Missionaries

I have just finished reading Elizabeth Eliot's book, Shadow of the Almighty. Ms. Eliot compiles the journals of her husband and chronicles his life and death serving the Lord in South America in the midst of the Auca Indians. Jim Eliot's life was short but rich. He had more maturity at 18 than most men do at death. I was riveted by his seriousness about his faith and joy. My friend Eugene Low has just posted on one of Jim Eliot's colleagues, Nate Saint. His son wrote an article on him in Christianity Today. An excerpt is below...

"My father and his four friends were not given the privilege of watching their children and grandchildren grow up. I've often wished I could have known my dad as an adult, for Mom and Aunt Rachel have often said our thought process and mannerisms are much alike. I have trouble distinguishing what I actually "remember" of him and what I have been told. But I do know that he left me a legacy, and the challenge now is for me to pass it on to my children. 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 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.
God took five common young men of uncommon commitment and used them for his own glory. They never had the privilege they so enthusiastically pursued to tell the Huaorani of the God they loved and served. But for every Waorani who today follows God's trail through the efforts of others, there are a thousand cowodi (outsiders, foreigners to the tribe) who follow God's trail more resolutely because of their example. This success, withheld from them in life, God multiplied and continues to multiply as a memorial to their obedience and his faithfulness."