Introduction
Malcolm Hunter, missionary with SIM in Ethiopia for over 40 years, recounted this story about Dr. Nathan Barlow during the Spring 2010 Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class held at Reality Carpinteria on April 20, 2010. Nathan Barlow founded the Mossy Foot Project, currently being led by his daughter Sharon Daly, who was a member of this class. Dr. Barlow provided Malcolm with a wonderful redemptive analogy, for reaching the Murzi people.
Don Richardson first defined the concept of redemptive analogy in his books Peace Child and Eternity in Their Hearts. He explained how, embedded in each culture, is usually some practice or understanding that can be used to demonstrate the Gospel. One task of the missionary is to find these sometimes unexpected keys that open understanding.
Malcolm’s Story
I must tell one story, because there is a lady here who is the daughter of one of my favorite wonderful old doctors, Dr. Nathan Barlow, a legendary character in Ethiopia. He was the old style doctor who would try anything. He became a specialist in all sorts of exotic diseases, doing all sorts of difficult procedures and surgery that no one in this country would dare to do. God used him mightily; he trained many assistants who became leaders in the church. For although he was a very good surgeon and a very good doctor, his passion was to build the church of Jesus Christ, to train people up to be spiritual leaders.
Nathan Barlow came into my life over the years and I got to know him best when I was asked to go and clear an airstrip where he would be coming into a tribe called the Murzi. At this time no one was living among the Murzi. This tribe has been featured in National Geographic because the women have very big lip plates. They are very, very weird people. Their customs are so bizarre I couldn’t even begin to go into them.
They were a people without influence of Christianity when Nathan Barlow first met them. He was actually working in a little mission station clinic in the mountains about a three-day walk from the Murzi. Yellow fever swept through the country and afflicted the Murzi people and because they had no resistance many of them were dying. Some of the strongest young men of the tribe got word that there was a white doctor two tribes over at a place called Baro and that this doctor could heal anything. All white doctors could heal anything was the impression in those days.
So these men— who were already beginning to show the first symptoms of yellow fever—went by night (because they were going through enemy territory) for three nights, sleeping by day. They came to the clinic where Nathan Barlow worked and they were pretty weak by that time. They told their need as best they could. Since they didn’t speak the same language, they used pantomime. Nathan is the sort of man who has perception both naturally and spiritually and he recognized the problem was yellow fever.
They had one man among them who could speak a little bit of the Amharic language and Nathan told him, “I’m sorry, I have no medicine…nothing in the clinic here, but in my blood I have some medicine. I have been given an injection which protects me. If you let me give you some of my blood, it can protect you or it may kill you” (because he couldn’t cross match it). He said, “I will gladly give you my blood. If you don’t take it you will probably die. If you do take it, it could help you live.” And they all agreed.
So Nathan lay down on a bed in front of them. He put in his own IV extraction and he drained off as much blood as he could without going unconscious…typical Nathan. He did it all in front of them. Then he left the blood to settle overnight and the next morning he took off the clear serum in which the yellow fever vaccine would be found and he very prayerfully and carefully gave each of them some of his serum and they all lived.
I didn’t hear about this story until about 25-30 years later when we were clearing the airstrip. We were almost done; it was not a big job. It was a flat open place where we had to pick up a lot rocks. I had a few days to wait until the appointed time when the airplane brought Nathan and his wife in. He had decided it was time to retire; this was his first retirement (he retired 3 times). And he wanted to come in to find the Murzi people who he had met 30 years before.
While I was waiting, the Murzi people brought me a man that looked like any other Murzi, but they said, “He has white man’s blood in him; he is your brother.” And I couldn’t understand what they were saying at first. The conversation was being translated through several different languages. They insisted, “He has white man’s blood in him.” They said, “A doctor at Barco gave some of our Murzi men some of his blood and all these men were saved; nobody died.” This one is the remaining one who can tell the story.
I still did not understand what this meant. Two days later, Nathan and his wife flew in with all their boxes of medicine and their camping supplies. They were going to spend two weeks there. At this time, they were an elderly couple, probably in their 70’s. When we stopped to drink a cup of tea, I said, “Nathan while I’ve been here one of these Murzi men told me that he has white man’s blood in him. Do you know how this could happen?”
Nathan said, “Please don’t tell anyone this story until after I am dead. It was most unethical but asking them if they would let me give them my blood, was the only chance I could offer that might save them.”
This was the most wonderful example of redemptive analogy that I could give them. What a sermon illustration…that this white man gave his blood to save the life of the Murzi. That’s what Jesus has done. I tried my best to explain that this is what the Gospel is about…the Lord Jesus, the Son of God gave His blood, died that we might live.
While Nathan didn’t die, what he did was similar in that he gave his blood for the Murzi. Using this analogy, I was able to reach Murzi tribepeople with the Gospel and the Murzi church is now strong.
You can read more about this story and other amazing ways God moved in Ethiopia in Malcolm Hunter’s book To the Ends of the Earth.