The Gates Of Pearly Splendor

The Gates Of Pearly Splendor

Their lives were like bright, short-lived flames.

NEW YEAR’S DAY 1956 was the day for the five missionaries to prepare for their upcoming attempt to contact the fierce Auca Indians of Ecuador. Nate Saint, the pilot, was going to fly them to Palm Beach, where they had previously exchanged gifts with the Aucas from the air. As Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian collected what they would need for their mission, Betty Elliot, Jim’s wife, wondered, Will this be the last time I’ll help him pack?

After breakfast and prayer on the day of their departure, January 3, the five men sang one of their favorite hymns:

We rest on thee, our Shield and our Defender,

Thine is the battle, thine will be the praise.

When passing through the gates of pearly splendor

Victors, we rest with thee through endless days.

Once on the beach, they built a tree house and prepared to contact the Aucas. On Friday, January 6, a visit from an Auca man and two women encouraged the missionaries. They spent several hours together and even gave the man a ride in the plane.

Saturday no Aucas appeared, but Sunday morning when Nate flew over the site, he spotted some Auca men walking toward their beach. At 12:30 P.M. Nate made his prearranged radio call to his wife, Marj, back at the mission station: “Looks like they’ll be here for the early afternoon service. Pray for us. This is the day! Will contact you at 4:30.”

When 4:30 came, the missionary wives switched on their radios. Silence. Five minutes went by and then ten. Sundown came, and still no word. The wives slept little that night.

Monday morning, January 9, 1956, Johnny Keenan, another missionary pilot, flew to the beach. As Betty Elliot awaited his report, Isaiah 43:2 ran through her mind: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” She prayed, “Lord, let not the waters overflow.”

At 9:30 A.M. the pilot’s report came in. Marj Saint shared it with the other wives: “Johnny has found the plane on the beach. All the fabric is stripped off. There is no sign of the fellows.”

Another pilot immediately contacted Lieutenant General William K. Harrison, commander in chief of the Caribbean Command, himself a Christian. Radio station HCJB in Ecuador flashed the news to the rest of the world: “Five men missing in Auca territory.” By noon a ground party was organized to go to the site.

On Wednesday Johnny Keenan made his fourth flight over the beach. Marj Saint, who had hardly left her radio since Sunday, called the other wives, and as soon as she was able to speak, she said, “They found one body.” Johnny had seen one body floating face down in the river.

In the afternoon Johnny radioed in again, “Another body sighted about two hundred feet below Palm Beach.” The five wives had no idea whose bodies they were.

The search party located four of the five bodies, but Ed McCully’s had been swept away by the river. The other four were buried on Palm Beach.

What happened to the Aucas? By the end of 1958 Betty Elliot and Rachel Saint, Nate’s sister, were living among them, and one by one the Aucas put their faith in Jesus Christ.

The five men who murdered the missionaries became not only Christians but also spiritual leaders among their people. After they believed, they shared how on that fateful day they heard singing from above the trees. Looking up they saw what appeared to be a canopy of bright lights. God was welcoming his children home.

Nine years later, in June 1965, two of Nate Saint’s children, Kathy and Stephen, were baptized at Palm Beach by two of the men who had killed their father.

Reflection

In 1948 Jim Elliot wrote in his journal, “Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame. But flame is often short-lived. Can thou bear this, my soul?” How would you answer that question?

Those who turn many to righteousness will shine like stars forever.

Daniel 12:3