On to the Sanumás: An Interview with Thomas J. Sorkness

In his new book, On to the Sanumás, Thomas J. Sorkness provides readers with a rare and gripping inside view of a lifetime of obedience to the Great Commission. Assembled from extensive diaries and correspondence written by Donald and Barbara Borgman during their time with the Sanumás, a tribe of the Yanomami people of Northwest Brazil, On to the Sanumás tells the story of the Borgmans’ 30 year mission to a tribe who had never heard the name of Christ.

Missionary interviewed Sorkness about this fascinating, in-depth story of the trials and joys of missions to unreached people groups, and his own experience among the Sanumás. 

All of the proceeds from this book will go to ongoing work among the Yanomami people, including the Sanumás.

Missionary: Your book, On to the Sanumás, tells the story of missionaries Donald and Barbara Borgman and their lifelong mission to the Sanumás in Brazil. Could you begin by telling us a little about the Sanumás?

Tom Sorkness: So the Sanumás are a subgroup or tribe of a greater group called the Yanomami. The Yanomami are an indigenous group that live in the far northwest corner of Brazil, near Venezuela. They are subdivided in various groups, including the Sanumás, but also groups known as the Yanomam, the Yanam, and the Ninam. So when they were first contacted by missionaries from Unevangelized Fields Mission (UFM, now Crossroads) back in the late fifties, by Western standards, they were very primitive. They were animistic people with little contact to the outside world. And, what makes it somewhat poignant is that these initial contacts in the late 1950s were just a couple of years after Jim Elliot and his colleagues met their deaths.

These groups were not particularly warlike, at least to the whites and Brazilians coming into the area, although they did war on each other periodically. The Sanumás are one of these groups. And since around the 1980s, a lot of changes have taken place among these people, not just because of missionary activity, but also particularly because of gold being discovered in this area in northwestern Brazil. Thus all kinds of prospectors were coming in. There was violence, a lot of conflict between the tribes and these people coming in, so the government had to intervene in various situations. Historically, there have been problems with various groups who have wanted the missionaries out of this area, as well as other areas of Brazil. These problems go back over 60 years.

Missionary: What kind of country do the Sanumás inhabit in Brazil?

Tom Sorkness: Northwestern Brazil is near the Parima Mountains, a mountainous region separating Brazil from Venezuela. It's kind of a highland area, the Guiana Highlands, but it's very much jungle. It's a little more open than what you might find right down along the Amazon, but if you fly over it, it's just a carpet of green. It's forest for as far as the eye can see. There are several major rivers that drain the area that all eventually flow into the Amazon. Those rivers and streams are kind of the lifeline for all these tribal people: that's how they get around, that's how they survive.

Missionary: When Don went to this area, what was the progress of the gospel at that point among that group?

Tom Sorkness: They had never been exposed to the gospel. They hadn't even met any non-indigenous people. When he first got to South America in 1958, UFM sent him down to the Wai Wais, in Southern British Guiana, along with a couple others. And they worked with the Wai Wais, to learn jungle training, survival in the jungle. In doing this, they actually went on a couple of expeditions with the Wai Wais, who, by the way, were very mission oriented. They were making contact with tribes that had never seen anybody from the outside world, let alone any type of gospel contact. So everything was completely new for these people. 

Missionary: So, who is Don Borgman? 

Tom Sorkness: Don was raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His grandfather was the pastor of a congregational church there. Don relates that his grandfather was partially responsible, from the 1930s to the end of his pastorate, for redirecting that congregation to a more orthodox or evangelical position, because most of those congregational churches up in New England had gone liberal by that point. Don's parents were part of that church and introduced him to the gospel at a young age. As he relates, that was foundational to his life and desire to serve the Lord. When he was in high school, there was a woman in his church who married one of the missionaries who had first made contact with the Wai Wais, and he would come, as well as his two brothers, and make presentations at the church in Bridgeport.

And so Don was filled with these stories of work amongst these primitive tribes. So he became interested in that. He hadn't really decided what he wanted to do, but he did want to somehow get involved in ministry. And so when he graduated from high school in 1949, he went out to Moody for a two-year course there with a plan to transfer to Wheaton, which he did after two years. And while he was both at Moody and Wheaton, his interests became heightened in working with tribes in South America, particularly their British Guiana or Brazil. He became interested in Bible translation and attended something called the Summer Institute of Linguistics, which Wycliffe Bible Translators sponsored. He did that a few times and became committed to this idea.

By the time he was finishing Wheaton Grad School, he had decided he wanted to join a mission team. It would either be Wycliffe or UFM. He hadn't decided. There was this one fellow, Neil Hawkins, who was one of the three Hawkins brothers who made the contacts with the Wai Wais, who had come to the States in 1957 or 1958 to try to recruit young missionaries to commit. Don knew this fellow through the Hawkins brothers coming to his home church. Neil Hawkins came to Wheaton and met with Don and said, “I'm trying to raise a bunch of missionaries. Would you be interested?” And by that time, Don was fully committed, and he signed on. By 1958, he was down in South America.

