In 1949, Bill and Gladis Gibson left family and friends behind and began their lives together as missionaries to the Jivaro (Shuar) Indians in Ecuador South America.

This took an incredible amount of courage and faith because at that time, the Shuar were fierce indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest, actively engaging in feuds, vendettas, witchcraft, and violence. They were called Headhunters because the most common way to deal with enemies was to kill them, cut their heads off, shrink them, and display the shrunken heads as trophies.

There are a couple of movies currently out on DVD that dramatize the murder of several christian missionaries by the Huaroni, a nearby tribe. If you haven’t seen the movies: End of the Spear or Beyond the Gates of Splendor they are both worth watching.

Gladis Gibson, was born and raised in Oklahoma. She picked cotton in the cotton fields as a little girl. When she graduated from high school, she went to nursing school in Canada, and Bible College in Kansas City. She had no plans to get married or raise a family.

Bill Gibson grew up in Michigan. He was a soldier in World War 2, and after the war, he enrolled in Bible College in Kansas City. There, he met Gladis. They fell in love while sharing a waffle at a nearby diner.

Bill is a self taught photographer. The majority of these photos were developed by hand, in a darkroom that he built. The chemicals and photo paper he used had to be flown in, presumably from Quito, the capitol city of Ecuador, and possibly from the US.

They had three children, Shirley, Grace, and Billy. Billy went to be with Jesus soon after he was born. Many personal sacrifices were made as these two brave and loving people dedicated their lives to following God’s will.