Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle

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A tall prophet with yellow hair will come to us carrying banana stalks.  Knowledge of life and God will come out of those stalks, and God will show us the way back to him. –Ancient Motilone Legend 

Does God still move like he did in the first century church?  Are miracles possible? Or, are the supernatural events portrayed in the Bible simply fables of a wild imagination?  If you have ever doubted the miraculous power of God be sure to read Bruchko and its newly released sequel Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle.  At 19 years old, Bruce Olson did something many of us wouldn’t dare do.  Only a Christian of five years, he sensed God calling him to the Amazon Indians of South America.  With a few dollars in his pocket and no ability to speak Spanish, he hopped on a plane to Venezuela, unsure of what to expect. In 1962, Bruce made contact with the Motilone Indians—the first outsider to do so and survive. 

The Motilone, a stone-age Indian tribe living in the rain forest on the border of Venezuela and Colombia, almost killed Bruce too. They shot him with an arrow through his thigh, but allowed him to live. Over the next few years, he slowly and painstakingly learned their language and became one of them. In time, he heard them recount a legend of a blond haired prophet who would bring “banana stalks” containing knowledge of life and God: 

One of the Indians walked over to a nearby banana tree, cut off a section, and tossed it toward us.  ‘This is the kind of banana stalk God can come from,’ he said . . . Leaves still inside the stalk, waiting to develop and come out, started peeling off.  As they lay at the base of the stalk, they looked like pages from a book.  Suddenly the word raced through my mind. Book! Book!  I grabbed my pack and took out my Bible . . . ‘This is it!’ (p. 10). 

As the Indians learned about Jesus, God’s Spirit transformed the previously violent tribe to such an extent that a visiting anthropologist, Samuel Greenberg, noticed.  It triggered his own spiritual journey and some years later he became a Christian. The book Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle goes on to describe the profound advancements the Motilone made after their spiritual awakening.  

In 1962, when Bruce arrived, the Motilone had no written language. By 2003, there were 28 schools in the jungle led by Motilone and Colombian teachers. In 1963, the first medical clinic opened.  By 2003, 23 health centers existed and 39 Motilone and other tribal natives had graduated from medical school to return to the jungle as doctors. The Motilone became leaders among the Amazon tribes, creating unprecedented unity among previously warring factions.  So much so, they succeeded in bringing together leaders from tribes representing 50 languages—nearly all the Indians of Columbia.  

The change in the Motilone garnered national attention, and in 1972 a Motilone delegation was invited to Columbia’s Third Congress on Community Development.  During the closing ceremony, Colombian President Misrael Pastrana invited Kaymiyokba to speak. In front of the entire assembly the president asked the how the tribe had been so transformed from violence to one that now dialogued with the government. When Pastrana attributed it to the advancements in education, medicine and agriculture, Kaymiyokba replied: These are not the reasons.  These tools are a benefit to us.  But the change is because our tribe now walks in the footsteps of a new leader.   

Pastrana: Ah, I see. You walk in the footsteps of the missionary Bruce Olson.   

Kaymiyokba: No, not Bruchko. We had to teach him how to speak our language, how to suck the juices from insects, how to survive in the jungle.  When he was naked we clothed him.  Bruchko is not the leader who brought peace to our people. 

Pastrana: Then in whose footsteps do you walk? 

Kaymiyokba: Saymaydodji-ibateradacura. God incarnate in human flesh. Jesus Christ. 

It’s been over 40 years since Bruce first responded to God’s prompting to share Jesus with the Motilone. He has lived among them as family all this time, and is now 65 years old. Over the years media groups around the world have written stories about him; he has received invitations to speak at prominent universities in the United States (including Harvard); he has had friendships with four Colombian presidents; he has endured imprisonment and torture at the hands of guerrillas; he has been shot at more times than he can count (one bullet is still lodged in his neck); he has had a supernatural encounter with a ChigBari (angel); he has suffered jungle diseases like malaria, typhoid and Chagis. He also lost his best friend, a Motilone, to murder, and his Columbian fiancée to a senseless car accident. Bruce is a bit like a modern day Paul the Apostle. 

I met Bruce when I was 16. He came to our house for dinner. Our church was having its annual missions conference, and as a financial supporter of Bruce’s work, the church had invited him to speak.  Except for his looming 6 foot frame Bruce was an unassuming man, an introvert who seemed slightly uncomfortable making small talk with a group of strangers. I wondered, sympathetically, if he wouldn’t rather be back in the jungle. While I don’t recall the dinner conversation that night, I do remember the moment he stood up to speak in front of the congregation.  There was a confidence and power in his message that gripped my heart and made me sit up straight. 

Bruce Olson’s life reminds me of what God does when we take a step of faith, when we act in obedience to what God is telling us to do. A teenager with no money, mission board or official training simply got on a plane and trusted God’s voice. The result was a people transformed by the truth of Jesus.

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Tags: amazon, Bruce Olson, Bruchko, columbia, indian, missionary, missions, motilone