He is no fool - A dramatised explanation of the final days of Jim Elliot

This January sees the 50th anniversary of the killing of Jim Elliot and four other young missionaries as they tried to reach the Auca Indians of Ecuador for Christ.

‘You’re so excited!’ Elisabeth said when Jim arrived home. ‘I’ve never seen you so excited before.’

In her heart she knew that this was it. For Jim, this was the mission of his life. Something in Elisabeth’s mind began to niggle. Should they really leave the work at Shandia for this, a work that was really going well for ... for what?

‘Jim, are you sure you are supposed to go to the Aucas?’ she asked her husband one day. ‘I am called’, he replied.

Elizabeth’s unsettlement left her. If Jim was called by God, that was fine. She was right behind him, In fact, she made a start on learning the Auca language, and found the work thrilling.

‘Might we move to the Auca village after friendly contact is made?’ Elisabeth wondered aloud. ‘That’s in the future’, Jim said. ‘The priority now is to find or build a landing strip. We’ve decided to go down the Curaray River in a canoe first to try to identify a suitable place.’

But the letter he wrote to his parents at that time didn’t mention Operation Auca at all. When the men decided on secrecy, they kept to it. Instead, Jim wrote home about Valerie: ‘She has taken to pulling herself to a standing position in her playpen and letting herself down again. You’d love her now.’

While work went on as usual so far as anyone outside knew, Operation Auca was also proceeding.

November 27 1955

‘Nate and I made my second Auca flight’, recorded Jim. ‘We saw a woman wearing a garment that had been dropped earlier. One house has a model aeroplane carved on its upper ridge! And I saw a thing that thrilled me. It seemed an old man, who stood beside his house, waved with both arms as if to signal us to come down. Aucas waving us to come! Dropped several articles with streamers attached to help the people find them. They tied something to the line, but we lost it as we wound it in.’

Not long afterwards, Nate Saint found a beach on the Curaray River that he felt sure he would be able to land on. It seemed that face-to-face contact would take place very soon.

‘What happens if you don’t come back?’ Elisabeth asked her husband. ‘If God wants it that way, darling’, Jim replied, ‘I am ready to die for the salvation of the Aucas.’

Despite his deep longing to tell the Auca people about Jesus, Jim still had other work to do. The Elliots were invited to spend part of December with the Flemings, who not long before had moved to Puyupungu. They had arranged a fiesta, and Jim was their guest speaker.

An urgent radio message from Marilou in Arajuno, brought the little group’s mind right back to the Aucas. ‘An Indian who was staying with us got up early and almost ran head-on into a naked Auca standing with a lance in his hand’, she said, sounding really scared. ‘And it was less than 50 yards from our house’, Ed and Nate flew out immediately, but they saw nothing of the man.

‘Tell me exactly what happened’, Ed said to his wife when they had completed their search of the area. She repeated what she’d said on the radio, and then told them that the Indian had wanted to kill the intruder, but she had taken his gun away and shouted ‘I like you’ to the Auca in his own language. But by then the man was out of sight.

The Flemings and Elliots went to Arajuno to be with Ed and Marilou for Christmas. No doubt Marilou was particularly glad of Elisabeth and Olive’s company. She’d had a very frightening experience. Sitting round the little bamboo Christmas tree that their hostess had made, the missionary couples discussed Operation Auca, and prayed about contact being made at ground level. It was scheduled for the first week of January 1956, just a few short days away.

The team had grown by one, as Nate recruited Roger Youderian, a missionary to the Jivaros, who lived in the jungle.

On December 28, Jim wrote home to his parents, telling them of Operation Auca for the very first time. ‘By the time this reaches you, Ed and Pete and I and another fellow will have attempted with Nate a contact with the Aucas. We have prayed for this and prepared for several months, keeping the whole thing secret. Not even our nearby missionary friends know of it yet . . . I don’t have to remind you that these are completely naked savages, who have never had any contact with white men other than killing them. They do not have firearms, but kill with long chonta-wood lances. They have no word for God in their language, only for devils and spirits.’

Monday January 2 1956

‘The weather is so good’, Nate radioed to Jim, ‘that I think I should shuttle you to Arajuno today rather than tomorrow.’ Elisabeth immediately began packing little gifts for the Aucas. By the time they reached the airstrip, the Missionary Aviation plane was circling in to land. Jim kissed Elisabeth, hopped on board, and the plane took off. It took a few days to transfer all their equipment to Palm Beach on the Curaray River, and to get the five men there too.

Wednesday January 4

‘We had a good night’, Jim wrote. ‘We didn’t set a watch last night, as we felt really cosy and secure in our bunks in our hut 35 feet up a tree. We saw puma tracks on the beach and heard them last night . . . Our hopes are up but no sign of the “neighbours” yet. Perhaps today is the day the Aucas will be reached.’ Having slept well, the missionaries spend part of the next day walking around Palm Beach shouting out the Auca phrases they had learned.

Friday January 6

Three Aucas appeared out of the jungle, two young women and a young man. After their initial surprise, the missionaries greeted their visitors with ‘Puinanis’ which is ‘welcome’ in their own language. In fact they were welcomed over and over again with ‘puinanis’ after ‘puinanis’! Jim stepped into the water to go towards them, and eventually accompanied them to their side of the river. The three young Aucas seemed so friendly that Nate took the man — they called him George — up in the plane, and showed him his home settlement from the air. One of the young women looked through the pages of a magazine, and the other rubbed her back against the fabric of the aeroplane. Eventually their visitors left, bearing gifts with them.

‘Do you think they’ll be back tomorrow?’ was the subject for discussion as Jim, Roger and Ed settled down in their tree-house that night. Nate and Pete went the few minutes’ flight back to Arajuno.

But Saturday came and brought no Aucas with it. Nate did a sortie over the houses and was disturbed to find signs of fear there. Some of the people ran into their homes when they saw the plane overhead. Having let down some gifts, Nate spotted ‘George’ among the men who went for them. That night, Nate and Pete slept at Arajuno.

Sunday January 8

As the plane took off early in the morning, Pete looked back and said: ‘So long, girls. Pray. I believe today’s the day.’ Marilou sent them off to Palm Beach with warm blueberry muffins and ice cream. No doubt the five young men enjoyed the treat.

‘I think you should fly over the Auca village’, one of them suggested. Nate went up alone, and saw only women and children near their homes. ‘I guess that means the men are on their way’, Nate concluded. As he touched down, he yelled to his friends: ‘This is it, guys! They’re on the way!’

Nate told their wives in code what was happening when he radioed them at 12.30 pm. ‘Looks like they’ll be here for the afternoon service. Pray for us’, he said. ‘This is the day. Will contact you next at 4.30’.

At 4.30 that afternoon, five young wives listened to the sound of silence on their radio receivers. Within the hour, helicopters and planes were out in search of their husbands in the area of Palm Beach. It was a helicopter pilot who saw the first body, and the other four were found soon afterwards. All five had been brutally murdered. Nate Saint’s watch had stopped at 3.12 pm. When Elisabeth Elliot, Marj Saint, Olive Fleming, Marilou McCully and Barbara Youderian heard the news, they had a message for the rescue service, and for all their families and friends: ‘The Lord has closed our hearts to grief and hysteria, and filled them with his perfect peace.'

These five Christian women had peace in God’s promise that those who love him are taken home to heaven when they die. Even in their sadness at losing their young husbands, they rejoiced that Jim, Nate, Pete, Ed and Roger had gone to their heavenly home, and that they were safe forever with Jesus.

Extract from He is no fool by Irene Howat, published by Christian Focus and used with permission.