Housing the helpers

Steve Saint talks about a timeline of ITEC, which started when five missionaries were killed by the Waodani tribe, (including his father, Nate), in Ecuador in January 1956, in part of a historical display set up at the Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center (ITEC) at the Dunnellon Airport in Dunnellon, Fla. on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. Saint is the founder and a board member of ITEC. ITEC has a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) they use to drop medicines and other supplies in remote jungle areas in addition to providing dental care and educate indigenous people as missionaries in many areas around the world. Formerly known as the Aucas, the Waodani live in the jungles of Ecuador. The five missionaries, which included Nate Saint (Steve’s father), made friendly contact with the violent tribe before being speared to death. The tragedy led to one of the most well known stories of martyrdom, sacrifice and Gospel transformation in modern Christianity, according to a timeline panel located at ITEC. Due to the work of the men who were killed, widowed Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint (sister of Nate), many of the tribe came to know Christ, the panel states. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

After enduring seven bouts with malaria and growing weary of Africa’s stifling 120-degree temperatures, Jonathan Edwards, in February of 2022, left his position at a mission hospital in Togo, Africa, and signed on as the director of information technology with the Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center at the Marion County Airport near Dunnellon.

“It’s a real blessing in that I’m not catching malaria anymore,” Edwards said. “The environment is far less stressful too. ITEC gives me the opportunity to serve God by meeting the needs of indigenous people, even though I’m not able to travel and work overseas.”

The move to this area also had another blessing for Edwards, his wife Bethany and their children, Caleb and Selah. Because ITEC provides free housing for its staff, the family is living in a three-bedroom, two-bath home without having to buy it or pay rent.

“Here in the United States, I think that’s pretty unheard of, especially with the housing market and the way the interest rates are going,” Edwards said. “Having a free place to live makes it possible for me to continue serving God in this way.”

ITEC started in 1999 under the direction of Steve Saint, a Marion County entrepreneur, author, and frontier tribal philanthropist. Saint, whose father, Nate Saint, in 1956, was speared to death in Ecuador along with four other missionaries, got the idea for ITEC when the very tribal people who had killed his father invited him to come and live in their tribe. He had already lived with them for short periods between the ages of 8 and 18.

“Mincaye, one of the men who killed my father and later ‘adopted’ me, planted the seed for ITEC’s ministry,” Saint said. “Mincaye told me, ‘When you were a boy, we had to teach you how to hunt with a blow gun and spear, and how to climb a tree with a climbing vine. Foreigners come here and do the tooth thing and the eye thing and the medicine thing for a day and another day and leave. We say, by you teaching us to do those things, we can take care of our own people.’”

Mincaye’s words reminded Saint of a popular saying attributed to Jewish philosopher Maimonides: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

“So, I started ITEC,” Saint said.

Saint decided to train professional staffers, such as doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, agricultural experts and pilots, and send them into frontier areas to teach indigenous people how to do things for themselves. He put out a call for helpers and got responses from folks like Jonathan Edwards. There was only one problem, said Saint.

“We had people who wanted to come here but there was no housing for them,” he said. “Home prices kept going up and there was nothing to rent or buy. Then there was a crash in the housing market and suddenly we had the opportunity to buy houses. My wife, Ginny, and I had funds from the sale of a limerock mining business. We started buying and rehabbing houses, and ITEC started to grow.”

In addition to buying homes that needed substantial repairs, Saint also started buying lots and building new houses. He and volunteers are currently finishing the latest home, bringing the total to 14 housing units. The homes are owned by a Saint family charitable trust, titled Matthew 28:18-20, in honor of Jesus’ mandate to go out and teach all nations, making them disciples who teach others. It is a 501(c)(3) organization, is tax exempt and no one takes a salary.

“We’re a Christian ministry,” Saint explained. “One of the objectives of this organization is to help Christ followers in frontier areas meet the felt needs of their own people. When Jesus came, the reason the multitudes followed him wasn’t because of his teaching. It was because he fed the hungry and healed the lame, the blind, and the sick. That’s why people followed him. And when they followed him, he taught them his gospel.”

Despite suffering a spinal cord injury 12 years ago while designing a new wing for ITEC’s Maverick flying car, Saint has continued to be involved in the work of ITEC. Also involved are two of his sons, Jaime, ITEC’s executive director, who speaks in churches and conferences all over the world; and Jesse, who helped his father start ITEC and developed the optometry and aviation programs.

“We’re really in the trainer training business,” said Saint. “Our staff is teaching indigenous people to meet their own people’s needs and training them to teach other indigenous people to do the same. Ours is a multiplication strategy, and it works. Our staff members go to remote areas all over the world where there are no doctors, no dentists, and no optometrists, and where there are no hotels, no restaurants, and no professional services. They’re frequently traveling beyond roads, which means they have to walk or go by canoe or bush plane. They sleep in huts, on the ground, and in hammocks.”

Such is the case with Zach Soles, who moved here four years ago from Idaho with his wife, Faith, and their six children. As ITEC’s mission transportation director, Soles spends a month or two overseas every year. He has been developing unmanned aerial vehicles that can drop medicines and other necessities to people living in remote jungle areas.

“It’s a blessing to be part of a ministry,” Soles said. “It’s definitely a blessing to come back to a house that’s available to us.”

People interested in becoming involved or in supporting ITEC are encouraged to organize a group tour that will include a visit to the hangar that houses the Maverick flying car and the Piper Family Cruiser that Saint flew in the film “End of the Spear” and “Beyond the Gates of Splendor.” Both movies are available on Amazon Prime and YouTube. Saint’s books, “End of the Spear,” “Walking His Trail” and “The Great Omission” are available through ITEC.

For more information, go to itecusa.org or call (352) 465-4545.