Guest post by Margie Sanford

Editorial comment: Today marks the 55th anniversary of the death of the “Ecuador Five.”

One of the best known and most inspiring missionary stories of the 20th century is the death of five Americans, Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian, in the jungles of Ecuador.  The events surrounding their initial friendly contact with the Auca (Quecha word meaning: savages) Indians and their brutal spearing deaths was covered by worldwide press, including a ten page article in Life magazine in January 1956.  Over the past half century, countless Christians have been motivated by this story and the subsequent work among the Huaorani (their own word meaning: the people) by Elizabeth Elliot, Jim’s widow, and Rachel Saint, Nate’s sister.  The martyrdom of these men captured the hearts and minds of a generation of Christians, mobilizing many to join the mission ranks as well.

Steve Saint, son of Nate, gives an insightful portrait of the men in a chapter of a book entitled Martyrs: Contemporary Writers on Modern Lives of Faith: 

These five men were not cast from the same mold.  Jim was impetuous but focused.  Both a college wrestler and a writer, his good looks and physical strength were matched by a deep introspection.  Ed McCully, president of his college class, had played football end and won his senior oratory contest.  Everyone expected him to go to law school, but something stronger called him to the jungles of the Amazon.  Dad (Nate) was born into an artist’s family but picked up a stray gene.  He loved the technical and mechanical aspects of life and wanted to use his interest and skills for a purpose with dimensions that would honor God and outlast the temporal.  Flying support for missionaries was a way to fulfill both of his desires.  Pete was the youngest of the group, but in some ways the group’s sage.  Roger was the guy you sent to do the job when it took dogged determination and a completely willing heart to get it done.

Here were five common young men whose unifying distinction was less their inherited abilities or acquired skills than their commitment to seek God’s will and to carry out his purposes for their lives.  They were aware of the risk they were taking but felt it was justified, though they could have no idea of the impact their martyrdom would someday have.

“They were aware of the risk they were taking.” Having done their homework, they understood that from the days of the conquistadors in the sixteenth-century until the encroachment of big oil companies upon their territory in 1955, encounters with the Huoarani had ended in death.  Still, these men — just common men — had the uncommon, burning desire to follow Jesus’ command to take the gospel message into all the world, particularly where the name of Jesus had never been heard.  But, had they fully counted the cost of losing their lives and leaving five wives and nine children behind?

I’m convinced these men, who deeply loved life and their families, had counted the cost because they lived with one condition — that they would submit that love to a greater love.  They loved life and family, but they loved Jesus more.  Jesus is recorded as saying these hard and difficult words, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27).  Similarly, Jesus tells his followers, “”If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:23-25)

The apostle Paul wrote his most joyful letter from the confines of prison.  Paul, who had experienced “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger” (2 Cor. 6:5-6) wrote to the Philippians, in regards to his imprisonment, “For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ willl be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:19-21)

Witnessed, admired, and even envied in the story of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian are echoes of Paul:  lives completely surrendered, totally abandoned, and fully in love with Jesus;  lives yielded and willing to give everything — even life itself — for the purpose of spreading a passion for the glory of God;  lives which model Jesus, who lived the supreme example of this kind of life, “who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2);  lives that inspire others to do the same.

Jim Elliot’s famous quote sums it up, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Elliot may have written these words in response to the world’s idea of lives well-lived by educated, talented, handsome, and personable young men — especially men with families and promising careers.  On the other hand, Jim may have been responding to his believing family and friends who questioned him by saying such things as, “Jim, don’t you know that you are putting yourself and Elisabeth at risk?  You can do so much for the kingdom right where you are?  Don’t be such a fanatic!”   But Jim Elliot knew better.  He knew the Word of God and the promises of the Savior.  He understood he had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

In reflecting on his father’s legacy, Steve Saint has written,

Dad strove to find out what life really is.  He found identity, purpose, and fulfillment in being obedient to God’s call.  He tried it, tested it, and committed himself to it.  I know that the risk that he took, which resulted in his death and consequently his separation from his family, he took not to satisfy his own need for adventure or fame, but in obedience to what he believed was God’s directive to him.  I suppose he is best known because he died for his faith, but the legacy he left his children was his willingness first to live for his faith.

That’s the life of faith which should resonate with our souls.  A God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered life which leads to radical obedience and reckless abandon for the glory of His name and the advancement of His kingdom.  May the story of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming and Roger Youderian do more than inspire us.  May their testimony encourage us live surrendered lives for Him.

Prayer of Surrender

Lord, I pray that the You might order my steps; that You might set my mind and heart on things above, not on earthly things; that I might die more and more to self so that Christ will live in me; that for the joy set before me, I might be willing to suffer; that You would give me the grace to say, “ Not my will, but Thine;” that I might grow in a passion for Your glory to all the nations.  Amen

Quotes from Steve Saint appear in a chapter of a book entitled Martyrs: Contemporary Writers on Modern Lives of Faith, edited by Susan Bergman (Harper San Francisco).