“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” ~Jim Elliot
Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and half a dozen additional team members shared the vision of bringing God’s love to one of he most violent people groups in the world. A tribe known by other natives as the Aucas, “savages.” Leaving the female members at the mission station, the five young men landed their plane by a river in the Ecuadorian jungle. They soon made friendly contact with the Aucas. But shortly thereafter, they were speared to death and left floating in the river.
The story made headlines worldwide, and there was initial outpouring of sympathy. But soon, articles appeared denouncing the doomed mission and the “foolishness” of the idealistic young missionaries. End of story?
Not quite.
Despite everything, Jim’s widow Elizabeth and Nate’s sister Rachel pressed on. They eventually managed to re-contact the Aucas (Huaoranis). Astonished at their courage, the Huaoranis invited the two women to come and live among them. Elizabeth and Rachel’s compassion soon began to burn a hole in the Huaoranis’ fear-and-vengeance-driven beliefs. “How can we have this peace you have?” they were asked.
Most of the Huaoranis–including those who’d murdered the five young missionaries–adopted their strange, peaceful faith. At first a dozen, then hundreds, and eventually thousands of lives were transformed–not only among the Huaoranis, but also among the people they reached, as well.
A few years later, Nate Saint’s son Steve was baptized by two of the men who had murdered his father — in the very river where his father died. Why? Because God’s love is sharper than any spear. And all because of a decision to give what cannot be kept to gain what cannot be lost.
God, make me such a fool.
No greater love than the Love of Jesus…
Glenn
Amen, Glenn.
Rev. Beck’s sermon was on love today. Faith Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC.
Mitch, I never knew this. TEARS!!! THANK YOU. Thank you God, for the courage of these widows to walk the walk–talk the talk–to risk it all—“because of a decision to give what cannot be kept to gain what cannot be lost.” I wanna me that fool too, Mitch. How amazing! God bless them! AND YOU! ❣️🙏🏼🙏🏼🥹
You yourself are a wonderful example of walking the talk, Karla. And God bless you as well. <3
How kind, Mitch. You’re so humble, my friend. Your words mean so much. Thank you. ❣️
Amazing story! May we learn to love others even if they want to kill us. We often have a hard time loving people we like.
So true, Todd. And no one knows it better than the One who made us.
Wow. What an amazing miracle! Thank you for sharing this inspiring story, Mitch!
My privilege, Caroll.
It is really inspiring and uplifting, very true to life
I’m so glad this inspired you, Zuhaib.
Amen. Make me such a fool as well. The story of the Elliots and peers is remarkable. Thanks for sharing it!
My privilege, Christopher.
I’m very familiar with the story, but it’s always good to hear/read it again. An amazing testimony to the power of the Lord to change hearts!
This is an incredible account of being Christ-like and trusting God to help bring His Word to “primitive” souls who have no idea what you’re talking about. Jim’s wife and Nate’s sister-if only we could have a fraction of their faith. 🙂
This is an amazing story. It’s hard to wrap my head around Elizabeth and Rachel pressing on. And to live with the Huaoranis! Those women truly had a heart for missions, spreading the Word, and changing lives. God is good.
Amen, Maddie.
Truly incredible courage and love. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies comes to mind. To be that seed as those young men were who willingly took that risk was amazing but the women’s story is something else again. I don’t know how they had the courage to do what they did for the love of God and people. Incredible. It’s inspiring.
Thanks for sharing this Mitch. It was good to hear it again because it reminds us how we ought to respond as Jesus did to people who have not treated us well. Love always prevails over anger and fear.
Amen, Leo & Nina.
I enjoyed this story very much. Thank you for writing!
My privilege!
Wow! Incredible.
“End of the Spear” is a movie that was made of those faithful men and their families. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of it. Blessings
Thanks, Pete. Yes, I saw it back when it was first made. I’d love to see the whole story filmed, though (or shoot it myself).
Sounds like it would be great!
Hello. Coming from a slightly different perspective: in an environmental justice case study (https://public.websites.umich.edu/~snre492/paul.html)–
“The white man and other neighboring Indian nations consider them to be part of the Auca group. The Huaorani consider this an insult because Auca means “savages.” They call themselves Huao or Huaorani or “the people.”
From another site (https://notyouraverageamerican.com/huaorani-amazon-ecuador/)–
“However, it is important to understand the motivation of the thousand-year-old inhabitants of the jungle; they were simply defending their families, their territories, and their way of life and subsistence. They were forced to defend themselves with violence, protecting themselves from foreign invaders.”
No one wants anyone to be speared to death and left floating in a river, but my question in general would be: why did the missionaries think the Huaorani needed to be introduced to God or God’s love? They’ve been around a thousand years. They have their own beliefs, their own understanding of what nature, spirit, the world, their connection to it and their purpose in it is and have had those beliefs for eons. I think the words “savage” and “violent” are bandied about as a kind of rationalization for why someone might need a spiritual intervention, but we don’t know the whole story, and as said above, the tribe considered “savage” an insult.
From the same site above:
In the words of Jesuit priest Juan Santos Ortiz in his book The Last Huaorani written in 1980:
“The Huaorani people represent the cry of freedom, bravery and courage over the centuries. They are a tangible example of survival in the most hostile environment. In the jungle, they have vigorously preserved their race, their oral traditions, their knowledge of the environment, their respect for the laws that govern their communities, the prowess of men and the sweetness of women. The Huaorani have maintained the concept of community value, the free and conscientious education of children, respect for the rights of others, the heat of fire and total nakedness – physical and spiritual – of all emotional trauma.”
I understand the thrust of this post and its intent, but I think the situation has been oversimplified, and my belief is, in my heart of hearts, that all people know God in their own way, with their own poetry, their own rhythm, their own free-fall into the sublime knowing/unknowing of the immense power and mystery of creation behind all things. 🙂 Thoughts? 🙂
Thank you for your thoughts, my Anonymous friend. I don’t know if you’ll see this response, but I’ll respond briefly. As a follower of Christ, I agree with him that our world is quite the opposite of the one you describe — that all people do not, in fact, know God. And so I choose to take seriously Jesus’ injunction to “go into all the world” and tell people about him.
Hi, Mitch. It’s selizabryan@gmail.com. For some reason I can’t respond/like on your blog, then when I go into the Reader to do it (like here) it makes me anonymous, lol. Okay, thank you for your answer. That makes sense in speaking about the Christian God. I agree that not everyone knows about the Christian God because they have their own Gods (Muslim, Judaism) or beliefs in how they perceive God, like Hinduism, which sees the God element in all of nature, all of life, therefore in all of us. I understand your point of view, too, and will leave it there because I’m obviously not here to argue about your beliefs, because that would be rude. 🙂 Thanks again. Talk to you later. 🙂
But now it looks like I’m back to me again and not anonymous. Hmm. Go figure. lol
Go figure indeed!
Good to hear back from you, Seliza! Most of the time, people WordPress labels as Anonymous never find out the’ve been responded to.
Pingback: God, Make Me Such a Fool – QuietMomentsWithGod