Customer Reviews

Bruchko And Motilone Miracle: How Bruce Olson brought a Stone Age South American tribe into the 21st century

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

After hearing Bruce Olson speak over a year ago and reading his first book, Bruchko, I have researched every magazine article and other source I could find on the life of this very special man. So when the sequel came out I was very excited to order my copy. It does an excellent job of filling in the later years, right up to the present.

The gripping story of Olson's unorthodox life in the Amazon jungle challenges every stereotype we may have of missionaries. As a passionate and driven 19-year-old, he left a comfortable, bookworm existence in Minnesota and followed his God-given dream to travel to South America, where he was violently captured by a reclusive, murderous tribe of stone age Indians. And he has lived with them ever since!

Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle unfolds all the events that have happened in Olson's life with the Indians, who are now transformed into a productive and positive cultural force in Colombia. It covers the account of Olson's unbelievable response to his kidnapping and captivity in 1988 by one of the armed rebel groups using the jungle as their base of operations.

There are so many reasons why I was attracted to this story. It's a high adventure journey filled with love, suffering, resurrection, social redemption, and victory over evil. I'd like to see the movie made -- and made on a big scale, because it would enthrall audiences more than the most elaborate Hollywood action film. In this case, truth is stronger than fiction!

The original Bruchko book is one of my favorite books of all time. So when I heard he had written a second book which updated his story into the present day, I purchased it quickly. It was like getting reacquainted with an old friend. You see Bruchko grappling with the losses of Gloria and Bobarishora. You see his spirit rekindled after hearing a couple of the younger Motilones speaking at a peace conference. You feel his joy as the nation of Columbia recognizes that 420 acres of jungle land belong to the Motilone people (truly known as the Bari people).

The first 36 pages rehash the first Bruchko book, while the rest of the volume brings the story into the present day (with occasional looks back into the past).

You get to read the details of Bruce's entanglements with terrorist groups and drug dealers. You get his first person account of his brutal 1988 abduction by the ENF and his mixed feelings about the current direction the Motilones are taking. You get the sense that the younger Motilones want to modernize more and to forego some of the tribal traditions that Bruce has been trying hardf to safeguard. Yet Bruce is confident in the Lord that God will continue to raise up Motilones who walk in our Lord's trail.

If you love the first book, you'll definitely want this one, too. But this is also a good place to start even if you have never heard of Bruchko.

Bruce Olson is a modern legend. If you are looking for a great autobiography and missionary story, this is it. I read a lot and there are very few books that I give a 5-star rating.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. It will change your life. I think this man has had a great impact on the Motilone Indians in South America. Bruce, an American, has lived in the jungles of of Columbia and Venezuela for most of his life, giving up all the creature comforts of modern day culture. His story is remarkable.

I recommend reading the first Bruchko book first, which tells about his early life and how he got to the jungle. This book gives a review of the first book in the first few chapters, and then picks up where the last one left off.

You will not regret buying this book. It also makes a great gift.
High school students and college students will also enjoy it, as well as those bound for seminary or the mission field.

I guarantee you they will make a movie about this man one day. You simply can not make this stuff up.

Bruchko is one of the most inspiring, faith building books I have ever read. It witnesses the power of God for salvation to those who believe. It is a book about one man's willingness to sacrifice all for the sake of Christ's Kingdom. It's fascinating to read of the Motilone Indians, who seemed so primitive yet turn out to be superior people in many ways, once communication is made. I read Bruchko when I was in my early 20s and heading out to do mission work. Now I have bought it again, along with Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle, 30 years later for my sons to read - in this age of self-centeredness and materialism, both books speak of a high purpose for life. I recommend this book to everyone!

This follow-up book on the life and work of Bruce Olson takes up where the previous book (Bruchko) leaves off. It shows how he and the Motilone Indians of Columbia worked together to make great strides in improving the lives of the Motilones without compromising their culture. This is certainly uncharted territory Bruce ventured on. Most missionaries try not only to convert people to their religious beliefs, but try to give them their culture (usually western) as well. Bruce tried NOT to do so... and in many ways was successful. He has, however, had many critics - some of whom seem to wish that the Motilone people were still in their primitive state dying from hunger and disease as before. This book chronicles the progress and difficulties involved for both Bruce Olson and Motilones. The first part of the book covers much of the same material as is found in the book "Bruchko" in the form of a "flash back" while Bruce is prisoner to rebels. Still, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in this type of work.

There is much to admire about the author: courage, willingness to risk health and safety, and his success in finding ways to introduce a new way of thinking and living to an isolated, tradition-bound culture. It is, however, Olson's almost accidental insights into how the Motilone Indians of South America thought about and used language that has such importance in the practice of modern missions, whether religious or secular. The willingness to listen and seeking to understand, while not unique among those who seek to communicate a message, it brilliantly illustrated in Bruce Olson's experience. DWF

Excellent book. Very impressed by his life, and how he was used of the Lord to proclaim the gospel to the Motilone tribe in an extraordinary way. Very impressed how he waited on the Holy Spirit to direct him in reaching this tribe.

Bruce Olson was a young man driven with a purpose. The purpose was to go to South America, live with a tribe of natives, civilize them and win them to Christ. He met with many obstacles upon arriving, he had bought a one way ticket, had no money, knew no one. With his faith in God, his determination, he did find the tribe, made friends with them, introduced them to a better way of life and won their confidence. He introduced raising cattle, chickens and goats, planting gardens, enriched their diet, taught them hygiene, and translated books of the Bible into their language. He suffered many physical dangers, injuries, his fiance was killed before their marriage, but through it all his faith in God never wavered. It is a fascinating story, don't start it until you can devote several hours to reading it.

Well after reading Bruce Olsen's first book "Brucko", I can see why it was given 5 stars!! That book fed my Spirit with an incredible warmth ...needle prick sensations...on the virge of happy tears...and I just can't say it all exactly , except it was the most intensely revealing beauty of GOD'S love, moving in motion, and seeing our one true GOD realy alive and breathing through the truth of his written word !! How these Motilone natives took his word and grew by it, and even teaching Bruce a few things or two is a miracle....PLEASE get both of these books, and I promise you it will fill your Spirit with a new understanding of his love, that you will want to imitate and tell your friends about...I have bought copies of both books in english and spanish just to give out as free gifts to spread the good word and have already had people say they absolutely loved it, that it was something they never heard of, and now their praising the LORD and smileing too, JESUS SAVES, amen!

One of the best missionary books I have ever read/ God does the miraculous with the Motilone Indians.