Jim (1927 - 1956) and Elisabeth (1926-to-date) Eliot
"He is no fool who gives what he can not keep to gain what he can not loose"
Philip James Elliot was born on 8 October1927, in Portland, Oregon, USA to Fred and Clara Elliot with three siblings. His father was an evangelist and his mother practised medicine. The many missionaries who visited his home whilst he was growing up proved to be an important influence in his life and Jim received the Lord as saviour when he was eight years old.
After graduating from high school, Jim's brother recommended Wheaton College to him and he entered this Christian college in 1945. It was there that he met and cemented a strong friendship with Pete Fleming. Coming across the statistic that "there is one Christian worker for every 50,000 people in foreign lands, while there is one to every 500 in the United States" he was challenged to think deeply about missions and, after visiting Mexico one summer, he felt his missionary call to South America. In 1948, he was elected the president of the Foreign Mission Fellowship at Wheaton and was part of their Gospel team during the summer. In one of his notebooks he wrote that year, "God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus."
In June, 1950, Jim spent much time in Norman, Oklahoma, where he worked with a former missionary to the Quechua Indians of Ecuador and learned for the first time of the feared Auca Indian tribe. Immediately, Jim felt the call and after ten days of praying, he wrote a letter to Dr. Tidmarsh asking whether he could come to help with the missionary work that had been going on there.
Jim convinced his friend Ed McCully to leave law school and to start mission training and with Pete Fleming they started raising money and getting prayer support. In 1952, Jim and Pete sailed for Ecuador, staying in Quito for six months with a missionary family who helped them learn Spanish accurately and quickly. The men's plan was to locate themselves in an old oil station that has been abandoned because it was considered too dangerous for oil personnel. It was close to the Auca tribe and had a small airstrip. In 1953 Jim married Elisabeth, whom he had met at the college. Their marriage brought among other things a partnership in the translation of the New Testament into the Quechua Indian language.
At Shandia Pete and Jim made contact with the Quechua Indians. Ed and his wife Marilou joined Pete and Jim in Shandia after their six months of Spanish training in Quito. Later Nate Saint and his wife also joined them. Together they built a mission station, a small medical station, a few houses for the missionaries to live in, and a small airstrip, which all took about a year. After all that had been accomplished, the missionaries had their first Bible conference with the Quechua. During the rainy season, a flood came that wiped out everything that they had built during their first year.
The Auca tribe which was the tribe next to the mission station was known for being a violent and murderous tribe which had no contact with the outside world. The missionaries therefore developed a plan called 'Operation Auca' to try to initiate some contact with them. They started well and seemed to make good progress despite the challenges. At one point before leaving for Auca Jim wrote to his father saying, "…they have never had any contact with white men other than killing. They have no word for God in their language, only for devils and spirits. I know you will pray."
The next day a group of twenty or thirty Aucas attacked them and in although the missionaries were carrying weapons they had decided not injure one Auca. Their bodies were later recovered brutally pierced with spears and hacked by machetes. When their wives received the news they replied, "The Lord has closed our hearts to grief and hysteria, and filled in with His perfect peace."
These martyrs are known worldwide and continue to serve as an encouragement for many missionaries. After their deaths, there were many conversions to Christianity among the Indian tribes of Ecuador. After Jim's death, Elisabeth Elliot and her daughter Valerie continued working with the Quechua Indians and later moved to work with the Auca Indians. Forgiveness allowed them to have amazing success with the once murderous Indians.
Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." And true to his words he had given all including his life.