by Terry Carruthers
Editor’s Note: This story pays tribute to Harold and Miriam on the occasion of Harold’s Homegoing on February 3, 2009. Miriam passed away in 2001. With single-hearted passion, their more than 40 years in Brazil set in motion a testimony for the Lord that increases to this day.
Webster defines pioneer as “a person who goes before, preparing the way for others.” God in His grace used Harold and Miriam to open up a great field of ministry among the Macuxi Indians in north Brazil. Harold Burns was not the absolute first missionary to enter into the native villages, but he was one of the earliest missionaries to have an eternal impact and continuity of ministry in the Cotingo region of Brazil’s Roraima state, located between the Amazon River and the Guyana and Venezuela borders.
Harold first arrived in Brazil by ship in 1950. He made his way to Boa Vista, Roraima, where he studied the Portuguese language with a local teacher. Harold later continued his languages studies in Manaus where he met Miriam Gilbert, a single missionary. Returning to Roraima, Harold was soon involved in a Baptist Mid-Missions/Unevangelized Fields Mission school called Betel that was started to teach native children to read and write and to be a means of evangelism. Shortly after arriving at Betel, Harold found himself alone, carrying the whole load. Health needs prompted him to close down the school and take an early furlough. Back in the US in 1952, he and Miriam Gilbert were married. Returning to Brazil, Harold and Miriam were completely surrendered to serve the Lord, working among the Macuxi people, who lived in villages along rivers and streams in the savannas and in the mountains.
A ten-year wait for the harvest in Contão
The Indian village of Contão is a large Macuxi village on the banks of the Cotingo River that flows through the great savannas of Roraima. Today Contão village has a population of about 1000. In its early years, Contão was known as the “party center of the region.” Sugarcane liquor was produced in a nearby village and traded with the Indians for cattle. As a result, every weekend wicked parties were held in the village, drawing many natives from surrounding areas and the gold miners who worked the rivers. One resident at the time called the place a Sodom and Gomorrah. An earlier missionary with another mission had to leave the village when his house was burnt down. It was to this village, Contão, that God called Harold and Miriam Burns to preach the gospel.
In their early years of ministry at Contão, Harold and Miriam lived at a Brazilian village called Villa Pereira on the Surumu River about 25 miles from Contão village. At the time, there were no roads or bridges in the region, just trails and foot paths crisscrossing the savannas. Harold and Miriam would head out to Contão by foot and by bicycle. Harold would leave first by foot and Miriam would later catch up to him on the bike. They would keep trading off till they arrived in Contão! Later on Harold bought a jeep to make life a little easier. To get it to Villa Pereira, Harold had to drive it from ranch to ranch until arriving at the Surumu River. Not to be defeated by obstacles, Harold built a small barge of planks mounted on oil drums and thus was able to get to the other side. When Harold and Miriam made their first trip to Contão, it was the first vehicle ever seen in the village.
They spent long years working at Contão with few visible results. Apart from being a village totally given over to drinking and the pleasures of the flesh, the local priests were always spreading stories that Harold was deceiving them, and as a result the Indians were afraid of him. It took a long time to gain the confidence of the people.
One day in November, 1960 after patiently working among the people and teaching God’s Word in Contão for 10 years, Antônio Marcolino, the village chief, came to Harold and wanted to be a believer. In the following two weeks, 70 more people accepted the Lord. At first Harold wondered, “Are they really accepting the Lord or just following the chief?” Time showed that the people had made true decisions.
The gospel made its impact in Contão. Services were held under a large mango tree until the believers were able to build a mud-block, thatch-roofed building for a place of worship. One day, a short time after the conversions, the chief came to Harold with a problem: “We were planning a three-day party during Christmas with many Indian villages invited. There would be drinking, horseracing, and sin. What do we do now?” Harold replied, “Plan on having your party; we will just make it a spiritual party!” So at Christmas 1960, Contão held its first Christmas Bible Conference among the Macuxi Indians. These conferences continue to this day, alternating between six villages where churches have been started.
In 1961 Harold and Miriam started a small school in the village to teach reading and writing. They were also able to build themselves a small house next to a young man named Paulo, who was one of the first to get saved.
Today the Igreja Batista Regular de Contão (Regular Baptist Church of Contão) is the largest Macuxi church in the region. It runs about 260 in Sunday School and has its own native pastor, deacons, and Sunday School teachers.
