When Bruce Olson and his mule ventured into Venezuela's uncharted jungles 40 years ago, ranchers drummed some common sense into him. “There are tame Indians and wild Indians,” they said, “so be sure you locate the former and not the latter.” But having never seen one, he was in no position to judge.
He had gone to Caracas to prepare for his mission to the Indians, because while in high school, he was convinced this was what God wanted him to do. While working for the government in the Ministry of Health and studying at the university, he saw the Motilones on God's compass.
Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle, the powerful sequel to Bruce Olson's best-selling missionary classic, Bruchko, is a remarkable tale of adventure, tragedy, faith, and love. It shows how, despite incredible dangers and obstacles, one humble man and a tribe of primitive, violent Indians by joining together in simple obedience have been transformed forever by the sovereign will of god. This book, which details Olson’s missionary work and events from the 1970s to the present, will stir and encourage the hearts of readers to serve and follow God passionately.
An American of Swedish descent, Bruce Olson has told his fantastic life as a missionary among the Motilone (Bari) Indians of Colombia, South America, in his best-selling book Bruchko. Many wondered, even doubted, if the remarkable events which the book portrays were actually true. French and Swedish anthropologists called him an American hacienda owner making the Motilones his personal colony. They accused him of destroying the pristine innocence of an aboriginal tribe.
Andres Küng is the top-notch television and newspaper reporter who set out to investigate the charges. This book is the intriguing account of Küng's on-the-spot investigation in Colombia. In a day when many humanistic scientists are urging Third World countries to expel literacy experts and other missionaries working among tribal peoples, this is an important book—one you will want to read and share.
BUCARAMANGA, Colombia (FR) – Representatives from Colombia’s Motilone tribe, Fidel Waysersera and Roberto Dácsarara, recently returned from the celebrated Río de Janeiro Earth Summit, radiating smiles of accomplishments at their arrival in Bucaramanga’s airport.
Waysersera and Dácsarara are the first indigenous university graduates from Colombia’s northeastern jungle tribes. Both are proud descendants of the Barí (Motilone) family. The two Motilone representatives spent fifteen days in Río, meeting other representatives from all continents of the planet earth, savoring languages, racial features and people they never knew existed.
This experience was a tremendous confirmation of the missionary call of God on their lives: “to go forth to every part of the world, and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation.”
Bruce Olson’s story of how, at age 19, he bought a one-way ticket to Colombia and ultimately became a missionary to an unreached people group, the Motilone, is legendary. Not only did it become a bestselling book, Bruchko (the way the Motilone pronounce “Bruce”), but a 2017 movie as well.
Olson himself, who turns 80 later this year, remains active in ministry with the Motilone and many other tribes in the jungles of Colombia. He has spoken before the United Nations, and his book, with its examples of mission work that embraces rather than destroys indigenous culture, is required reading in many missions organizations and Christian schools. His work, like many missionary endeavors, has received its share of criticism along the way—silenced only by the lifechanging impact of the gospel.
Since 1961, missionary Bruce Olson has labored for the gospel of Jesus Christ among the Motilone Indians deep in the jungles of Colombia’s high Catatumbo region. But today Olson’s most exciting missionary work still lies ahead.
In the past thirty years, Olson has founded bilingual schools, medical clinics and agricultural centers among the Motilones. His Christ-like humility and work of service to the Motilones has earned him the status of a tribal member. Indian chiefs throughout the region representing 50 tribes and half a million tribe members look to Olson with great awe and respect. He has become a friend of five Colombian presidents; has spoken before the United Nations; and has received educational awards from the Colombian government. Although he completed college only through correspondence schools, his work on translating the Scriptures into the native Indian dialects has earned him honor among linguistics scholars.
My name is Lance Brender and I grew up in a congregation called Christ Center in Cashmere, WA. When I was about 14, a man came to speak at our congregation and sold copies of Bruchko afterward. I did not have the money to buy a copy, but I came up and asked the man for one anyway. He at first seemed annoyed, but then asked me if I would really read it. I said that I would, and the man gave me a copy for free.
Unfortunately, for the next two decades I did not read the book. I graduated from college and joined the Army, and as of last December have served 16 years as an officer. I have remained a committed Christian throughout, and serve as a discipleship mentor for the CS Lewis Institute and a chaplain for a local mission. In a coincidental parallel, I retire in four years and will then pursue a PhD in linguistics, which I read you once wanted to do.
Through much of that time, I still had the book, and felt guilty every time I didn’t pick it off my shelf and read it. Worse, though, I eventually lost the copy, and then even forgot that I had ever had it. That is, until about two months ago. I found Bruchko as an audiobook and finished it, moved to tears by both your journey and God’s movement in your life and those of the Motilones.
I don’t know if that man who gave me the copy was you, but no matter who it was, I wanted you to know that I fulfilled my promise, read your book, and am so grateful that I did. Thank you for your life of love to Christ and your fellow man, and you have an honest admirer in Washington.
An amazingly great read and very, very moving.
HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!And many more happy readers!