The Greatest Missionary Generation by Larry W. Sharp

Author:Larry W. Sharp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: larry sharp;christian ministry;missionary autobiography;missionary memoir;christian memoir;christian autobiography;christian missions;Missionary book;missionary biography;American missionary;female missionaries;women missionary;woman missionary;Missionary book;missionary biography;missionary autobiography;American missionary;female missionaries;women missionary;woman missionary;African missions;African missionaries;missions book;verses about missions;
ISBN: 9781683073314
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2020-02-28T20:16:42+00:00

Ron and Lois Combs (Amazon)

“To Die Is Gain”

I was overwhelmed by the solemnness of the moment as I hopped out of the Jeep on that hot sticky afternoon. I was one hundred miles up the Tocantins River from its confluence with the Amazon, twelve hours by boat from the city of Belém, Brazil. Less than two years earlier, Ron Combs had drowned in that river while trying to save his sons. Now I was at the entrance to the Cametá cemetery where his tombstone gave testimony to a life given for the gospel:

Filipenses 1:21: Para mim o viver é Cristo, e o morrer é lucro.

Philippians 1:21: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

On December 26, 1971, Ron and Lois and their two sons, Mark and Steve, ages eight and six respectively, were traveling from a Christmas celebration at one small river congregation to another. They were aboard their eighteen-foot Mercruiser stern drive speedboat, the Vencedor, which had been fitted for sleeping as well as speed.

The fifteen-hundred-mile-long Tocantins River is one of the largest clear-water rivers in South America, and its name translates as “beak of the toucan bird.” Unlike the muddy Amazon into which it flows, its waters drain from the highlands in central Brazil and provide opportunities for an ecosystem different from many other Amazon tributaries, and the locals love to bathe and swim near its shores.

On their way to the next meeting, taking Christmas presents to poor children, the Combs family anchored their boat at midday about one hundred yards offshore near a small village. As Lois prepared lunch in the tiny galley, the pristine waters in the noonday sun beckoned to the boys. As they did so often at their home on the river in Cametá, they dove into the cooling waters.

Ron, who was an excellent swimmer, could see that the current was stronger than he thought. There seemed no recourse but to dive in, and with swift strokes, he reached the boys and began to fight the current himself, trying to bring his sons back to the boat. Meanwhile, Lois’s screams for help alerted two men onshore, who arrived shortly in their dugout canoe. They grabbed the boys and turned to look for Ron—with Lois frantically witnessing it all. But Ron was gone.

Eight miles wide at that point, the river is influenced by its natural flow and by the tides of the ocean, which affect the Amazon and its tributaries up to six hundred miles from the Atlantic Ocean. A cadre of river dwellers in their dugouts, joined by missionary colleague Arnold Ackland in his boat, began to search for Ron’s body. As darkness fell, they still could not find him. Because of the tropical heat, it is customary to bury bodies within twenty-four hours, so a couple of workmen were already building a simple coffin.

All the next day they searched again, and finally, just before sunset, his body was found floating face down. The tide had returned it to near where he had drowned.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.