Last evening, we watched "The End of the Spear" with the small group from church that we're members of. One couple from our group has a business that, among other things, sells home theatre systems. They invited us all over to their "demo room" so we were able to anjoy the movie in luxurious chairs with a real big screen and sound all around. Wow. :-)

"The End of the Spear" is about a small group of missionaries living in Ecuador in the 1950s. They were determined to make contact with a group of natives who were particularly savage toward each other. They feared that if they did not reach these people, the government military would come in and just wipe them out.

In the process of this, several men from their group were martyred when they were attacked by the natives through a series of lies and deceptions on the natives' part. The movie then turned to focus on the wives of the martyred men and how they went on to break through and reach these folks, changing their culture, and ending their brutality one toward another.

It is a powerful message of the maximum impact that God calls us to. One of the missionaries, before he left for the trip on which he was killed, was saying good-bye to his son when his son asked him if he would kill the natives should they be attacked by them. The missionary's response was that, no, he would not kill them because they were not ready to die. Then he pointed out that they, as the missionaries, were ready to die. Their death went on to haunt even the most cruel of the natives, becoming the catalyst which led to the change in their culture.

In doing a bit of reading up about the movie, I have read that a documentary was also produced about this true story. It was titled "Beyond The Gates Of Splendor". I would like to see it sometime as well.

In "The End Of The Spear," one of the male leads is played by an actor who, in real life is gay. That fact has gained some harsh criticism unfortunately. That sort of lack of love shown for all human beings does not further our call as Christians unfortunately. And, besides, playing the roles of people different from themselves is really kind of sort of what actors do! :-)

Anyway, this movie is, like I said, indeed a powerful message of the maximum impact God intends for our lives. He may not call us all to Ecuador but he does call us to do his bidding, and to have a God-sized impact on others wherever he takes us in life. I would encourage you to pick up this movie and see how it impacts you.