Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015) – wife of missionary to the Auca Indians in Ecuador, Jim Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot – Photo Steve Saint

Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca of eastern Ecuador.

She was born: December 21, 1926 , in Belgium (died at age 88)
Education: Wheaton College
Spouse: Lars Gren (m. 1977), Addison Leitch (m. 1969), Jim Elliot (m. 1953–1956)

Elisabeth Elliot website: www.elisabethelliot.org/

ITEC (Steve Saint) on Facebook, earlier today:

Aunt Betty died early this morning. Oh I forget, most people know her as Elisabeth Elliot (Leach) now Gren.

She will be remembered, and rightly so, as a wonderful and prolific writer, and as a wonderful speaker. A number of years ago I wanted to send Aunt Betty a manuscript of mine and we began talking about the book that she compiled and authored, ‘Through Gates of Splendor.’

I believe God has used that book to influence more people to consider missions and to give their lives to missionary service, than any other book written in the last century. Elisabeth’s comment was, „that really wasn’t much of a book, but I guess God uses what He wants to use.”

Besides being a wonderful writer and speaker. Elisabeth (I can hardly call her that because she was also a very dear „aunt”) was a wonderful mother to her one daughter Valerie, and involved, doting and challenging grandmother to Valerie and Walt’s eight children. She was usually very formal with the public (I think she was shy), but I remember telling her something about a boarding school we both went to and she laughed so hard I thought she was going to injure herself. She loved a good debate and could be somewhat argumentative.

I think Elisabeth would be happy just being remembered as not much of a woman, that God used greatly. To the rest of us mortals she was an incredibly talented and gifted woman who trusted God in life’s greatest calamities, even the loss of her mind to dementia, and who allowed God to use her. He did use her.

Tens of thousands of people will mourn her loss. I will certainly be one of them. But isn’t it incredibly wonderful that our loss is certainly her gain. She can think and talk once again!

Let’s remember her daughter Val and son-in-law Walt and her eight grandchildren. Let’s also remember and pray for her husband Lars who cared for her and saw that she was cared for during her ten year battle with the disease which robbed her of her greatest gift.

-Steve Saint

The story of Jim Elliot

Vezi aici in Limba Romana/ Read more about Kim Elliot here:

–Cei 5 missionari care au fost omorati cant au aterizat pe o plaja in Ecuador in 8 Ianuarie 1956 – The story of the 5 missionaries speared to death on January 8, 1956 on a beach in Ecuador

Photo creditmissaofederal.blogspot.com

Jim Elliot

Five Missionaries Speared To Death In Jungle

January 8th, 1956 (59 years ago)
Many people thought it was a tragic waste of a life when Jim Elliot and the other four missionaries died trying to contact the unreached Aucas.

Yet, how many Christians would risk their life for an opportunity to share the gospel? Jim Elliot, a young modern martyr, gave what he could not keep and gained what he could not lose.

A ‘missions’ statistic that profoundly challenged Jim was, “There is one Christian worker for every 50,000 people in foreign lands, while there is one to every 500 in the United States.” Early in 1952, Jim Elliot sailed for Ecuador. The plan was to locate in an old oil station that was abandoned because it was considered too dangerous for oil personnel. It was close to the Auca tribe and had a small airstrip. In February 1953, Jim and Elisabeth met in Quito and then on October 8, 1953 they were married. Their daughter, Valerie, was born two years later. Jim and Elisabeth worked together in translating the New Testament into the Quechua Indian language at the new mission station. The Aucas were a violent and murderous tribe and had never had any contact with the outside world. Jim wanted to bring the gospel there so he started a plan which was called Operation Auca. Besides him and his wife, his team consisted of five more missionary couples. (Photo below Ed McCully, Pete Fleming and Jim Elliott via sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com)

‘NOT A LONG LIFE, BUT A FULL ONE’

The men discovered the first Auca huts with the help of a missionary jungle pilot, Nate Saint. The first attempt to contact them was by airplane. They would fly around the camp shouting friendship words in the Auca language through a loud speaker and dropping down gifts in a basket. Encouraged by this progress, after three to four months of gift dropping, they decided to make a base on the Curray River, ‘Palm Beach’. After they had set up shelter they eventually made contact with the Aucas. After a little persuasion, they were able to convince some to come into their camp. Encouraged by this visit, the men felt that it was time to go in and try to minister to them.

One morning, after numerous songs of praise and considerable prayer, the men radioed their wives saying that they were going to go into the village and would radio them again later. ‘Operation Auca’ was under way. The next day, a group of twenty or thirty Aucas went to Palm Beach. “Guys, the Aucas are coming!” As soon as the others heard that, they flew into action straightening up their camp. Little did these five men know that this would be their last few hours of life. The last radio contact they made was Jim calling his wife saying, “We’ll call you back in three hours.” Jim Elliot’s body was found down stream with three others. Their bodies had been brutally pierced with spears and hacked by machetes.

