The Shamen Who Wanted to Die

The breathless respiration of the Xaman cut through the silent jungle like a sharp knife. He runs desperate, blinded by bitterness, scratching his legs and arms in the thorns on the way. The tears hide the trail and the cry within him doesn’t allow him to hear the voice of his relatives reaching out to him in the jungle. He keeps running. He needs to reach the field and pull out the timbo root. He needs to suck the poisonous root fast and with strength before his relatives stop him. His time has come. Nothing can stop him from facing the Timbo Spirit and joining his daughter in the dwelling place of death. He is strong, and courageous!

Axa was about to reach the field when someone stopped him, a spirit! The spirit was gentle, stood before him in the trail, and looked into his eyes. He was beautiful! His eyes were like the flames of fire and his voice was sweet but powerful. He was strong! He had muscular arms and shoulders like a skilled hunter. His legs were strong like a jungle runner. His hair black and straight was cut like a cone. His cotton G-string was red, carefully weaved and died. The Xaman was speechless, suddenly calm, like one in ecstasy. The spirit looked into his eyes and asked him with softness and firmness not to go to the house of the Timbo Spirit but to stay alive for many more moons.

Axa, one of the survivors of the suicide wave covering the tribe for more than a century, went back to the round house. He defied death and fell in love with Jaxuwa, the spirit with the gentle voice. His life changed. Today, not only Axa, but many of his relatives know the mighty beauty and selfless love of Jesus. The isolated tribe, previously known as the People of the Poison, is resisting and finding an alternative way to fight against depression and self-destruction.

In the beginning, not even the YWAMers realized what had happened with Axa. They were working and living with the indians for more than ten years, learning the language and the culture. Edson and Marcia were analyzing the previously unwritten language, developing an alphabet, writing grammar articles, and compiling a dictionary; they spent time listening to the myths of the people and often ran into the jungle trying to stop people of eating timbo. Moses and Lucilia, another couple from YWAM, also studied the language, cared for people’s health and served as interpreters during the rare visits of government oficials; they too often had to run in the jungle to stop people attempting suicide. This became the team’s routine.

They all lived together with the Indians; they ate Suruwaha food and during the night they were warmed up by the fire, like them. They painted their bodies with the urucum plant and wore the tribal G-string so they wouldn’t offend the elders or scare the children. They danced in the middle of the huge round house during the Suruwaha cultural rituals and joined the hunters on their fishing and hunting expeditions. Beside all that, they always ran behind the suicide attempts, trying to stop people from taking the poison, in order to live with the timbo spirit. They did this for ten years. Ten years of immersion in the culture and in the life of the suruwaha people. Ten years of incarnation.

The team’s challenge was huge and their task was gigantic: to discover how to convey the meaning of the Gospel in an intact animist setting and to a people group rooted in self-destruction. The Suruwaha had suffered a severe ethno-trauma after many massacres at the end of the last century, which led them to isolation and to the development a worldview focusing on voluntary death. No one should wait until natural death comes. To take timbo is a dignified way in which to leave this world, since the beauty of the world has lost its value before the evil of man’s heart. Every Suruwaha, every human being, by effect, is evil and deserves to die young.  All living beings  must die because there is something incurably wrong, something in nature unresolved. So, to live in this environment is a heavy burden and suicide seems to be the only alternative available to handle the sensibility of the Suruwaha’s spirit. The population decrease increases collective depression and creates great vulnerability. To live among the Suruwaha is like living among survivors in a refugee camp.

The missionaries helped to bury their dead; with a strong sense of loss they suffered and cried with relatives as each mourning lasts for days. Every year they lost five or more children, young people, or adults they had learned to love. As the years passed by they became part of the community, building concrete bridges in relationships and developing a deep understanding of the culture, religion, and Suruwaha worldview. These were the foundations on which they built their missionary approach. This approach values respect towards the people and recognizes the strong elements of God’s revelation within a culture that apparently is against life.

As the years passed by they became part of the community, building concrete bridges in relationships and developing a deep understanding of the culture, religion, and Suruwaha worldview.

While the missionaries cried out for revelation and direction from the Holy Spirit, they  discovered the essence of their mission task. They were called to be witnesses of Jesus, to communicate who He is, not to commission a new religion or reproduce a western pattern of thinking and behavior. The task suddenly became very simple but at the same time unpredictably scary. They counted only on God’s grace and a daily dependency on the Holy Spirit for guidance. To live and communicate Jesus’ love in such a situation demanded a life constantly at the foot of the cross, and they decided to do it. They were strongly supported by the intercession and prayers of various churches over the country and this became their anchor.

The team never evangelized formally, conducted services, preached, or held Bible studies. They only lived life among the people and tried to testify of the Gospel through acts of love accompanied by words of love. With this understanding, the team members shared their faith with friends when asked, and in the same way they listened with interest to the Indians religious experiences. This mutual respect allowed the Gospel to be seeing not as a competitive religion but a new metaphysical experience, sacred, that enriches and transforms lives. Edson and Moses were seen as “xamans” by the community and they were called to “blow over” the sick to frighten the diseases and the sadness away. Of course, they took these opportunities to blow and pray for them. The tobaco snuff circles at night were precious moments when men and women sat around the fire to share their lives. This was the appropriated time to share about Jesus and the hope He brings to those who believe in Him.

Since Axa’s experience, many Suruwahas started to have their personal encounters with Jesus, and to increased their faith in Him. Some met Jesus in their dreams, others heard his voice or song in the jungle, and others received revelation of culturally appropriate names to referred to Him. Slowly the Suruwahas are discovering their own way to worship Jesus. Once Axa went out late in the evening and sang around the round house the entire night. He sang a spontaneous song about the power of Jesus to change men’s hearts and bring hope. His melodious voice was heard by all the Indians lying in their hammocks. For days the entire tribe talked, meditated and reflected about the song, delighted in the wonderful revelation of Jesus’ love for the humanity.

Many other Indians who love Jesus composed beautiful adoration songs. A man composed a song which sounds like the sound of a canoe in the river. This song talks about the angels paddling in the river in heaven, feasting to Jesus. As the angels sing they move their heads, wearing earrings made out of macaw feathers, in a celestial choreography. Other Suruwahas have confessed their sins and cried openly for Jesus’ mercy. Many resist suicide and pray openly for those who have taken poison, crying for their lives. Some have come out of coma as a result of these prayers. Slowly the elders are reevaluating their prejudices towards orphans and widows, and some have made a stand against child sacrifice.

This generation of Suruwaha is an extremaly traumatized one, since suicide has been the only pattern they know. Little by little they are finding in Jesus a new alternative – life. They are grasping the truth that that Man painted in red with a gentle and powerful voice, and eyes of fire, died for all mankind. The Suruwahas no longer need to swallow timbo, because Jesus swallowed up death once and for all. Through Jesus’ voluntary and courageous death, he made right all that was wrong in us and provided deliverance for all Creation.