International (MNN) — There’s a new film coming to town this weekend from Trans World Radio. Lifted: A Dying Tribe Encounters New Life tells the story of an American family God called to the mission field in the 1950s. They were inspired by the stories of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and three other missionaries who were killed in 1956 trying to befriend the Waodani people of Ecuador.
“Ivan Schoen was a carpenter. He was working on houses in St. Petersburg, Florida. He saw this article in the news of these missionaries’ death, and the Lord used it to say, ‘Ivan, I am calling you into this same line of work,’” says Clay Perry with TWR, the film’s primary producer.
“So he came down off the roof after a shift, [and] he told his boss, ‘Hey, I’m going to the mission field. I’m going to move my family and my three young kids, and we’re going to go work with people similar to the [Waodani].’”
What followed was a lifetime of risk, total lifestyle change, prayer, and relationship building with two Amazonian tribes in Suriname, South America.
(Map of Suriname courtesy of SurinameCentral via Wikimedia Commons – own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The tribes were the Wayana and Trio Indians. The tribes had similar practices and similar spiritual beliefs to the Waodani of Ecuador. They had a history of tribal warfare and killings.
“The Schoen family said, ‘We’re going to go work with those people,’” Perry explains.
We won’t spoil the story for you, but the Lord did incredible things and the Schoens’ calling continues today in the ministry of one of their sons.
Takeaways from Lifted
The film’s online premiere is November 8. Perry says TWR’s prayer for Lifted has been that it leads those who watch it to worship God, then get more involved to reach people with the hope of Christ. That could look like praying, giving and even going to the mission field. (Click to learn ways we can pray for the Wayana and Trio people of Suriname.)
There’s so much more to unpack in the Schoens’ story. Visit twr.org/lifted to learn how you can watch the online premiere Friday.
(Note: Perry says parents should use discretion in showing the film to their kids. Lifted deals with some heavy themes.)
“You will not walk away from the film thinking, ‘Wow, the Schoen family is a really unique, powerful missionary family.’ You will walk away thinking, ‘They serve a very powerful God,’” says Perry.
“They make that super clear in the film that it’s not them who [have] caused this great awakening among tribal peoples. It’s the Lord. They just happen to be the vessels who were there and they were faithful enough to go.”
There are some 20,000+ indigenous people living in the nation of Suriname in South America… Ethnic religions, spiritism and animistic belief are not uncommon, but God is moving! (Photo, caption courtesy of TWR via Facebook)
Behind-the-scenes glimpse
Perry says the vision for creating Lifted began three years ago with a curious video call.
Tom Schoen is the youngest of the Schoens’ kids. Today, he is a missionary with TWR still serving among indigenous people. Some TWR team members had heard about his upbringing and story, but there was much more.
“Three years ago, we received a Zoom call that had Tom, his mother and father who moved their family to the jungle, and then there was this tribal man sitting in a hammock holding up what looked to be a Bible. It [was] the completed Word of God in their language being received by the chief of the village,” Perry says.
“Our team was like, ‘We need to unpack this more. What is happening here? What is the backstory of this?’”
It turned into a unique story Perry is absolutely thrilled to share.
“As someone who hears a lot of stories around the world, and all of them are worthy and encouraging, I just haven’t heard many stories like it,” he says.
Visit twr.org/lifted to watch the trailer and learn how you can watch the premiere on Friday.
Header photo courtesy of TWR via Facebook.
