My memories of Roger Youderian
by RUSSELL BRANDT
Editor’s note: Russell Brandt came to us with this story about Roger Youderian after reading an article in the Jan. 18, 2006, issue of the News-Argus. Youderian was one of five missionaries killed in Ecuador on Jan. 8, 1956. A new movie about the missionaries, “End of the Spear,” was released in January.
I went to school with Roger. I graduated a year behind him in 1942, but we knew each other all through school. We were both World War II veterans and we came back to Lewistown about the same time. I began to build the Brandt Motel, which is now called the Sunset Motel.
My dad and I were partners when it came to building the motel. We started in 1948 and eventually we came to the point where we put in the rough flooring and I had skill enough to do that. My dad was a barber and he worked all day, so I had the job of the main construction. I didn’t know beans about how to frame, which is putting up the walls, partitions and joints for the roof. I was attempting to do what they call stick framing. When you build a house you lay it all out, cut it all out and then build it so it just fits together. I didn’t know how to do that. Lo and behold, one afternoon I was struggling and Roger came up to me and said, “You have to hire me in order to get this finished because you don’t know how to do it.” So I talked to my dad, because I was building it on a shoestring, and he said you hire him and I’ll pay for him. So we hired him and Roger more or less just took over.
He had been to a carpentry and missionary school in Minnesota. His job was to be a carpenter and missionary and go out to the places like he went, and build community buildings, and places they could use for different functions and get them away from being just wild Indians.
So he was well-schooled in carpentry and he took me through all the stages that I needed to know on those three different stages.
We finished number one the first summer and he went back to school. He came back in the summer of ‘49 and kept going, and the same pattern occurred the next summer until we were finished.
The interesting part to me was about what Roger was like. During the building of the 1950 wing, we had dug a full basement and built forms for the wall in the basement. We had that all completed and we were making the pour on the first section. The pour was in process and it was 10 feet tall by 20 feet wide. We were up to 8 feet and the worst of all sounds happened. That sound is when you’re pouring concrete and hear the wall break and go out. It’s just a hideous sound.
We lost the entire wall. The concrete went down and pushed the foundation wall out. There we were with concrete setting up. I told him we could never get this thing back together but he said we will. He dug into the volumes of setting concrete and with a shovel and almost superman energy, he started putting up the wall.
He took it out, put the wall back in, rebuilt it while the concrete was setting in. We were moving like mad men on his energy and strength. We put the concrete we lost back into the form, kept pouring, finished the wall and you could never tell that it happened.
This was what the man was like. There was nothing that could stop him. A lot of people would throw it away and start over. Not him. That was the type of person he was.
When you look at the Sunset motel today, you can see that Roger Youderian built a big portion of it. I hired him and I paid him, but he showed me how to build it. That was the skill he had.
Also to see it like I see it, Christ was a carpenter, Roger was a carpenter so he was truly following in Jesus Christ’s footsteps. I thought that was quite unique.
It never dawned on me that was the case until I read the story published in the News-Argus on Jan. 18.
Our experience was like God working through Roger to help me because I needed the help. I might have learned eventually but this way I learned rapidly. With his extreme strength when necessity called, I was really taken by him. He was not overly huge but he was sure a strong man.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Thoughts on 'End of the Spear' by Roger Youderian's son-in-law
I have been waiting for a national Christian leader to comment on “End of the Spear” and the casting of Chad Allen in the lead role. Their voices are strangely silent. After all of their build up, that we finally have a movie of our own, they seem to be frozen in indecision or mired in accepting silly arguments for Chad’s inclusion.
My name is Dan Kachikis. My deceased wife, Beth Youderian, was Roger Youderian’s daughter. Roger was one of those men who died on “Palm Beach” in 1956, at the end of a spear.
Beth and I were strong supporters of the work Mart and Steve have been doing. Beth would have been appalled at this decision and I feel betrayed.
I’m sure Chad is a nice guy, but he wasn’t the man for this role. Making the “story the Star” and using the best secular means to tell it, sounds like “the end justifies the means.” Would the Christian community be ok with doing the “Billy Graham Story” with an atheist pedophile because he had the best audition? Would Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Farwell and the rest, sit silent and just say that it’s the story that’s important? And why not have secular professionals perform your church music if it enhances the worship of God? If we cannot respond to this firmly, but in love, this is a sad day for the Christian church in the US. This film and it’s making have become a parable for the weakness of the American church. How dare we wonder why our divorce and “lives adrift” counts look just like the secular world. We talk one thing, and live something else.
