Jim and Elisabeth Elliot were American missionaries in Ecuador. They worked with the Quichua indigenous group but felt a burden to reach the Waodani, an isolated people group in the jungles who were known for extreme violence. Jim was martyred on Palm Beach by members of this tribe during an outreach attempt in 1956. Elisabeth went on to live with the Waodani people for several years after Jim’s death, then later became a prolific writer with wisdom that carried influence far beyond her time.
Elisabeth Howard was born to missionary parents in Belgium in 1926. The family eventually moved back to the U.S., and Elisabeth later attended Wheaton College with plans to become a Bible translator. At Wheaton, she met her future husband, Jim, but, intent on their individual callings to missions, they did not pursue a relationship. In 1952, Elisabeth moved to Ecuador and began language work with the Colorado indigenous group.
Jim Elliot was born in 1927 and was determined to live a life dedicated to evangelism and international mission work. He studied linguistics at Wheaton College and later attended a Wycliffe linguistics camp, where he met a missionary heading to Ecuador. Feeling a call to international missions, he debated between going to India or Ecuador, but ultimately decided to work with the Quichua people group in Ecuador.
His most famous words were, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose,” written in his journal in 1949. Elisabeth published his journals in 1978, revealing Jim’s inner struggles and victories before his death at age 29.
Elisabeth and Jim arrived separately in Ecuador to pursue individual mission work but reconnected and married in 1953. Their daughter, Valerie, was born in 1955. The couple settled in Shandia to work with the Quichua people. There, they learned of the Auca—or Waodani—people group, who lived deep in the jungle and had never been reached by outsiders. Jim worked with four other missionary men to form a plan to reach the Waodani: Nate, Ed, Pete, and Roger.
That plan culminated on January 8, 1956, when the five missionaries were speared to death on the Cururay River by Waodani warriors.
After Jim was martyred, Elisabeth wrote “Through Gates of Splendor”, an account of the event that went on to become a best-seller. In 1958, Elisabeth, her daughter Valerie, and Nate Saint’s sister Rachel Saint went to live with the Waodani for several years. Rachel lived with the tribe and focused on translating the New Testament into their language until her death in 1994. Elisabeth left Ecuador in 1961. She remarried and then lost her second husband to cancer. She married her third husband, Lars Glen, in 1977. Throughout the years following her time in Ecuador, Elisabeth published multiple books, traveled extensively as a speaker, and hosted a radio program.
“Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God’s story never ends with ashes,” she wrote in 1975’s “These Strange Ashes.” Elisabeth passed away on June 14, 2015.
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