Jesus is my Owner

Even after nearly 46 years of marriage, I still tease my wife on occasion saying, “You/She is not from “dis” country.” And this is true.  She was born in the Amazon jungle in Peru. Her parents were with Wycliffe Bible Translators—in fact her Dad, Herb Fuqua was the first Agriculturist missionary with Wycliffe. He was personally recruited by Wycliffe’s founder William “Uncle Cam” Cameron Townsend. Her parents were courageous—they arrived in Peru and made their home at Yarinacocha in the spring of 1953. Her mother was 7 months pregnant with my wife Kay, her first child. There were no hospitals in the area, only a small clinic on the Wycliffe station where they were living. That Kay and her Mom survived the birth was a miracle in itself—but that is another story. Her Dad, Herb, was tasked with developing an agricultural program that would make it possible for translators to live in the tribes, reduce the language to written form and ultimately translate the New Testament in the native language. So why would Wycliffe need an agriculturist? The tribes were semi-nomadic. They followed the game. When they could no longer hunt enough to live in one area, they would move to a new area. For translators to live with the tribe there had to be a stable location, in which start a school and teach the tribespeople to read and write. They also had to change their food supply, they could not have a school and continue for follow the game. Eventually airstrips were built to get the missionaries in and out and to deliver supplies to them, as opposed to having to take long dangerous river trips to get to their tribes. The tribes were/are scattered all over the Amazon area—and each tribe speaks a different language, often unrelated to the languages of other tribes who may be nearby.

The summer before Kay & I were married, I made the journey to Peru where I stayed for a month. We both believed that I needed to see her lifelong home so I could get some understanding of her background. Needless to say, the trip was eye-opening. Her Mom & Dad were support personnel—they lived on the base/center (for decades it was called  a base, but because this communicated to many the idea of military presence the nomenclature changed, and it became the Wycliffe Center in Peru.) Her Mom held various jobs on base over the years, her Dad, a cattleman, through cross breeding North American and European cattle with Brahma and Zebu cattle developed a breed that was good for beef production and would live a long time in the jungle heat. (When he started his work North American and European breeds of cattle would get old and die in just a few years.) By the time he left Peru his cattle were the envy of the country. These cattle when they were still calves, would be shipped out by airplane to the tribes and raised for beef. This was part of the solution to the tribes having to follow the game.

While I was there, I had a chance to fly out to one of the tribes on a journey to take out supplies. The flight was over three hours over the trackless jungle. Then an airstrip came into view—our destination. I only spent a few hours there, not much time, but enough to get an idea of what it took to be a translator from the perspective of living far away from civilization. Transportation in and out was limited to small airplanes that landed on dirt airstrips, and canoes that traveled on the rivers. No electricity, apart from a battery-operated radio which allowed communication with the base. It gave me a taste of what the translators experienced, but just a taste, or better a snapshot.

All that to say, I have just finished reading Jesus is my Owner Life with the Sharanahuas by Eugene Scott with Marie Scott. I met Scottie and Marie when I was in Peru. The book  title comes from the Sharanahuas’ description of conversion to Christianity. When converted they say, “Jesus is my Owner.” This book is a personal retrospective of Gene & Marie’s life in Peru and their experiences living among the one of the numerous tribes in the Amazon Jungle, which were until about 60 years ago untouched by civilization. “Scotty” tells the story of his experience working with the Sharanahaus a tribe that had been untouched by civilization when they were first contacted.

Scotty, for the majority of the book, traces his life  journey from the his early years in 1930’s growing up during the depression, his spiritual journey from his introduction to Christianity when he was a child, his time in the Navy near the end of WWII, his spiritual commitment after the Navy. In many senses this is Scotty’s spiritual autobiography, tracing his life from childhood to his conversion to Christ, his commitment to Bible Translation with Wycliffe Bible Translators, his unusual courtship with Marie, their life on the river in a remote hot, humid, bug-infested area of eastern Peru, the hardships they faced including a fire that burned their early translation work, a flood that washed away all their belongings, whooping cough in the village where they lived. He also endured chronic fatigue for about decade while doing translation work.

Scotty’s account is transparent, as well as brutally honest. The necessity for faith and trust in Christ on a day to day basis, and the way that God rewarded that faith over and over, come through on nearly every page.  We, as those who live in the developed world have little understanding of life on the edge. We are surrounded by the structures of contemporary western society. Structures that shield us from the dangers- dangers of epidemic, of floods, of fires, and famines. While we may say we trust God (and we do) we generally do not live on the edge. This is a story of living on the edge, a story of daily trust. Scotty is a tremendous storyteller! His honesty and transparency come through on virtually every page.

I highly recommend Jesus Is My Owner