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Michael Dawson

Michael Dawson is a missionary to the Yanomamö Indians in the Amazonas region of Venezuela. Michael was born in the middle of the Amazon jungle at TamaTama, a small mission base hacked out of the rainforest on the banks of the Orinoco river. He is the 5th of 10 children born to Joe and Millie Dawson who were among the first missionaries to the Yanomamo tribe. His first language was Yanomamö and he learned English when he was 7 years old. After graduating high school he worked for two years on the upper Orinoco river system taking portions of the New Testament to remote villages. The Yanomamö language contains many dialects and his purpose was to determine in what regions of the Yanomamo region that the current translation was understandable dialectally. He returned to the US for Bible School training in 1976 and finished missionary training in 79. He then spent a year in flight training. He married Renée Pintor in September, 1980 and they left for Venezuela in January of 1981. They worked disciplining new Yanomamö believers, traveling with them to different villages showing them how to evangelize their own people. They have three boys, Joshua, Ryan and Stephen.

In June of 1992 Renée went to be with the Lord after an attack of cerebral malaria. Michael was also stricken at the same time. They were both evacuated to Caracas, but Renée did not recover. She is buried in the base village of Coshilowäteli. On her headstone are the words “She lives in our hearts as a penetrating reminder that not only is Christ worth living for, He is worth dying for”. Mike continued working with the Yanomamö. In Oct of 1994 he married Keila and they now have two daughters. Mikeila and Mia.

In 1998 they began working on an experimental airplane to be used as a part of an integrated outreach plan to reach the entire Yanomamo people. Travel is difficult and, many times dangerous in the jungle. While distances are not that great, it can take days to get from one village to the next. The airplane was put in service in January of 2002 and has been a tremendous blessing to the outreach ministry, allowing contact with remote villages that would never have been reached any other way. The experimental airplane, while demonstrating the critical value of flight in the outreach program, has not been as reliable as had been hoped. Michael is now engaged in an effort to upgrade the engine to enhance its reliability.

On the 12th of Janury, 2006, Mikeila Reneé, five year old daughter of Michael and Keila went to be with the Lord. She became ill at about 1:00 AM and went unconscious at 9 AM. She passed away at about 2 PM. Normal radio contact is had with the mission base in town every morning at 6:30, however this morning for some reason, no radio contact could be established. Once again it was brought home to Michael the need to have aircraft based right in our jungle base.

Michael continues working with the Yanomamö in Amazonas Venezuela. He is involved in the outreach ministry and in the Bible school. Along with the rest of the team, he also helps in community development.

http://www.mpaviation.org

http://www.mpaviation.org/?page_id=226

 

"I laughed at Mike’s jungle exploits and cried with him over his daughter’s death. Very few people have the opportunity to grow up on both sides of the cultural fence as Mike and I have. Reading this book will highlight the Gospel as a multicultural message." Steve Saint, itecusa.org

"I Can See the Shore depicts a life lived among the Yanomamö with gusto and good humor, while personal sorrows are overcome with grace and transcendence. Mike Dawson not only tells his own remarkable story, but also translates the experiences of Yanomamö shamans, warriors, and childhood friends as they struggle with illness and warfare and confrontchoices about how to live as Yanomamö in a modern age."
Amy Wray, National Geographic Television

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Michael Dawson: I was born and raised in Amazonas State in Venezuela. The nearest town from where I was born is located over 300 miles away as the crow flies, much further away by river, which is how my family had to get back there. Growing up in the middle of the Amazon rainforest the Yanomamö people had a huge influence on my early life. Since we grew up with no television or anything else for that matter, I did grow up loving to read.

About influences on my life, first of all, my Dad and Mom. they came to the jungles and worked against incredible odds to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Yanomamö. It was while reading my Mom's book, "All the day Long" to my three boys that I realized what an incredible heritage a book was to leave your family. I decided if I ever had the time, I wanted to leave something for my boys to read to their children. I had the time in the University of VA hospital in Charlottesville VA. Other sources of inspiration are Paul from the Bible, along with Daniel, David, Peter and a host of others. Authors would be Philip Yancy, Paul Brand, Michael Card, and i guess the list could get pretty long.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Why do you write?

Michael Dawson: I think it was a release for me. It helped me work through dealing with hard times. Also, as I had opportunities to share my stories, people always thanked me and told how a certain story had impacted them and helped them with their own difficult time. Also, I hope people will gain a love of the Yanomamö Indians and of missions. I also hope they will be inspired to trust God in every situation.

 

 

PageoneLit.com: Briefly discuss your book I CAN SEE THE SHORE.

