Olson tied into the Motilones in the most daring and exciting adventure one could ever read. As a result of living several years with the tribe, and becoming one of them, Olson led the Motilones to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. They were ready for this good news. They had been waiting all their history to hear about the man who "would set them free." The christianization of the Motilones brought them the fastest economic growth of any primitive group in the world - a tribute to Bruce's missionary philosophy which enabled them to retain their basic cultural patterns and even help neighboring tribes, formerly enemies.

     After living with the Motilones for five years and becoming discouraged that he would ever be able to really share with them the truth of God as found through Jesus, God opened a surprising door one day. Olson heard one of their legends and it sounded very much like the incarnation of Christ - God becoming man in order to reach his creation with His love and purpose for their lives. Here is the legend God used from the Motilone's own stories when Olson was asked by the Motilones to explain who God was:

     A man had been sitting on the trail after a hunt and noticed some ants trying to build a home. He wanted to help them make a good home, like the Motilone home, so he began digging in the dirt. But because he was so big and so unknown, the ants had been afraid and had run away.

     Then, quite miraculously, he had become an ant. He thought like an ant, looked like an ant, and spoke the language of an ant. He lived with the ants and they came to trust him.

     He told them one day that he was not really an ant, but a Motilone, and that he had once tried to help them improve their home, but had scared them.

     The ants said their equivalent, of, "No kidding? That was you?" And they laughed at him, because he didn't look like the huge and fearful thing that had moved the dirt before.

     But at that moment he was turned back into a Motilone, and began to move the dirt into the shape of a Motilone home. This time the ants recognized him and let him do his work, because they knew he wouldn't harm them. That was why, according to the story, the ants had hills that looked like Motilone homes.

     Olson used this to show the Motilones that if you are big and powerful, you have to become small and weak in order to work with other weak beings. It was a perfect parallel for what God had done through the birth and life on earth of Jesus.

     This event happened right after one of the most heartbreaking moments in the whole book. Olson was walking in the jungle with his best Motilone friend, Bobarishora, (whom he affectionately called, Bobby) when they came upon men driven mad by their grief and despair. It took Olson a long time to discover why one man was screaming from the top of a tree while the other dug a hole screaming and weeping into the ground. It turns out they were "looking for God." Their oral history had taught them that someone had come into their tribe and deceived them and led them away from God and now they felt compelled to try and find him. All Motilone men went through this ritual many times. When Olson asked why they were looking for God in the ground and screaming to the sky, they replied that it was as good as place as any to look for God.

     Olson, looking for connects to explain grace, sacrifice and incarnation, asked if they had other ways they had looked for God. "Yes. We look for God to come out of a banana stalk." Olson couldn't understand this explanation so Bobby walked over to a banana tree which was growing nearby. He cut off a section and tossed it towards Olson. One of the Motilone men reached down and swatted at it with his machete, accidentally splitting it in half. One half stood up, while the other half split off. Leaves that were still inside the stalk, waiting to develop and come out, started peeling off. As they lay at the base of the stalk, they looked like pages from a book.

     Suddenly, Olson understood. "Book! Book!" He grabbed his pack and took out his Bible. He flipped through the pages and held it toward the men. He pointed to the leaves from the banana stalk, then back to the Bible. "This is it!" He said. "I have it here! This is God's banana stalk." One of the men ran to the Bible, tore pages off and began to eat them. "I want God inside of me." Olson explained that when you read the words they went inside of you, bringing God.

     Olson then shared their own legend of the man who became an ant. He used the story to explain Jesus' coming to earth. Revelation and enlightenment from their own oral histories began to grow among the Motilones. Jesus was the God they were seeking. Eventually, the whole tribe came to know Christ through the life and testimony of Bobby who became the first Motilone Christian.

     Bruce Olson's book, "Bruchko," is published by Creation House in Carol Stream, Illinois.