Picking up where others left off in Araçá
Araçá is a native village composed of both Macuxi and Wapixana Indians. This village is located where the savannas meet the mountains about 10 miles east of Contão. These people lived from their gardens as well as from hunting and fishing in nearby rivers and streams.
The gospel was already being preached in Araçá in the 1960s before Harold and Miriam began ministering there. Native pastors of the Pilgrim Holiness movement from a Patamona tribe in northern Guyana had crossed over into Brazil by foot, evangelizing in different areas. Their ministries were progressing well until the Indian Affairs bureau denounced to the Federal Police the presence of foreigners without documents. The Pilgrim Holiness missionaries were expelled from the country and also took some of their converts back to Guyana. What remained of their work began to fall apart until Harold and Miriam were invited to help out. Around 1961, the Burnses took the work with the understanding that it would become a Baptist church. Again Harold trained deacons to take leadership until the time that they could find a pastor.
Today Igreja Batista Regular do Araçá (Regular Baptist Church of Araçá) averages about 200 on Sundays, and over the years has established two congregations.
Pacu: the gospel spreads from Contão
Pacu is a Macuxi Indian village in the mountains situated at the base of a high rocky ridge. The Indians at Pacu live by hunting wild pigs and deer and by planting manioc, corn, beans, and squash in gardens near the village. In the early days, Pacu was accessible only by foot.
The spread of the gospel in Pacu was in part a connection with the new work in Contão. Natives from all around had traveled to Contão to participate in the party life and later to attend the Christmas Bible conferences. Some of these people were from Pacu and returned home with a thirst to know more of God’s Word. Two new Christians in Contão guided Harold by foot across the savannas, up the side of the mountain range to Pacu village. This would have been in the early sixties. It was a long, difficult walk amidst rocks, steep slopes, and the beating sun. A present day Macuxi pastor, who was only about seven years old at the time, says he remembers seeing Harold for the first time on that trip. He was lying in his hammock reading his Bible.
The first services in Pacu were held in the house of the chief, a man named André. Pacu was a village much smaller than Contão, and almost everyone turned out to hear the gospel, and eventually most of the people accepted the Lord. A small mud-brick church was built near the brook that ran through the village, with two deacons put in position of leadership until they were able to have their own pastor.
Sometime after the Igreja Batista Regular do Pacu (Regular Baptist Church of Pacu) was started, Harold went with the men of the church to search out an area for a landing strip. They were able to build this strip and then have a Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot come in to check it out. From then on Harold and Miriam were able to come by plane to minister among the Macuxi brethren. It was in Pacu village that the New Testament was later translated into the Macuxi language by BMM missionaries Ross and Cathy Hodsdon.
Today in Pacu, almost everyone is saved and goes to church. Their attendance is about 90 in their services. About 10 years ago, a group left Pacu to start a new village and with it, start a new church. This new congregation is pastored by Lauriano, one of the first deacons at Pacu.
Leadership Training
One of Harold’s greatest concerns was preparing leadership for local native churches. Usually twice a year Macuxi pastors, deacons, and teachers met together and still meet together for Bible studies and leadership training. Harold often took with him pastors, seminary students, and other missionaries to help ground them in the Word.
One of the special needs of this work was study materials at a level of comprehension of the Macuxi students. Many had never been to school. Some taught themselves to read to satisfy their desire to know God’s Word. Harold spent much time translating Warren Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament and summarizing it to bring it to their level. Many of our Indian people have expressed gratitude for this simplified study help in their personal life and ministries.
A Tribute to the Burnses
In the early years, local Brazilian Christians didn’t get too involved in native evangelism. A Macuxi pastor once said to us, “If it wasn’t for the Americans, we wouldn’t have the gospel today.” We praise the Lord that God was able to use Harold and Miriam Burns and others like them to bring the good news of salvation to the native people of north Brazil. They were willing to suffer hardship, lack of supplies, separation from families, and a hot equatorial sun in a far away land, all for the cause of Christ. Praise the Lord for the lives and the example of the Burnses.
Terry and his wife, Jane, have served in Brazil since the mid 1980s. Terry and Jane, with their children, Kelsey, Laura, Bethany, and Michael, live in Manaus, a city on the Amazon River. Terry makes regular trips to the Macuxi villages to strengthen the churches started by the Burnses.