Missionary: Your connection with Don is more than academic. How did you first cross paths, and how did you come to write this book about him?

Tom Sorkness: When I was in college, my sophomore year, a fellow student invited me to come to Brazil to go on an expedition to reach a previously uncontacted tribe, the Sikois, a subgroup of the Sanumás. I brushed it off initially. But I ended up going, and we went on this expedition and made contact with these people. These people knew that there were missionaries in the area, and, so it wasn't like they'd never heard of outsiders before. And one of the reasons why Don wanted to go on this was to see if they spoke Sanumá, the same language he had been working with for some time. That was in 1977 and it was a great adventure.

As I say in the preface, I didn't really think a whole lot about it in the years to come, but eventually made contact with Don again after I wrote my own account of the expedition. My wife, Lois, and I went out and visited him and his wife. They live just outside of Indianapolis. Don unfolded this whole story for me. I was speechless because the things he did were quite remarkable. By that time, they had published the Sanumá New Testament, and so their missionary days were pretty much over. But the last day we were there, I said to him, “somebody ought to write your story.” And he said, “Well, others have said that, but I don't know who would do it.”

And then we were just looking at each other and I said, “Well, I guess I'm your man.” But the thing that was remarkable about it was, when I asked if he kept any letters or journal entries, he brought out this box, which was chock full, everything in chronological order, starting in 1949 when he went to Moody up until 2018, from newsletters, everything. Over the next six months, he digitized excerpts from all of these letters and sent them to me. That started the process, a long process.

Missionary: What part of Don's story does your book cover? Is it his whole ministry down there, or just select parts?

Tom Sorkness: 1949 to 2018, and everything in between.

Missionary: And he ministered to this group for that full time?

Tom Sorkness: From 1965 on. The first few years he was part of these expeditions launched to make contact with the Yanomami tribes. And here's another picture of God's providence. The Sanumá are probably the furthest removed from where they were doing their work, right up near the border of Venezuela. There's actually more Sanumás living in Venezuela than there are in Brazil. But, along the way, when they were going on one of these expeditions, early on -- this is probably about 1959, 1960 -- they met some Maiongongs, a different group altogether, who had a village right next to the Sanumá along the Auaris River. And so they told Don and the others about the Sanumá. These two groups had historically been enemies, but by this time lived somewhat peacefully next to each other. The Maiongongs knew that the missionaries wanted to make contact with Yanomami groups.

They said, if you wanna come to the area, the Sanumá are right next door to us, and we'll build you an airstrip. And what the Maiongongs wanted was trade goods and medicine and that sort of thing. So the Maiongongs built this airstrip so the missionaries were actually able to fly in and establish themselves amongst the Sanumá, which is where Don and Barb would come to live in 1965. The station would become known as Auaris, after the river.

Missionary: The details he captures are enchanting and impressive. A lot of us may get regular update letters from missionaries, but in this book you're really filling in the gaps with parts of the mission that most of us will never experience.

Tom Sorkness: Much of it is his day-to-day journal through the years. The record kept is quite incredible. He writes not only of their experiences with the Sanumás and others but also his reflections on the Lord's goodness and providential interventions. The record is of tremendous value.

Missionary: Did anything surprise you?

Tom Sorkness: Probably what surprised me, generally speaking, were all the things besides Bible translation that he and his wife and others had to deal with. Their mission was not only Bible translation. One of the things he mentioned when he was trying to make a decision whether to go out under Wycliffe’s or UFM’s mission board was that Wycliffe had at the time a policy that if you're a Bible translator, that's all you do. You go and you learn the language and you start translating. Having felt called to the ministry, he wanted to do more with the people.

When he was in college, he worked with youth at a place called Chicago Heights, working with kids from poor backgrounds. That's what really got him motivated and a love for sharing the gospel and leading people to Christ.

There were just so many distractions along the way, including ministering to these native people in very practical ways. Malaria was always a threat, as well as flu and measles or chickenpox. This is devastating to groups like this because they had no resistance. So they had to learn to give inoculations, as well as other types of basic medical care. Don also had administrative duties he had to do, plus he was raising a family. You think you have a specific purpose, but there are all these other things going on to deal with.

I was amazed that he was even able to continue on with this. It really showed perseverance on his part, plus organization. There also was the constant pressure from the government, at least certain parts of the government, to clear out. There was always a threat of all the missionaries getting kicked out and having to deal with that. It wasn't the entire Brazilian government that was focused on trying to get them out, but certain elements within the government. 

