hammond from Ghana. He wrote a letter to Steve Saint.
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‘Hello Steve, I think of you often. Your dentist chairs often help me to remember you. We are in our fourth year of doing dentistry ourselves. We have helped around ten thousand patients with both small and big problems. We praise God for this. Thank you again.’
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I–TEC’s other projects includes a small flying vehicle. This will let the Waodani visit other villages much more easily.
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Steve Saint also does a lot of travelling. He speaks to many people about the work he does. Often his friend from the Waodani travels with him. He is called Mincaye. Mincaye knew Rachel Saint. Her behaviour influenced him greatly. So he decided to become a follower of Jesus too.
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Mincaye’s story is also one of amazing forgiveness. Mincaye was one of the Waodani that attacked the group of men in 1956. He killed Steve Saint’s father, Nate. But today Mincaye and Steve are good friends. They travel the world together, telling other people about their lives. They also work together on I–TEC projects. Steve Saint has written about an event that describes their friendship – a friendship only made possible by the power of forgiveness.
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‘Mincaye pulled out the tooth that was causing a woman pain. Then he gently held her head in his hands and prayed that God would heal her heart. When Mincaye held her face to pray... I looked at his gentle hands. I knew that they were the same hands that put spears through my precious father’s body. I love those hands. Like my own, they have been changed by the hands of God.’
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