What bothers me is that the story of what happened on the beach wasn’t just one man’s story. There were five men and five families. I don’t mind them taking “artistic liberty” with the way Nate Saint died. Factually, he was probably the first man dead on the beach, speared in the temple. Although Mart knew it was controversial to use Chad, he didn’t ask the other families. Why did he take this liberty with our hearts and our heritage?
My mother-in-law, Roger’s wife, was in Panama for part of the filming and was never told. She didn’t find out until 3 days after the film’s release. Apparently everyone else in Panama, the other wives, knew. I can only conclude that this was kept from her because my brother-in-law, Roger’s son, has not been a fan of this project. Had they asked both of them, they would have said “no.” Had I known, I would have said no, for myself and for Beth.
In Mart’s public correspondence in “Sharperiron” he mentioned that after Chad was on Larry King Live with John MacArthur, there was an opportunity to politely ask Chad to step back and Chad would have accepted this. Now I know they prayed, but when Mart begins mentioning practical concerns like, “We have locations in Panama that we will lose if we don’t shoot on schedule,” I can’t help but understand this pragmatically. They would have lost time, missed deadlines and opening dates, they would have lost money, they would have lost locations, salaries. Practically speaking, the easier decision was pray, have a dream and say “yes” to Chad.
Will blessing come from the movie? Yes. God’s plans are bigger than we are. When a pastor living in adultery preaches, do people trust Christ? Yes. Does “fruit” or God’s blessing always justify us? No.
So now we have our Christian movie. But I will never buy the DVD, encourage anyone to watch it or consider it a part of my kids heritage. It is for me a symbol of a confused North American church. Many Christian groups will see it. Some will glory in the testimony, others will wish they had found out first that someone who doesn’t represent what they want their kids to be, plays the most important part in it. Maybe in four or five more weeks, after the film has made most if its revenue, someone will broaden the “sorry if you feel hurt” line to “we’re sorry we made such a selfish, spiritually blind decision.” Maybe the “big dogs” will find their voices and utter a protest.
But until then, maybe we can make Hollywood sit up and take notice. We’ll show ‘um what good Christian entertainment is all about. We’ll make ‘um notice us Christians. Oh, I think they already have, as we stand here with egg dripping down our faces. We showed ‘um.
In Christ,
Dan Kachikis
My name is Dan Kachikis. My deceased wife, Beth Youderian, was Roger Youderian’s daughter. Roger was one of those men who died on “Palm Beach” in 1956, at the end of a spear.
Beth and I were strong supporters of the work Mart and Steve have been doing. Beth would have been appalled at this decision and I feel betrayed.
I’m sure Chad is a nice guy, but he wasn’t the man for this role. Making the “story the Star” and using the best secular means to tell it, sounds like “the end justifies the means.” Would the Christian community be ok with doing the “Billy Graham Story” with an atheist pedophile because he had the best audition? Would Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Farwell and the rest, sit silent and just say that it’s the story that’s important? And why not have secular professionals perform your church music if it enhances the worship of God? If we cannot respond to this firmly, but in love, this is a sad day for the Christian church in the US. This film and it’s making have become a parable for the weakness of the American church. How dare we wonder why our divorce and “lives adrift” counts look just like the secular world. We talk one thing, and live something else.
What bothers me is that the story of what happened on the beach wasn’t just one man’s story. There were five men and five families. I don’t mind them taking “artistic liberty” with the way Nate Saint died. Factually, he was probably the first man dead on the beach, speared in the temple. Although Mart knew it was controversial to use Chad, he didn’t ask the other families. Why did he take this liberty with our hearts and our heritage?
My mother-in-law, Roger’s wife, was in Panama for part of the filming and was never told. She didn’t find out until 3 days after the film’s release. Apparently everyone else in Panama, the other wives, knew. I can only conclude that this was kept from her because my brother-in-law, Roger’s son, has not been a fan of this project. Had they asked both of them, they would have said “no.” Had I known, I would have said no, for myself and for Beth.
