Overflow Missions Fest crowd hears about challenge from those in know

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
     CLACKAMAS— Considering that End of the Spear, the major motion picture about them, opened nationwide the same weekend, it’s natural to think the presence of missionary Steve Saint and the Waodani tribesman Mincaye at Missions Fest Northwest was a big factor in the event’s overflow attendance.
     Their fame no doubt was a factor, says Missions Fest chairman Bill MacLeod, but perhaps a bigger reason is simply that the Pacific Northwest has a larger interest in Christian missions than its reputation would indicate.
   “God has given us a lot of momentum, and I believe He wants to see this part of the country ... become ‘Cape Canaveral’ for missions,” said MacLeod.
    Sponsored by area churches, the fourth annual Missions Fest Northwest took place Jan. 20 and 21 at New Hope Community Church in Clackamas.    

    At press time for this newspaper, formal attendance counts were not available, but MacLeod gave a “very rough” estimate of at least 10,000 — far more than last year’s 6,000. Admittedly “pumped” by the turnout,      MacLeod said phenomenal growth was seen in every facet of the event, including hundreds of churches now participating.
     Attendance was big enough to create traffic jams and parking headaches at New Hope as well as people standing outside the many and varied workshops, waiting to get in.
     Next year’s Missions Fest will be at a larger venue — Sunset Presbyter-ian Church near Beaverton.
     Featured speakers, in addition to Saint and Mincaye, were local author Randy Alcorn and Justine Speerstar, a church planter among unreaches peoples.
     Speaking twice, Saint emphasized to the packed audience that the worldwide challenge of missions, while very evident, is built on a simple concept — God’s overwhelming love.
    “It’s not that complicated,” he said. “He has entrusted you and me to tell His story to His children, who don’t even know that He loves them.”
One of those “children” eventually reached for Christ was Mincaye, one of the tribesmen in Ecuador who killed Saint’s father, Nate, and five other missionaries in a 1956 incident that made world headlines.
     It happened when Steve Saint was only 5, and he is often asked by the media why as a boy he didn’t hate the Waodani tribe.
    “But I thought, ‘These (Waodani) must be the most special people in the whole world,’ Saint recalled. “Why else would my dad die trying to reach them, my mom pray for them and my aunt risk her life trying to reach them? ”