A New Life

In the darkness just before dawn on March 9, 1944, Audrey Bacon called out for help. Joe Moreno heard her and fetched the doctor, who helped her deliver a little girl. Audrey named her Avis Marie — the name her father, Dave, had picked out months ago, before he went missing in the “green hell” of Bolivia’s rainforest.

Lives Lived For God

You may have read the story of the five men (including Dave Bacon) martyred as they tried to contact the Ayoré people. And perhaps you read how well the Ayoré church is doing today.

But Mother’s Day seems an apt time to remember that the three widows left by the deaths of the men kept working as part of the team that reached the Ayorés. How did Dorothy Dye, widow of Cecil Dye, hold up under criticism that her husband was responsible for the deaths? How could Audrey handle being a single mom in a jungle? And how did Bob Dye’s widow, Jean, teach the missionaries’ children and learn the Ayoré language?

The answer comes through again and again in Jean Dye Johnson’s book, God Planted Five Seeds. God did far more than help them endure; He helped them thrive and gave them the opportunity to be the spiritual mothers of the Ayoré church.

Lives Given for God

Many years later, the relatives of those who killed Cecil Dye, Bob Dye, Dave Bacon, George Hosbach and Eldon Hunter became believers and apologized to Audrey. “We’re sorry we killed your husband. We didn’t know better,” they said.

Audrey didn’t answer immediately. How could she? And then she answered as would all three of the widows: “It was worth my husband’s death to see you come to know Jesus Christ.”

What’s the cause of Christ worth to you?