“A Plentiful Harvest”

GRN, thank you so much for all the information you gave me about the messages recorded back in the late 50’s and early 60’s. It was so good to look at it all and realize the amount of work and effort that went into all those recordings. I saw many names I have not heard for a long time, from those we worked with in the Sanoma village for a year, and later in the Orinoco River Mission area. A friend told me he took Jon Van Kampen (another GR recordist) around by dugout canoe to the villages on the Mavaca, Orinoco and Padamo rivers.

Here is why I wanted the backstory. We had gotten permission from Larry a few years ago to put the recordings on the Torches that we were placing with the Yanomamö. To be honest, I had not thought of those recordings since helping do the Enemy God movie, back in 2007, where they had a little boy actor, playing my part from way back, cranking the crank record player so the people could hear them. Well, the villagers in the movie listened about as well as the Yanomamö had listened so many years ago when I cranked a player for them. They just could not care less–they just laughed. While they thought it was interesting having a man’s voice come out of this small box, that was as far as they took it.

Then in 2023, we placed our largest Torch order to date, for 1000 Torches. My brother Gary, who was on furlough in SC, called and asked me if it might be possible to get those old recordings put on this bunch of Torches. I told him I had no idea where to even start looking. Then, I remembered that someone had given Larry a copy of my first book and Larry had written introducing himself. We have kept in touch ever since that time, so I wrote him asking if those audio files might still be available. He told me about an app called 5 fish.

I downloaded the app and could not believe it, but there were all those old messages. I even saw all the Maquiritare audio files. Since they are a tribe that lives just to our northwest, we downloaded them as well. Long story short, we put the Maquiritare (now known as the Dyecuana) files on 200 Torches and the Yanomamö files on 800 Torches.

While we were already back in Venezuela waiting for our flight to take us and our 1000 Torches back into the jungle, I remembered that the guy whose voice we had used for the Yanomamö recordings, a man by the name of Yaubewä, had died about 3 years ago.

This was a terrible realization! More than tragic. The Yanomamö take death very hard. A person who dies is never mentioned again. Nothing of his or hers is saved. To touch such things is very taboo. And now, here I was, with 800 Torches with this guy’s voice on them. They were never going to be listened to; worse yet, the people would probably demand that we destroy all of the Torches. Yaubewä’s family would insist on it.

As soon as we got to the village, I met with our outreach teams. These are some of the strongest believers in our village and they have been an awesome help in reaching far-away villages with the Gospel. I explained the problem. Most of them did not think it would be a big deal. “Listen,” they told me, “these recordings were made long ago when he was a young man. Probably no one will even recognize his voice, as he died a very old man. But just in case, we just won’t give any of these Torches to the people on the Ocamo who might recognize his voice.” So we agreed.

Since these Torches were a newer version, I gave each of our outreach team members their own Torch so they could get really familiar with how they worked, in order to demonstrate them to the people they would be giving them to. Well, that night, Lanzo, one of the elders of our church here, lay in the dark listening to Yaubewä’s lessons. This was the first time he had ever heard them. Well, Lanzo forgot that his wife’s family was originally from the Ocamo and her cousin was there in the house visiting.

The next morning in our early morning Bible study, this visiting cousin was there in class. After the Bible lesson, he asked if he could say something. I said yes. His next words blew me away. Here is his story.

I got to my cousin’s house right before dark and hung my hammock. I was tired after having paddled almost 3 days to get home. I spoke with my cousin for awhile but was almost asleep before Lanzo came in all excited with this thing in his hands. He got in his hammock and started playing it. Suddenly, I heard my grandfather’s voice! I could not believe that Lanzo would so disrespect me. I almost jumped up and yelled at him, but he is older than me and I do respect him. So I just laid there thinking I should just get up and leave. But I was tired, so just laid quiet. Suddenly I realized that Lanzo was not disrespecting my grandfather, but he was actually honoring him by listening to what he had said when he was alive.

So I quietly laid there in my hammock and listened with tears in my eyes. I could not believe what my grandfather was talking about. He talked about no fear. All we know in my village is fear. Fear from enemy raiders, fear of enemy witchdoctors, fear from the jecula (demons), actually fear of everything. Then my grandfather talked about peace. I don’t know peace. Yes, I know the word, but in my village no one has any peace. Anyway, the reason I came to your Bible class this morning was to ask if you would give me one of those Torches to take it to my mom, so her and her sisters can listen to their father, my grandfather, tell about this peace.

I looked around at the different men who are members of our outreach team. We all knew how devastating this would be if the people in his village threw a fit about the voice on the Torches. Turning to him I asked him, “How do you think your village is going to react to hearing this voice of a dead relative?” He nodded. “I will just play it only for my mom and her sisters,” he assured us.

