Jim Elliot

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For others named Jim Elliot, see Jim Elliot (disambiguation)

Philip James Elliot (October 8, 1927 – January 8, 1956) was an evangelical Christian missionary to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Huaorani people through efforts now known as Operation Auca.

| !! Contents

[hide]* 1 Early life

• 2 Wheaton
• 3 Preparation
• 3.1 Influences
• 4 Leaving for Ecuador
• 5 Ecuador
• 6 References
• 7 Notes
• 8 External links

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[edit] Early life

Jim Elliot was born in Portland, Oregon, to Fred and Clara Elliot. Fred was of Scottish heritage; his grandparents were the first of his family to settle in North America. Clara's parents moved near the turn of the 20th century from Switzerland to eastern Washington, where they operated a large and successful ranch. They met in Portland, where Clara was studying chiropractic and Fred, having devoted himself to Christian ministry, was working as a traveling preacher in a small Baptist church. After two years of correspondence, they were married in 1918. Robert, their first child, was born in 1921 while they were living in Seattle, and he was followed by Herbert, Jim, and Jane, all three of whom were born after the family moved to Portland.[1]

Jim's parents firmly subscribed to Christian beliefs, and they raised their children accordingly, taking them to church and reading the Bible regularly. Jim professed faith in Jesus at the age of six and grew up in a home where obedience and honesty were strictly enforced. The Elliot parents encouraged their children to be adventurous, however, and as a result they allowed them to be mischievous and encouraged them to appreciate outdoor activities.[2]

In 1941, Jim entered Benson Polytechnic High School, studying architectural drawing. There he participated in numerous activities, including the school newspaper, the football team, school plays, and the public-speaking club. His acting ability led some of the teachers in the school to suggest that he pursue acting as a career, and his oratorical skills were similarly lauded—after preparing and delivering a speech in honor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt hours after his death, a faculty member called it one of the best speeches he had ever heard.[3]

Jim used his speaking ability regularly, always ready at a moment's notice to discuss Christianity or defend his moral beliefs. He refused to compromise his convictions and was not afraid to launch into a mini-sermon explaining them. A classmate recounts how Jim quoted the Bible to the president of the student body as explanation for his refusal to attend a school dance. Another time, Jim risked expulsion from the public-speaking club by refusing to give a political speech, believing that Christians were not to involve themselves in politics. Strongly pacifist, he rejected the idea of using force to eliminate slavery in Africa, and he was prepared to stand as a conscientious objector had he been drafted to serve in World War II.[4]

[edit] Wheaton

In the fall of 1945, Jim entered Wheaton College, a private Christian college in Illinois, believing that God had led him there. He saw his time there as an opportunity to grow spiritually, develop discipline, and prepare for future missions work. He selected his activities with these goals in mind. Believing in the value of physical conditioning, he joined the wrestling team during his first year, even though some considered it unnecessary and even ungodly. The following year, he refused a staff position within the college that would have given him a free year of tuition but also a significant time commitment and what he considered foolish responsibilities. He was not even fully convinced of the value of his studies, considering subjects like philosophy, politics, and culture to be distractions to one attempting to follow God. After a semester of relatively low grades, he wrote to his parents that he was unapologetic, deeming study of the Bible more important.[5]

Jim's burden for missions solidified during years at Wheaton. A member of the campus organization Student Foreign Missions Fellowship, Jim spoke to an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group on the role of the Holy Spirit in missions. During the summer of 1947, after his second year of college, he and his friend Ron Harris did missions work in Mexico. He stayed there for six weeks, working with and learning from a local missionary family.[6] At the end of the following year, he attended the International Student Missionary Convention, sponsored by InterVarsity. There he met a missionary to Brazil, and this encounter led him to more firmly believe that his missionary calling was to tribal work in South America.[7]

At the beginning of Jim's third year at Wheaton, he decided to pursue a major in Greek, believing that it would both help him in his personal study of the Bible and make it easier to translate the Scriptures into the language of a people group unreached by missionaries. One of his classmates was Elisabeth Howard, and despite his belief that romantic relationships often distracted people from pursuing God's will, his interest in her grew. He took advantage of opportunities to get to know her and her family better, but he waited until late in his third year to express his feelings to her. They agreed that they were attracted to each other, but not being convinced of God's leading, they did not pursue a serious relationship. However, they later married after Jim was convinced it was God's will.[8]

[edit] Preparation

Jim graduated from Wheaton in 1949 and returned to his family's home in Portland early in the summer. He felt no immediate leading toward missions work and instead devoted more time to reading and study of the Bible. He engaged himself in some odd jobs at his church and worked as a substitute teacher at a local Christian school, but his lack of consistent employment was met with the disapproval of some of his neighbors. He maintained correspondence with Wilfred Tidmarsh, a missionary to the Quechua of Ecuador, as well as Rowland Hill, a missionary in Bangalore, India, who wanted Jim to teach biblical Greek in a Bible school he intended to found. Jim was not sure of which path to take and decided instead to wait.[9]

