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Mart Green wouldn't be your first choice to be the driving force behind a movie, much less two of them. After all, until just a few years ago, the 42-year-old retailing magnate had never even been in a theater!

Mart Green

Green grew up in a conservative Christian home where movies were shunned, though his parents could've bought the local theater—or a whole chain of them, for that matter. His father, David Green, founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby, is listed among Forbes' 400 Richest Americans with a net worth of some $1.2 billion.

A product of that retail world, Mart Green is now founder and CEO of Mardel Christian and Education Supply stores—so he's also got a few bucks to spend. Several years ago, he decided to spend some of it promoting the Bible in a nationwide marketing campaign similar to the "Got Milk?" blitz. He'd even chosen the slogan: "This Book Is Alive."

But that idea got sidetracked after Green heard Steve Saint, son of one of the 1956 missionary martyrs in Ecuador, speak at a missions conference with Mincaye, one of the Waodani Indians who'd killed the martyrs—including Saint's father.

Soon, Green's Bible blitz idea took on a different shape—in the form of a feature film about those 1956 events: "Instead of doing a 30-second commercial," says Green, "we ended up doing a two-hour movie about the power of God's Word." He formed a production company, Every Tribe Entertainment, and hired some pros to make the movies—including a big wheel who left Sony Pictures to helm the project.

That feature film, End of the Spear, will open in theaters next January, the 50th anniversary of the death of the martyrs—Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian.

A second film, a documentary titled Beyond the Gates of Splendor, is now making the rounds in churches—to tell the story of the martyrs, and to start some buzz about the January release of End of the Spear. (I've seen Beyond the Gates, and it's extremely well done; I encourage your church to look into ordering a free limited edition screening kit, available at the here or by calling 1-800-695-9847.)

Interestingly, both stories are told from the perspective of the Waodani (sometimes spelled Huaorani), the Ecuadorian tribe that killed the missionaries, only later to hear the good news of God's Word and to see many of its members come to Christ. As far as Mart Green was concerned, there was no better way to tell the world that "This Book Is Alive." The Waodani, who had a reputation as savage killers, were proof enough of that.

We recently interviewed Green about the films and the story behind them.

When did you first become aware of the story of the five martyrs?

Mart Green: I'd read Through Gates of Splendor and I've known the story most of my life. But as far as the rest of the story, that started on June 14, 1997, when I was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at a Wycliffe Associates meeting, and Steve Saint spoke. And Mincaye and Tementa were there. Mincaye was one of the six guys that killed the missionaries, and Tementa's father was part of it too.

About a year later, I listened to the tape again of them speaking, and I heard Mincaye say, "We acted badly, badly till they brought us God's carvings. Now we walk his trail." Well, I literally exploded in my spirit and just started weeping. For the God's Word media campaign, I had been thinking of four words: "This book is alive." So when I hear Mincaye say, "We acted badly, now we walk his trail," I'm going, this is a "this book is alive" story if I ever heard it! The most violent society now lives in peace, and the answer is God's Word transformed their life. This book is alive.

I thought, Someday there will be a movie of the Jim Elliot story but it won't be from the Americans' point of view. It will be what happened to the six guys who killed the five, and it will be about how God's Word transformed their life.

Then what happened?

Green: I ended up calling Steve Saint. I said, "I'd like to come talk to you." And so June 14, 1999, two years to the date after I heard Steve speak, I'm in his home asking for rights to do the movie. And he says, "Well, if you're going to tell it from their point of view, you need to ask the Waodani."

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Beyond the Gates of Splendor	Printer view