One surprising and shocking thing was to learn about the fate of the two guides on the expedition I went on in 1977 - Lorenzo and his son Alberto, who was about 12 at the time. They were killed by gold miners in 1991. It really saddened me, but reminded me of the tremendous threat to Indigenous people of South America, not by missionaries, but by those who have little regard for their lives and well being. The missionaries, including Don and Barb, loved these people and still do.

Missionary: When it came to Don’s translation work, was there an existing alphabet?

Tom Sorkness: No, they had no written language. He was a trained linguist, so he was able to provide a standard orthography. He was able to use that. There were different groups in Brazil, and maybe a couple neighboring countries that were also doing translation work. And at one point, they had to come together and have a common alphabet that they were using for all these different tribal groups. There was no written language, so he had to put that all together.

Missionary: In addition to translation, what work were Don and Barbara doing? Did he plant a church there? 

Tom Sorkness: There was no church working with them. What they were looking for initially was just any positive response to the gospel. It was probably close to 20 years, not till the early- to mid-eighties, that people began to gain understanding and come to the Lord in faith. But even then they were still dealing with the cultural baggage. There were many impediments for Don and a couple others that were doing some work up there. There was eventually a Brazilian couple that came up, and was working with the Sanumá as well. So they were looking for any type of response initially.

They had some baptisms in the 1980s, but as far as the church is concerned, there really wasn't a church until after the New Testament was produced and distributed in 2008. Within the past 20 years, a church has been established with appointed elders among professing Sanumá men. They had several people that they felt confident would have the gifts for eldership. They did some training amongst this group, maybe a dozen or so, they had that group themselves choose who the elders would be, and who they felt most confident in. There didn't seem to be any dissension.

Missionary: Don meditates on a lot of scripture in the book. Are there scriptures in the journals that stood out to you, or themes in the journals that seemed especially encouraging for Don?

Tom Sorkness: The main thing is the Lord giving strength, to carry on in all kinds of circumstances, even down to just continuing to hike along the trail and knowing that God was with them and giving them the strength. Through, the circumstances of losing their son, his spiritual maturity, and awareness of God is quite striking, from the day-to-day and mundane to things that were of great significance and would be in anybody's life and having to work through them. But I would say strength and perseverance are the main things. And God's goodness to them, in spite of many of the difficulties that they experienced.

Barb would be the first one to say that, yes, they experienced difficulties, but there were many other missionaries who experienced far greater difficulties than they did, even with the loss of their son, which they still feel very acutely. And that was in 1970. So, that's 54 years ago. They still feel that pain. At one point, maybe a couple years after they lost their son, David, Don reflects in one of his journal entries wondering why they couldn't save their son. There was an Indian woman who was bitten by a snake, as had been the case with David, and they were able to help her and save her, but they weren't able to save their son. So it's a very human element to this whole account. It’s not just spiritualizing everything and glorying in God leading through, but you can feel their pain and their difficulties just in terms of the things that are recorded and in terms of his reflections on things... I sent a note to Don and I asked if he ever considered leaving the mission field. They did go home for a while, just to recuperate. But when I asked him he said it was never a consideration. They never reconsidered their commitment.

Missionary: As you've been working on this book, or as you're even thinking about talking with Don years ago, and thinking about the state of the church today and where and missions, what are your hopes for the book, for the people who read the book, and for Don's story as it lives on in the book as it were?

Tom Sorkness: I would hope that it would inspire some young people today to take up this call. And, not only that, but also to have a long-term commitment. The commitment to long-term ministry does not seem to be there today, whether it's on the mission field or in churches.

There are still unreached people. That's a real special calling. I think there's a softness today, that we live such comfortable lives, and it's difficult for people to go overseas, even in places that maybe seem a little primitive. But, compared to what these people dealt with, you're living pretty comfortably in some ways.

They would go home, there'd be furloughs, but they were committed to something over the long haul. They persevered, knowing that this is God's work and he's going to work through them. My hope would be that this book would in fact inspire people in that way. Whether it's being the pastor of a church or working in an impoverished area, and sticking it out over the long haul. 

Missionary: How would you sum up Don’s ministry and legacy?

Tom Sorkness: The primary mission was to learn the language and translate the scriptures. Secondarily, but not any less important, was to plant the gospel and see people come to Christ and see a church established. But I think the greatest impression made upon me is the Borgman’s love for the Sanumá people. And that was expressed through their dedication and they still have contact with some of these people. They're thousands of miles away and generally have to interact through an intermediary now. But they genuinely love these people. They were brothers and sisters in Christ, and they saw them through thick and thin and times of spiritual growth and backsliding, and falling into sin.

And these same people confessed their sins before the entire village and repented, encouraging others to do the same. There was just a personal relationship there. The missionary was truly a friend to the Indigenous people, whereas many others have come in, to study them, to exploit them, to control them, to tell them this is the better life, and so forth. And that's true with the Borgmans. They love the Sanumá people, the people that they got to know over the years. That was demonstrated through their lifelong commitment to them. They still pray for them regularly.