It was 67 years ago that Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Roger Youderian, and Ed McCully were sent to their eternal heavenly home. When I (Tina) happened upon a blog reminding me of this anniversary, I was surprised to read comments that stated they didn’t know the story of these tremendous brothers in the faith. In all fairness, I suppose it was over 67 years ago. Let’s remember their incredible faith, sacrifice, and pursuit of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Here’s a short video recap (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_XwScqAWB4), The life and legacy of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian – missionaries to Ecuador and martyrs for Christ. How did they impact your life and your faith? What’s your favorite book or video of these young men? Please comment.
10) 67th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of the Five Missionaries in Ecuador
These young men and their martyrdom didn’t affect me directly but the book The Dayuma Story, Life Under Auca Spears by Ethel Wallis piqued my interest in Bible translation. Dayuma was the Waorani (Auca) woman who taught Rachel Saint (Nate Saint’s sister) and Elizabeth Elliot (Jim Elliot’s widow) her language and helped translate the New Testament into her own language.
My mom was a wonderful Christian who loved to read; she had a subscription to a monthly Christian book club and so The Dayuma Story (originally published in 1960) was on our shelves. I read it as a teen in the late 60s. After graduating with a degree in elementary education, I joined Wycliffe Bible Translators to teach the missionary children in Mexico for two years. During my five years of teaching, I became interested in actually doing Bible translation. Here I am, 44 years, married to the man who is translating the New Testament into his own language.
We are thankful for those who have gone before, showing us the way to make God’s Word available in the heart language of my husband’s people.
For anyone interested in the story of the evangelization of the Waorani people I would recommend reading “God in the Rainforest: A Tale of Martyrdom and Redemption in Amazonian Ecuador” by Kathryn T. Long.
Dr. Long is an emerita professor of history at Wheaton College who exhaustively researched the history of the Waorani, the pilots, the missionaries (Catholic and Protestant), the Bible translators, along with the anthropologists, the politicians, and the oil companies. She has written a clear and fair narrative of a very complex story and takes the story into the 21st Century.
If you have read “Becoming Elisabeth Elliot” by Ellen Vaughn, the first volume of the authorized biography of Elisabeth Elliot which ends with Elisabeth Elliot leaving Ecuador after living among the Waorani, this book gives a more complete story Elisabeth Elliot as well as the work of Rachel Saint.