Into the Forest with Valerie

“Do not let evil win over you. Win over evil by doing good.” — from Romans 12

Some of Betty’s friends thought she should not go. It seemed far too dangerous for a young mother to take her little girl to live among the people who had killed her husband. Betty knew the danger. But the Waorani had asked her to come, and she believed God wanted them to hear about him. So she went.

In October 1958, Betty, Valerie and Rachel Saint walked through the forest with Dayuma and the Waorani who had come to fetch them. Three-year-old Valerie had to be carried. On 8 October they reached a Waorani clearing beside a little river called the Tiwaeno. That day would have been Jim’s thirty-first birthday.

The Waorani lived in big houses roofed with palm leaves, slept in hammocks, and hunted with blowguns. Betty and Valerie lived in a simple shelter with a roof of leaves. The Waorani gave Betty a new name: Gikari, which means “woodpecker.” Valerie played with the Waorani children, ran barefoot, and soon spoke their language easily.

Some of the men who had been on the beach that day lived right there in the clearing. Betty met them. She saw that they were not monsters. They laughed, looked after their children and went hunting. They had acted out of fear. Betty did not pretend that what they had done did not matter. But she had made up her mind to forgive them before she came, and she did not hate them.

Betty lived among the Waorani for about three years. She gave medicine to the sick and worked hard at the language, while Dayuma told her people about God. Over the years, some of the very men who had been on the beach came to follow Jesus. Later, two of them baptised Nate Saint’s son and daughter in the river near the beach where their father had died.

Jesus tells us to love even people who have hurt us. That is very hard. But God can help us forgive, and our kindness can show others his love.

Dear Jesus, it is hard to love people who have hurt me. Please help me to forgive, and to do good to them, like Betty did. Amen.