In January 1950, Jim was accepted to attend Camp Wycliffe, a summer linguistics program sponsored by the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Oklahoma. While not sure whether to attend, his focus on missions was steady—he got involved in InterVarsity, attending many group meetings and conferences during the spring. In April, he turned down an offer of full-time employment for the school in which he had been a substitute teacher, and soon after he decided to attend Camp Wycliffe.[10]

[edit] Influences

During his time in college and the years following, Jim read extensively, and his journals and letters were filled with thoughts on the works he was reading. Besides the Bible, which he memorized and referenced continually, he was impacted by the lives of Christian authors and missionaries such as Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, Jonathan Goforth, and James Orr.[11] Other biographies he enjoyed included those of E. H. Broadbent, David Brainerd, J. G. Paton, and Allan Smith.[12] Among non-Christian authors, he mentions in his journal as particularly interesting works by Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Hardy, and Ernest Hemingway.[13] In poetry, he read, memorized, and sang hymns,[14] and enjoyed numerous poets—especially Robert W. Service, William Wordsworth, and Edgar Allan Poe,[15] but also J. G. Holland, Rudyard Kipling, Sara Teasdale, John Keble, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.[16]

[edit] Leaving for Ecuador

While at Camp Wycliffe, Jim practiced the skills necessary for writing down a language for the first time by working with a former missionary to the Quechua people. The missionary told him of the Auca people, an indigenous people group in Ecuador that had never had friendly contact with the outside world. Jim remained unsure about whether to go to Ecuador or India until July, when he became convinced that God was leading him to Ecuador. His parents and friends wondered if he might instead be more effective in youth ministry in the United States, but considering the home church "well-fed", he felt that international missions should take precedence.[17]

After the completion of his linguistic studies, Jim applied for a passport and began to make plans with his friend Bill Cathers to leave for Ecuador. However, two months later Bill informed him that he planned to marry, making it impossible for him to accompany Jim as they had planned.[18] Instead, Jim spent the winter and spring of 1951 working with his friend Ed McCully in Chester, Illinois, running a radio program, preaching in prisons, holding evangelistic rallies, and teaching Sunday School.[19]

Ed McCully married later that summer, forcing Jim to look elsewhere for an unmarried man with whom he could begin working in Ecuador. That man turned out to be Peter Fleming, a graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in philosophy. He corresponded frequently with Jim, and by September he was convinced of his calling to Ecuador.[20] In the meantime, Jim visited friends on the east coast, including Elisabeth. In his journal he expressed hope that they would be able to be married, but at the same time felt that he was called to go to Ecuador without her. Jim returned to Portland in November and began to prepare to leave the country.[21]

[edit] Ecuador

He arrived in Ecuador on February 21, 1952, with the purpose of evangelizing Ecuador's Quechua Indians. On October 8, 1953, he married fellow Wheaton alumna and missionary Elisabeth Howard in Quito, Ecuador. Their only child, Valerie, was born February 27, 1955. While working with the Quechua Indians, Elliot began preparing to reach the violent Huaorani Indian tribe which were known at the time as the Aucas.

He and four other missionaries, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Peter Fleming, and their pilot, Nate Saint, made contact from their airplane with the Huaorani Indians using a loudspeaker and a basket to pass down gifts. After several months, the men decided to build a base a short distance from the Indian tribe, along the Curaray River. There they were approached one time by a small group of Huaorani Indians and even gave an airplane ride to one curious Huaorani whom they called "George" (his real name was Naenkiwi). Encouraged by these friendly encounters, they began plans to visit the Huaorani, but their plans were preempted by the arrival of a larger group of 10 Huaorani men, who killed Elliot and his four companions on January 8, 1956. Elliot's mutilated body was found downstream, along with those of the other men, except that of Ed McCully.

His journal entry for October 28, 1949, contains his now famous quotation, expressing his belief that missions work was more important than his life.

Elliot and his friends became instantly known worldwide as martyrs, and Life Magazine published a ten-page article on their mission and death. They are credited with sparking an interest in Christian missions among the youth of their time and are still considered an encouragement to Christian missionaries working throughout the world. After her husband's death, Elisabeth Elliot and other missionaries began working among the Auca (Huaorani) Indians, where they had a profound impact and won many converts. She later published two books, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot and Through Gates of Splendor, which describe the life and death of her husband.

In 2003, a musical based on the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, entitled Love Above All, was staged at the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. This musical was staged a second time in 2007 at the University Cultural Centre, Singapore.

In 2005, a documentary based on the story was released entitled Beyond the Gates of Splendor. In 2006, a theatrical movie was released End of the Spear, based on the story of the pilot, Nate Saint, and the return trip of Saint's son attempting to reach the natives of Ecuador.