In Mart’s public correspondence in “Sharperiron” he mentioned that after Chad was on Larry King Live with John MacArthur, there was an opportunity to politely ask Chad to step back and Chad would have accepted this. Now I know they prayed, but when Mart begins mentioning practical concerns like, “We have locations in Panama that we will lose if we don’t shoot on schedule,” I can’t help but understand this pragmatically. They would have lost time, missed deadlines and opening dates, they would have lost money, they would have lost locations, salaries. Practically speaking, the easier decision was pray, have a dream and say “yes” to Chad.
Will blessing come from the movie? Yes. God’s plans are bigger than we are. When a pastor living in adultery preaches, do people trust Christ? Yes. Does “fruit” or God’s blessing always justify us? No.
So now we have our Christian movie. But I will never buy the DVD, encourage anyone to watch it or consider it a part of my kids heritage. It is for me a symbol of a confused North American church. Many Christian groups will see it. Some will glory in the testimony, others will wish they had found out first that someone who doesn’t represent what they want their kids to be, plays the most important part in it. Maybe in four or five more weeks, after the film has made most if its revenue, someone will broaden the “sorry if you feel hurt” line to “we’re sorry we made such a selfish, spiritually blind decision.” Maybe the “big dogs” will find their voices and utter a protest.
But until then, maybe we can make Hollywood sit up and take notice. We’ll show ‘um what good Christian entertainment is all about. We’ll make ‘um notice us Christians. Oh, I think they already have, as we stand here with egg dripping down our faces. We showed ‘um.
In Christ,
Dan Kachikis
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Comments from the President of Northwestern College
They had a dream: The splendor of transformation
When a violent tribe in Ecuador murdered five U.S. missionaries on Jan. 8, 1956, they left five widows with eight fatherless children and one stunned world watching.
It’s been exactly 50 years since missionaries Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint and Roger Youderian were slain in the jungles of Ecuador by the Auca, the most violent society ever documented by anthropologists at the time. One of the most gripping events of the 20th Century is told in the film, “End of the Spear.” Quite appropriately, the film premieres in theaters nationwide Jan. 20, the Friday following Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But that’s not where the story begins, nor where it ends. For Roger and Barbara Youderian the story began locally in the Twin Cities at Northwestern College.
WWII veteran Roger Youderian, class of 1950, met Barbara (Orton), class of 1949, at Northwestern College. After graduation, the young couple left for Ecuador. In 1955, after five years of successful outreach in their area, the Youderians joined four fellow missionaries in the Ecuadorian interior in an attempt to reach the head-hunting Auca.
Contact was extremely dangerous. No one who entered Auca territory lived to tell about it. Isolated from the outside world, the Auca were predisposed to kill any stranger on sight. Despite weeks of aviation outreach and an initial friendly ground contact, all five men were killed in an ambush on that tragic January day.
Today the Auca, known as the Waodani, are a thriving, peaceful community free of the violent and murderous stigma that haunted them for years. Their dramatic transformation came about because courageous individuals were committed to bringing peace, new life and hope in Christ to a place of death and hatred. It was, in fact, the wives and children of the murdered men who continued to carry on the work and bring the dream to reality.
There’s no better time for this movie’s release than in the days following Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Like our country’s great civil rights leader, the five men and their families had a dream—that transformation of a society is possible, even when the risks and opposition are great. They believed in a cause greater than themselves and were willing to die for it so that others could have a better way of life.
In a culture where we often care more about ourselves than others, a film reminding us of self-sacrifice for a greater cause is one to celebrate.
As president of Northwestern College, I hear the hopes and dreams of our students. They are among many who desire a quality education that will prepare them to serve and change the world. An article recently published in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press stated four of the five fastest growing private colleges in Minnesota, of which Northwestern is included, have a strong Christian focus.
Contrary to a common belief, students from religious colleges are not naïve about the world. We are a place that is transforming lives to transform the world. In fact, since Northwestern’s beginning in 1902, our students and alumni have actively engaged the world with the advantages of a strong academic education and a contagious faith.
As reflected in our 2004 and 2005 Fulbright Scholars whose assignments brought them to teach English in Taiwan, our graduates are academically prepared to serve in the world.
