Steve Saint

Steve Saint and Ginny Saint. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/Steve_Saint.jpg/225px-Steve_Saint.jpg)

My hero is Steve Saint, but many don’t know who he is. Steve Saint is the son of Nate Saint who was a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship. In 1956, his father and four other missionaries were killed by Waodani Indians during an effort to make peaceful contact with them. When Steve’s father was killed, his mom and the wives of the missionaries took action. The wives made contact with the Waodoni Indians and lived with them, and taught them the word of God. With his mom, Steve also lived with the Waodani Indians and became very close. It was very hard for him to live with the Waodani Indians knowing that they killed his father whom he loved very much. Stephen Farris Saint was born January 30, 1951 in Ecuador. He is an Ecuadorian-business entrepreneur, pilot, and author.

End of the spear is a real movie. (http://www.just4kidsmagazine.com/reviews/endofspearbook2.jpg)

Steve Saint is an accomplished individual. He was driven to change the hearts of not only the Waodani Indians but other indigenous tribes too. Steve and his wife Ginny Saint have four children: Shaun, Jaime, Jesse, and Stephenie. Shaun is a medical doctor, and Jesse works for I-TEC. Stephenie briefly attended the University of Florida, but died in the summer of 2000 of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. Today, Steve and Ginny live in Ocala, Florida, and are regularly making trips to Ecuador.

Steve Saint should be considered a hero because he has been a great role model for every young missionary. He never gave up teaching the Waodani. Nor did he ever stop coming to visit them. At the age of ten he lived with the Waodani. He also allowed the Waodani to baptize him at the age of thirteen. It would take a lot of guts to face them after knowing they killed his father.

Mincaye and Steve Saint (http://www.beliefnet.com/imgs/tout/story/SaintMincaye.jpg)

Steve Saint has inspired me immensely. I greatly think that he was one of God’s chosen ones to teach and care for the Waodani. Like his father, he was also determined to help the Waodani to develop a better community. He has taught me to teach God’s word to everyone as though they were my own flesh and blood. Knowing that he went through all that pain of his father being killed he still forgave the Waodani and taught them better. I can only wish that I could be half as brave and caring as he was to the Waodani Tribe.

Steve grew up knowing the men who had killed his father and came to love them, to regard them as family, to be baptized by their hands, and to be embraced as a son. He grew to be a well-respected man. He is a highly educated man and a bush pilot. I am quite sure that Steve Saint will never forget the day his father was killed by the Waodani and the day that he accepted them into his heart and became one of the Waodani Indians.