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Elliff: Vanished tribe highlights gospel urgency
Don Graham, Baptist Press
August 18, 2011
5 MIN READ TIME

Elliff: Vanished tribe highlights gospel urgency

Elliff: Vanished tribe highlights gospel urgency
Don Graham, Baptist Press
August 18, 2011

RICHMOND, Va. — A remote indigenous tribe in the Brazilian

Amazon apparently has been destroyed following a possible assault by drug

traffickers — a development that emphasizes the urgency of taking the gospel to

those who have never heard, according to Southern Baptist missions leaders.

First revealed to the world in February through stunning aerial images, the

tribe — whose name is unknown — was protected by a government guard post.

Survival International, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting the

rights of tribal peoples, reported Aug. 8, however, that the post had been “overrun

by heavily armed men” suspected to be drug traffickers.

Concern about the tribe’s well-being grew when a search by the Brazilian

government’s Indian affairs department (FUNAI) revealed no trace of the tribe

but discovered a broken arrow in a rucksack allegedly belonging to one of the

traffickers. A FUNAI official said such arrows are “the identity card of

uncontacted Indians” and described the incident as a catastrophe.

The news emphasizes the urgency of the Great Commission and should spur

Southern Baptists’ missions efforts, said Tom Elliff, president of the

International Mission Board (IMB).

Separated by generations but united in spirit, this grandfather and granddaughter are members of an indigenous tribe in the greater Amazon area. Identified as one of the world’s 3,800 UUPGs (unengaged unreached people groups), they have little knowledge of the gospel.

“This event is another very chilling reminder of the urgent nature of our

mission endeavors,” Elliff said. “We must reach out with the gospel now,

especially to the world’s unengaged, unreached people groups. Our Lord’s

sobering reminder that ‘night comes, when no man can work’ is a call for

faithfulness at a time when ‘the fields are white unto harvest.’”

Though the IMB had no work among this tribe (Brazilian law prohibits it),

Southern Baptist missionaries are legally sharing the gospel with indigenous

peoples in some South American countries.

What’s more, the mission board’s “Embrace” initiative is bringing even more

attention to indigenous groups in the Americas,

challenging Southern Baptist churches to commit to evangelizing one of the

world’s 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups (UUPGs).

Roughly 300 UUPGs are found in the Americas,

the majority of whom are indigenous. Some of these people groups are as small

as five to seven individuals; others number in the tens of thousands.

Groups like the vanished tribe represent an even further degree of separation

from the gospel — UUUPGs, people groups that are uncontacted, unengaged and

unreached. Missions researchers identify between 50 and 70 such tribes in the

greater Amazon area.

“The irony about it is that even though we live in a part of the world that

probably has the highest evangelical rate on the planet, the negative extreme

is that you have these people groups that have never been contacted,” said

Terry Lassiter, who heads IMB strategy for evangelizing American peoples. “That’s

really sad when you think that 2,000 years after the Great Commission we have

people groups that don’t have the gospel and haven’t even been contacted by the

outside world. This is a whole new level of darkness.

“It breaks my heart and should break the hearts of any Christians to know that

there are peoples like this that may have been exterminated — and they don’t

have the hope of salvation,” Lassiter said.

Getting the gospel to indigenous tribes is a daunting challenge, said Ryan

Goodman*, an IMB missionary who works with indigenous peoples.

Many tribes live in remote locations far from roads, electricity, clean water

and health care, often hidden in dense jungle, Goodman said. Reaching extremely

isolated villages may take up to six days of travel from the U.S.

Some tribes are nomadic and roam within large, government-protected

reservations that tightly restrict access.

Language is another obstacle, Goodman added. At least 25 distinct languages can

be identified in the area where he works. Barriers to accessing an indigenous

tribe also may come from the people themselves; many fear and distrust

outsiders after decades of exploitation and disease.

“If (civilization makes) contact with them in the wrong way, they could

literally be dead in weeks because of diseases,” Goodman said. “That’s a huge

conflict — we can go in and provide them with eternal salvation, but we could

destroy them at the same time.”

Above all the physical challenges, however, the spiritual barriers may be the

hardest to overcome, Lassiter said.

“These are peoples that have been in the darkness of the evil one for their

entire existence,” Lassiter said. “From a human standpoint, the physical

barriers seem very tough, but we know God has given us a Great Commission to go

to all nations. It is the spiritual battle that has to be won first, and that

begins through prayer and seeking the Lord in how to reach these people.”

*Name changed.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Graham is a senior writer for the

International Mission Board.)