Locally, our students have the opportunity to live in and transform the inner city of Minneapolis while earning a bachelor’s degree through the Urban Cross Cultural College Consortium with students from Concordia University and Crown College.
Northwestern’s presence in Ecuador continues today. Our branch campus in Quito, Ecuador prepares Spanish-speaking students for careers in electronic media and journalism. Some of the graduates of the Quito campus have transferred to our Twin Cities campus and are currently earning their bachelor’s degrees in broadcasting.
The amazing story told in “End of the Spear” sticks with us as we continue to educate a generation committed to that same cause held by those who have gone before us.
What began as a tragic story of violence and loss has been revealed fifty years later to be a miraculous story of love, faith, courage, sacrifice and forgiveness. What five men accomplished in death opened the door to those left behind to bring change and healing to their murderers and their families.
In January 1956, the world was watching. In January 2006, will it dare to again?
When a violent tribe in Ecuador murdered five U.S. missionaries on Jan. 8, 1956, they left five widows with eight fatherless children and one stunned world watching.
It’s been exactly 50 years since missionaries Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint and Roger Youderian were slain in the jungles of Ecuador by the Auca, the most violent society ever documented by anthropologists at the time. One of the most gripping events of the 20th Century is told in the film, “End of the Spear.” Quite appropriately, the film premieres in theaters nationwide Jan. 20, the Friday following Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But that’s not where the story begins, nor where it ends. For Roger and Barbara Youderian the story began locally in the Twin Cities at Northwestern College.
WWII veteran Roger Youderian, class of 1950, met Barbara (Orton), class of 1949, at Northwestern College. After graduation, the young couple left for Ecuador. In 1955, after five years of successful outreach in their area, the Youderians joined four fellow missionaries in the Ecuadorian interior in an attempt to reach the head-hunting Auca.
Contact was extremely dangerous. No one who entered Auca territory lived to tell about it. Isolated from the outside world, the Auca were predisposed to kill any stranger on sight. Despite weeks of aviation outreach and an initial friendly ground contact, all five men were killed in an ambush on that tragic January day.
Today the Auca, known as the Waodani, are a thriving, peaceful community free of the violent and murderous stigma that haunted them for years. Their dramatic transformation came about because courageous individuals were committed to bringing peace, new life and hope in Christ to a place of death and hatred. It was, in fact, the wives and children of the murdered men who continued to carry on the work and bring the dream to reality.
There’s no better time for this movie’s release than in the days following Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Like our country’s great civil rights leader, the five men and their families had a dream—that transformation of a society is possible, even when the risks and opposition are great. They believed in a cause greater than themselves and were willing to die for it so that others could have a better way of life.
In a culture where we often care more about ourselves than others, a film reminding us of self-sacrifice for a greater cause is one to celebrate.
As president of Northwestern College, I hear the hopes and dreams of our students. They are among many who desire a quality education that will prepare them to serve and change the world. An article recently published in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press stated four of the five fastest growing private colleges in Minnesota, of which Northwestern is included, have a strong Christian focus.
Contrary to a common belief, students from religious colleges are not naïve about the world. We are a place that is transforming lives to transform the world. In fact, since Northwestern’s beginning in 1902, our students and alumni have actively engaged the world with the advantages of a strong academic education and a contagious faith.
As reflected in our 2004 and 2005 Fulbright Scholars whose assignments brought them to teach English in Taiwan, our graduates are academically prepared to serve in the world.
Locally, our students have the opportunity to live in and transform the inner city of Minneapolis while earning a bachelor’s degree through the Urban Cross Cultural College Consortium with students from Concordia University and Crown College.
Northwestern’s presence in Ecuador continues today. Our branch campus in Quito, Ecuador prepares Spanish-speaking students for careers in electronic media and journalism. Some of the graduates of the Quito campus have transferred to our Twin Cities campus and are currently earning their bachelor’s degrees in broadcasting.
The amazing story told in “End of the Spear” sticks with us as we continue to educate a generation committed to that same cause held by those who have gone before us.
What began as a tragic story of violence and loss has been revealed fifty years later to be a miraculous story of love, faith, courage, sacrifice and forgiveness. What five men accomplished in death opened the door to those left behind to bring change and healing to their murderers and their families.
In January 1956, the world was watching. In January 2006, will it dare to again?
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
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