Missionary Pentalogy

When I moved to Portland I heard a lot about a Missionary by the name of Jim Elliot, a promising young leader, who surrendered His life to reach unreached people in Ecuador.  Jim and 4 friends (Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian and Pete Fleming) felt called to reach a tribe known as the Aucas which means “naked” or “killers”.  This tribe lived in fear and hatred and killed any outsider who approached them as well as anyone in their tribe or others who they disagreed with!  These 5 men were willing to die for the Aucas to know God… and that’s exactly what happened.

I have wanted to read the story for a while and so I grabbed Shadow of the Almighty, a biography of Jim Elliot, and started reading.  I didn’t really like the way the biography was written.  Using letters he had written and his journals, his wife pieced together an almost autobiographical account of the inner workings of the life of Jim Elliot.  (It’s basically an abbreviated and narrated version of The Journals of Jim Elliot was published). I was challenged by a number of the things he said and did, but overall his style of communication was a bit too “flowery” for me.  So, knowing there are many other Elliot biographies I decided to try a different one, Through Gates of Splendor.  This book, also written by Elisabeth Elliot told the whole story, following the lives of all 5 men and their wives, painting a full and moving picture of the power of a number of lives poured out to God and committed to the same cause!  It’s great!

For my birthday I was given some book vouchers and so I decided to by another few biographies.  At the bookstore I found the biography of Nate Saint, Jungle Pilot.  As you can guess from the title, he was the pilot of the operation and instrumental in the work God was doing amongst the Aucas.  I loved it.  And while it’s not my favorite biography, I’d say he’s probably my favorite missionary.  There’s something about Nate Saint that I’m really drawn to.  You should read the book!

Finally I grabbed End of the Spear by Steve Saint, Nate’s son.  A few years after the death of the five missionaries, Rachel Saint (Nate’s sister) and Elisabeth Elliot (Jim’s wife) were invited to live with the people who killed their husbands, which meant Nate grew up adopted into the tribe who killed his own dad!  This is the really moving story of how the Waodani tribe (previously known as Aucas) came to know God and give up on the life of savage killing.

It has been really fun to read the same missionary story from multiple angles.  This unintentional pentalogy gives an amazingly full picture of God at work in the lives of so many people as He works out His will.  As a result of the deaths of five men, hundreds of thousands of people have come to know God.

God, my life is yours.  May it bring glory to your name