Michael Dawson: I started working on this project while waiting in the hospital room for a little girl that was more dead than alive. I wanted to be able to share my thoughts and all that was going through my mind to her when she was older. From there, I went back and started telling stories of my growing up years with the Yanomamö. Before I knew it, the book was over 400 pages long, and my editor told me it needed to be two books. I had no idea of trying to do two books, but decided to end book one with the passing of my first wife. So the chapters that actually inspired the book were not included in the first book, Growing Up Yanomamö, but are now in book two Which became I Can See the Shore. 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Tell us a little about the world of Shaman - and your experience in this culture.

Michael Dawson: Mercy, this could be an entire book by itself, and might be one day, but the Yanomamö have a closeness with the spirit world that is hard to describe. You do not have to convince a Yanomamö shaman about God or heaven, as a matter of fact, they can describe heaven in beautiful detail. The Chrystal sea, the rainbow around the seating place of the Supreme Being, the beings that sing without ceasing to the Supreme Being etc. All details easily found in our own Bibles describing heaven. But then one old shaman on the banks of the Orinoco river told me about stones of fire in heaven, well, my heaven had no stones of fire, I was comfortable with the crystal sea, the rainbow, singing angles etc, but fire, not in my heaven! I figured the old man was confused and was possibly describing the other place. So imagine my surprise, when a few months later, I am reading in one of the Old Testament books and find a verse that says something to the effect that Lucifer walked between the stones of fire into the presence of the Almighty, I forget the exact words, but I realized that old witchdoctor knew more about my heaven then I did. And I was the missionary! But the part they don’t know is that this Supreme Being loved them enough that HIS only son became a Yanomamö to make a path to His land so that all who wanted could come to dwell with HIM. They believe that the Supreme Being is an Enemy God, as a matter of fact, this is HIS name. Yai Wanonabälewä, “the Enemy God”

 

 

PageOneLit.com: How and when did you start as a missionary? As a missionary, what are your goals?

Michael Dawson: I guess it could be argued that I was just always a missionary. Thankfully, my Dad always insisted that we were a missionary family, not him the missionary and us just his kids, so we were always involved even as very young kids. I remember we had to teach literacy classes, and then were involved in traveling to distant villages to pick up people or take people home, so like I said, we were just always involved. But after high school, I returned to the US for Bible School and further missionary training and returned to Venezuela as a missionary in 1981, with my bride of 3 months. We felt like we were still on our honeymoon. 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Where is TamaTama?

Michael Dawson: TamaTama was a small little clearing hacked out of the jungle along the bank of the Orinoco river. At first it was a forward base for missionary operations and later became the boarding school for missionary’s children. I attended this school along with my siblings for years. It is located about 80 miles down river from our village of Coshilowäteli. 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: I absolutely love the cover design for I CAN SEE THE SHORE . Who did this work - and what was the concept?

Michael Dawson: I sent some pictures back to the publisher, Anne Fenske, of Grace Acres Press with some vague ideas of what I was thinking and this was one of the proofs that was sent back to me. I loved it and kept it. The Yanomamö on the cover are not posing, but it was just a candid shot by my friend Rick Johnson on our visit to their village of Matowäteli.
 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Discuss Growing Up Yanomamo.

Michael Dawson: As I mentioned earlier, I started writing about Mikeila, our daughter while she was in the NICU unit of the University of Virginia hospital in Charlottesville. From starting to write about her, I went on to stories about growing up with the Yanomamö and adventures I had with them. They are such a fascinating people, it was fun to write about them. The book was later edited down to just be stories of my growing up years with the Yanomamö and how my first wife died in the jungle from malaria. 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: What do you hope to achieve with your books?

Michael Dawson: I hope people will gain a love of the Yanomamö Indians and of missions. I also hope they will be inspired to trust God in every situation.
 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?

Michael Dawson: I have many favorite authors, not sure whose book I actually read last, it has been a while, we have been doing so much traveling. But I love books by Tom Clancey, Joel Rosenburg, Pat McManus and oh so many others, I did just finish rereading Heaven by Randy Alcorn. That is a book that makes you stop and think, in a very good way.

 

 

PageOneLit.com: What's next?

Michael Dawson: I would love to write an autobiography of Bautista Perez, He is one of the Yanomamö guys that has been a huge influence in my life. As a former shaman, he has some incredible stories. It would be an honor to help him tell his story. I would tape him, translate his story to English, but would still try and write it first person for him. Anyway, I am toying with it now.
 

 

 

 

PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?

Michael Dawson: My hobbies are flying and fishing and hunting with my Yanomamö friends. Not sure if they actually enhance my writing, but they sure give me a lot of material.