The Yanomami live in the Northern Amazon along the Brazil-Venezuela border. Numbering roughly 19,000 equally divided between the these two countries, they are one of the largest indigenous nation in South America that still retains their traditional way of life. They are one of the most recently contacted peoples, having very little contact with outside society before the 1980's. Since 1987, the Yanomami have seen about 10% of their entire population - over 2,000 people - decimated by massacres and diseases brought by invaders.

The word Yanomami means "human being." They live in small villages, grouped by families in one large communal dwelling called a shabono; this disc-shaped structure with an open-air central plaza is an earthly version of their gods' abode. They hunt and fish over a wide range and tend gardens in harmony with the forest. Few of them have been reached by the good news of the gospel. They need our prayers!