Looking around again, I saw everyone nodding. “Ok,” I told him, “we will give you one. But please know, we cannot destroy these Torches because someone doesn’t want to hear what’s on it.” Again, he nodded. We gave him a Torch and Lanzo showed him how to use it.

A little over a week later, he came back. Remember, he had to paddle about 3 days to get home and another 3 days to get back to our village–but here he was back again. “I need another Torch,” he told me. “My mom and her sisters were in their house listening to this Torch I brought. As they listened to their father talk, tears were running down their faces. Suddenly, my uncle, the shaboli (witchdoctor), stormed into the house demanding they destroy that thing. He refused to listen to his father. I saw my mother and her sisters do something I never thought I would see. They jumped up, grabbed my uncle under his arms, and pretty much threw him out of their hut!”

I waited to hear how his mother and her sisters had been beaten up, which would be the normal reaction to such defiance, but he shook his head. “They went back and kept listening to their father on the Torch. A few days later, my uncle came to me asking if he could borrow my Torch. Looking at him intently, I had to ask. ‘Are you just wanting it to destroy it?’ He shook his head no. ‘I want to hear it for myself,’ he assured me.”

The next day, he brought the player back and asked me to please go back home and get a Torch just for him. I could not believe it. This witchdoctor has been so abusive and against the Gospel for as long as I have known him, which is basically all my life. But we sent one over to him.

Over the next weeks, we were inundated with people from those villages paddling over to ask for their own Torch. Many of them have since made professions of faith in Christ.

The stories continue. Late last year, one of our outreach teams were way up another river. They returned all excited. In their report, they mentioned that they had even given one to the wife of the witchdoctor in the village of Jishiyobä. This witchdoctor has been very against the Gospel and had made no secret of his hatred for anything to do with Christ. The team did not think that Torch would last very long once the witchdoctor heard it. But the witchdoctor’s wife really begged for one, so they gave it to her. The report ended, “You know, before we leave we always pray and ask God to direct us to the person that is really ready to listen to His Word. We all felt we should give her one.”

“Ok, good,” I told them. About 3 months later, I was up that area myself and actually stopped in the same village. The guys with me wanted to see if anyone had any questions about what they were hearing on the Torches. I noticed the witchdoctor watching me. Normally, he never even came close to me or to any of our team. But he was just standing there watching me. I noticed him edging closer. Once he was basically standing near me alone, he motioned me to come closer and, leaning over, he whispered, “Can you give me one of those Torches?”

“We don’t have enough to give one to a husband and one to the wife, we don’t even have enough to give to every family. Just borrow your wife’s,” I told him. He frowned. “She won’t loan it to me any longer,” he muttered. Then, looking at him closely, I asked him, “Why do you want one?” But I am sure he could hear in my voice exactly what I was really asking him: “You are the witchdoctor, what do you want one for?”

Again, he looked around to make sure no one could overhear him. Looking at me again, he said, “I found out something while borrowing my wife’s Torch. I would turn it on and lay it on my chest there in my hammock, and I would fall asleep listening to it. I found out that while I was listening to God’s talk, the jecula (demons) do not bother me all night.”

Well, we gave him his own Torch. I have not been able to get back up to his village due to lack of fuel since this time, but one of our first trips will be to go up that river. I am excited to hear what this old witchdoctor is saying now.

In conclusion: I know if you would have asked my dad who passed in 2011 and my mom who passed in 2021 and the other older missionaries who also have already gotten their promotions to Glory, what they thought about those recordings, I am positive they would have said, they were a waste of time. No one wanted to listen to them back when they were recorded. No one cared. But, now, it seems like NOW is the time for which the Lord had those recordings made. People all up and down the Padamo, Orinoco, Ocamo, and Mavaca Rivers are begging for their own Torch. And people are accepting the message of God’s love like we have never seen with the Yanomamö. It is amazing. I have heard story after story about how someone recognized his or her own need for a Savior after hearing these recordings.

Now more than ever, I am so convinced that nothing done for Christ is ever a waste of time. God’s Word says, someone plants, someone waters, but it is God who gives the increase. It also says, God is not willing that any should perish…and that HIS Word will never return void. So it has been our privilege to watch the Lord use these recordings that were done so long ago, with so much sacrifice, finally bearing fruit.

This story started over 60 years ago with Gospel Recordings sending people out to record these foundational truths in the native languages. I wanted to let you all know that the Lord is now reaping a plentiful harvest.

Thanks!

Michael Dawson

Amazonas, Venezuela