After Jim’s death, Elisabeth, her daughter and another of the missionaries sister, Rachel, moved to work with the Auca Indians. The love of Christ shown through their forgiveness allowed them to have amazing success with the once murderous Indians. Jim’s life was not a waste, in fact, God used his death to bring life through salvation to many Aucas and encouragement and inspiration to thousands of believers worldwide. Source Inspirationalchristians.org via http://www.historymakers.info

Quest for the Aucas

Air Date: May 2002
In January 1956, five young men ventured into forbidden territory…the home of one of the world’s most feared people groups: The Aucas. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Roger Youdarian, and Pete Flemming sought to bring the love and light of Jesus Christ to this people who had never heard. Their mission ended in slaughter, but the Auca story had just begun. Today the children and grandchildren of one of these martyrs, work and play among the Aucas. VIDEO by Day of Discovery Videos

Jim Elliott Biography

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliot, 1949

Born as Philip James Elliott on 10/8/1927 to Fred and Clara Elliott. He and his siblings grew up in a Christian home and he professed his faith in Jesus at the age of 6 years old. He learned oratory skills in high school and used his oratory skills to defend his Christian beliefs and witness to others about salvation through Jesus Christ. In 1945 he entered Wheaton College, a private Christian college in Illinois. He saw his time there as an opportunity to grow spiritually, develop discipline, and prepare for future missions work. He selected his activities with these goals in mind. Believing in the value of physical conditioning, he joined the wrestling team during his first year, even though some considered it unnecessary and even ungodly. The following year, he refused a staff position within the college that would have given him a free year of tuition but also a significant time commitment and what he considered foolish responsibilities. He was not even fully convinced of the value of his studies, considering subjects like philosophy, politics, and culture to be distractions to one attempting to follow God. He went on several extended missionary trips during his years at Wheaton. He graduated in 1949. Everything he did after college was to prepare himself for foreign missions. He and some friends moved to Ecuador in 1952 to work with and evangelize the Quichua Indians. While there he married Elisabeth Howard and they had their only child, Valerie, in 1955. He and four other missionaries, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and their pilot, Nate Saint, made contact with the violent Huaorani Indian tribe (which were known at the time as the Aucas) from their airplane using a loudspeaker and a basket to pass down gifts. Historically, every encounter with the Huaorani had ended in death, from the sixteenth-century conquistadors to seventeenth-century Jesuits to nineteenth-century gold and rubber hunters. Toward the end of 1955, the oil companies were closing in on Huaorani territory, an area of about 2,500 square miles. This tribe of unknown size and location was seen to be an irritant to development. Not only had they killed oil company employees who ventured into their territory, but they had even lain in ambush outside the big oil camps and killed unsuspecting employees right outside their own quarters. After several months and 13 gift drops, the men decided to build a base a short distance from the Indian village, along the Curaray River. There they were approached one time by a small group of Huaorani Indians and even gave an airplane ride to one curious Huaorani whom they called „George” (his real name was Naenkiwi). Encouraged by these friendly encounters, they began plans to visit the Huaorani, without knowing that George had lied to the others about the missionaries’ intentions. Below left- one of the photos found in the camera.

The missionaries radiod to their wives that they intended to make efforts to enter the village and they would radio back at 4:30pm. Their plans were preempted by the arrival of a larger group of 10 Huaorani warriors, who killed Elliot and his four companions in a sudden and brutal attack on January 8, 1956. The missionaries had vowed to one another before God that they would not defend themselves against human attack, even in the face of death. According to the Indians later, the men did not try to fight back. There were warning shots fired by the men and one tried to make it to the plane to radio for help. But they were overcome and martyred.

When they missed their checkin the worried wives asked for help. Planes flew over the base camp and saw the signs of attack. Four days later a weary but tense ground party made up of missionaries, Quechua Indians, and military personnel found the other bodies, identifiable only by their watches, rings, and other personal effects. Elliot’s mutilated body was found downstream, along with those of the other men, except that of Ed McCully. Their bodies had been brutally pierced with spears and hacked by machetes. All of the plane’s fabric had been ripped off as if they had tried to kill the plane. Nate Saint’s watch had stopped a 3:12 p.m. Photos developed from film found in Nate’s camera at the bottom of the river and a diary fished out of his pocket gave the only record of their last days.

Widows hear the news of their husband’s deaths.

Elliot and his friends became instantly known worldwide as martyrs, and Life Magazine published a 10-page article on their mission and death. They are credited with sparking an interest in Christian missions among the American youths of their time, and are still considered an encouragement to Christian missionaries working throughout the world.

After their deaths, there were many conversions to Christianity among the other Indian tribes of Ecuador. Later, Elisabeth Elliot and her daughter Valerie moved to work in the Auca Indian village. They were joined by Rachel Saint (Nate’s sister) who also felt a burden to take the Gospel to those who had killed her brother. Their example of forgiveness and love for the ones who murdered their family members allowed them to have amazing success with the once murderous Indians. Many Aucas now live for Christ and are busy sharing the Gospel live for Christ and are busy sharing the Gospel with others. Photo below, left Roger Youderian and his family.

Nate’s son, spent a lot of time with his Aunt Rachel with these Indians. In an unbelievable expression of reconciliation, Steve Saint, Nate’s son, was baptized by two of the men who murdered his father, in the very river where his father died. Steve Saint has worked as a missionary in West Africa, Central America and South America. At the request of the Waodani elders, he returned to the Amazon in 1995 along with his wife and children.

Elisabeth Elliott, had her own ministry as a Christian author, speaker and had a radio program (Gateway to Joy) in her later years.

Nate Saint and his family

Kathy Saint being baptized by Indians from the tribe that killed her father.

(Source

http://www.atanycost.org/DidTheyHaveToDie.htm, Wikipedia, and http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com)

Audio by Elisabeth Elliot:

VIDEOS by bibelchannel

Elisabeth Elliot – Jim Elliot Story (English)

Elisabeth Elliot – Under the Shadow of the Almighty (English)

Scientists Can Be Philosophically Naïve

15 iun. 2015 Comentarii închise

…about Dawkins and Hawking.

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