A Life Saved
On my recent trip to Colombia, on the day I arrived in the village, a young Nukak man died. But there was a lot more behind that story. Jack Foster, a missionary working with the Nukak people wrote more about it.
The story began back in the 1990s. Derrek* was two or three-years-old at the time and critically ill. He was in dire need of medical attention if he was to survive.
Jack Foster remembers how God brought along a doctor at just the right time to get an IV drip started in Derrek’s little emaciated arm. God spared his life and the little guy lived on.
“I never saw Derrek again until 2010,” Jack wrote.”[By then] he was a robust young man with his whole life ahead of him.”
Their paths would never cross again.
A Life Taken
“Last year while I was in the States,” Jack continued, “Derrek had a dispute with some other Nukaks and tried to take his own life by drinking poison. The doctors were able to save his life, but he spent an extended time hospitalized in Bogota in pretty bad shape.
“Recently they brought him back out here, and he went ‘partying’ with his friends, drinking and smoking. It turns out that the poison had done a lot of damage to his throat, and while he was consuming of ‘these pleasures’ his throat swelled shut. Last week he passed into a Christless eternity, having never heard the gospel.”
Lives for God
“Suicide is all too common among the Nukak,” Jack shared as he tried to process Derrek’s death. “We’re in a spiritual struggle here. … Please continue to pray fervently for this people group and for us as we seek to reach them with God’s precious good news!”
Thank you for praying!
*Name changed.