Biographies

One of the projects we have during our Mission Bridge training is to read two missionary biographies.  During the month of May, in school I did a unit on missions biographies with my students.  Had the opportunity to read to my students the Heroes of Faith Young Readers book about Jim Elliot and the other four who lost their lives on that tragic day in 1956.  Because I teach a number of different classes, I got to read the book over a number of times, and we finished the unit by watching the Torchlighters video on his life.

The advantage of reading something over and over again, is that you really get to absorb it quite well.  Back in college, I had read quite a few of Elisabeth Elliot's books, including the Journals of Jim Elliot, and Shadow of the Almighty and they had deeply impacted me.  In more recent years, I had even read a thick biography on Nate Saint.  As I shared the Jim Elliot story with my students I was struck by the fervor of these families who were willing even to die to bring the gospel to an unreached people group.  I think I saw some different things this time around, just how strong a personality Jim had, his impulsiveness, and the influence he had on his friends, both good and bad, which made me curious about other perspectives of the story.  It made me interested in Jim's good friend Pete Fleming's story, and to see the long term impact of these men and the sacrifice they made.  I hunted around on the internet to find out if there was anything written by Olive Fleming (Liefeld), Pete's widow.  I found Olive's Unfolding Destinies and Steve Saint's movie End of the Spear on Amazon and ordered them both.  As soon as I began reading Olive's account, I had a hard time putting it down.  I loved her very human look at things -- including how she and Pete's relationship developed as they learned to communicate deeply and openly with one another.  It was such a wonderful thing to see how her family (though she and Pete had no children [she suffered two miscarriages during their marriage] she remarried several years after returning to the States and had several children by the time of the writing of the book) embraced and accepted her past and connection to such a significant event in missions history.  I appreciated her perspective writing more than 30 years in hindsight, having had years to process that whole portion of her life.  It is a powerful read, especially for those who are familiar with the story, and have read any of the works of Elisabeth Elliot.  I highly recommend it.

I followed that shortly by watching End of the Spear -- Steve Saint's (Nate's son) story.  That too, was powerful, and helped spotlight another facet of the story specifically how the families were affected after that sad day in 1956, and about the time that Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint went to live with the Aucas, and even over the decades that followed.    There is so much to be learned from missions history -- to see what those who have gone before did right and their blaring mistakes.  I think I am most impressed with a desire to look at the whole picture and avoid a pendulum effect.  Too often when faced with consequences of the failings of a previous generation, the next one sets about to correct them, without taking note of the things that were done right by that previous generation, creating a sort of pendulum affect -- swinging to an opposite extreme to compensate for the shortcomings, without properly acknowledging and incorporating the things that were done well.  I am impressed with the importance of seeing as much of the whole picture as possible to get perspective on the past, and provide some direction for the future of missions.  The passion that led Jim, Pete, Nate, Ed, and Roger to bring the gospel to the Waoranis (Auca Indians) also led them to overlook some important cultural points that struck fear in the tribal people and led to their deaths.  Even still, God is faithful, in that He blessed their sacrifice by using it to personally impact tribes people so that they got a living and deeply personal illustration of what forgiveness means.  Was the loss of these lives necessary, or did these men take an unnecessary and foolish risk?  Regardless of how one answers that question, there is no escaping the fact that the message of redemption was communicated powerfully to an unreached people group, and that our Redeemer, was able to use the strengths and frailties of a group of men who were sold out to Him to save and transform a people group.  If He can do that for them, how can we not have confidence in His ability to use us, with our strengths and weaknesses, as we fumble along seeking to serve Him and allow Him to use us to draw others to Himself.