The Yanomamo Declaration Against Eating Missionaries

In the middle of the jungle a church was born. 350 years ago, the Haleluya began to worship God in a new way that had come to their founder. They have never had a missionary nor a Bible to teach them, yet in all our encounters with them, the express a biblical faith. My friend preached to them a while back. Since they have no written language, they created a song that included the teaching points of his sermon. When has someone in your church written a song about one of your sermons?

My friends have spent much time with the Haleluya church. They Haleluyas have never been welcomed by the Brazilian church because the Brazilians have been too busy stealing their land, abusing their girls, and building wherever they want. But the Haleluyas stay in the jungle, praying for deliverance.

Every day, without alarm clocks, these people rise at 3 AM and pray until 6 AM. When someone is sick, they all fast together for three days. Maybe what post moderns really want is this savage religion -- any takers?

So now, as the Brazilian evangelicals find out about the Haleluyas, the church will ask, "well do they believe in the Bible?", the Four Spiritual Laws (4 Leis Espirituais)?, the Nicene Creed or the Athanasian Creed ()? or anything written by Max Lucado or Phillip Yancey? How orthodox are they -- do they subscribe to the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral?

Of course for a people cut off from the wider church, these won't be easy questions to answer. They will have to have a written language first. Of course the Evangelical church doesn't seem to care about the Yanomamo Declaration Against Eating Missionaries, which would no doubt save their lives in certain areas.

I hope the church is big-hearted and merciful enough to make a place for the Halaluya Church and all the other emerging churches just now coming out of the jungles of obscurity. With God's help, me and Liz will go to the annual Haleluya church celebration of 2000 to 3000 believers some November. No outsiders have ever been invited. We are very excited to go when the time comes.

We we able to collect a box of protocol gifts -- all kinds of jewelry and crafts made by native North Amricans. These were taken this month as gifts to the Macuxi and Ingarico people gathering there. (We are not sure what they will do with the earrings since these people do not pierce their ears...) It is their first contact with Native North Americans. Thanks for helping to make all this possible. Thanks for you prayers, and thanks for listening...