How Many ARROWS Would it Take to Kill Stan Dale and Phil Masters?
[Yali area, western New Guinea, from The Yali Story video]
Stanley Albert Dale was a runt. Boys at his school near Brisbane, Australia, bullied him. After one particularly bad episode, he went home crying. His abusive, alcoholic father taunted him as a weakling. “Then teach me how to be strong,” pleaded Dale, but his father told him to find out for himself. Soon afterward Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” introduced Dale to a manly world view. The young teen toughened his mind with hours of reading and toughened his body by running and by heavy labor. Bullies grew wary of his fists. Classmates discovered he had knowledge exceeding his years.
In 1933, eighteen-year-old Dale gave his heart to Christ. Immediately he told others of the Savior and spent hours daily in prayer. Eventually he won most of his family to Christ. While serving in World War II, he knelt and prayed each evening in the barracks, winning respect instead of the jeers he had expected. During and after the war he did evangelistic work. Coworkers appreciated his fervor but were put off by his cocksure attitude, relentless drive, sergeant-like discipline, and loner tendencies.
Dale was alone as a missionary to the hostile Yali tribe in Western New Guinea when a “miracle disguised as a natural phenomenon” occurred. His Canadian coworkers Bruno de Leeuw and several Dani Christians had departed from the Heluk Valley on this day, 26 January 1962, to take one of the Danis home to another area. Local hostility and a long spell of sunless weather had broken the Dani man’s mind and made him out of control.
The team had been building an airstrip to facilitate future mission work in the Heluk Valley. Dale stood in the rain, looking at the muddy sea they had hoped would have been a completed airfield by then. As the lone worker left to complete the airstrip, discouragement welled within him and he asked the Lord “What next?”
Then he shouted “Get thee behind me, Satan. I have already claimed this valley and its people for Christ.” Despite the torrential rain, he lifted a shovel to attack the work anew. Then to his amazement he saw hillsides disintegrating and sliding down to fill the low middle section of the airstrip. Wherever sod had been removed from the surrounding slopes, a “controlled landslide” was taking place. It was as if God himself was replacing the lost workers and moving dirt and gravel into position.
Eventually the airstrip was finished and planes brought Dale’s wife, children, and new workers. From that airstrip in 1966, Dale was airlifted for emergency surgery. Hostile Yalis to the south had requested someone to teach them the gospel. Bingguok and Jeikwaragu, local Christian leaders, walked into a trap. Both died bravely. When Dale went to see if he could recover their remains, the murderers shot five arrows into him. Hungry, weak from loss of blood, and suffering excruciating pain, he struggled homeward. Yali converts assisted him. At his darkest moment, while he struggled not to slip into unconsciousness, he cried out to God, asking if he would live. The Lord brought Psalm 118:17 to his mind: “I will not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Despite his agony, he toiled up another 1,500 foot mountain to reach a village where friendly Yalis made a stretcher and carried him to the airstrip.
When Dale recovered from surgery and returned to the Heluk Valley, awe filled his enemies. How many arrows would it take to kill this man? They were impressed by the Spirit in Dale.
Two years later, in nearby Seng Valley, hostile Yalis attacked Stan Dale and Phil Masters. Remembering that Dale had survived five arrows, they riddled each missionary with about a hundred. The two men stood as long as they could, giving their bearers time to escape. Three made it home. What happened to Ndenggen, the fourth, was never learned. After Dale and Masters died, their killers intended to eat them, but one of their wise men pointed out it would be against tradition since Dale and Masters had never killed any of their people. They gave them an honorable cremation instead. The story of the tragedy and subsequent conversion of many of the killers can be read in Helen Manning’s To Die for Their Saving and Don Richardson’s Lords of the Earth.
- - - - - -
A video account of the Yali Story is available as a digital download at Vision Video.
Other Events on this Day
- John Oncken Was Baptized Secretly at Midnight to Evade German Law
- PAULA RENOUNCED WEALTH TO LEAD A SIMPLE CHRISTIAN LIFE