“They testify to both Jim and Elisabeth’s faith and to how they saw the Lord working. Each one tells a little piece of their story”

The story of missionary couple Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, who served among the Waorani people of Ecuador, is widely known to American evangelicals through their published writings. After Jim and four fellow American missionaries were martyred by the Waorani (also called the Huaorani, or the Auca Indians by non-Waorani) on January 8, 1956, Elisabeth Elliot edited and published his journals, and later wrote more than 20 books.

This month, the Billy Graham Center Archives makes additional writings available for the first time, as the 54th anniversary of the missionaries’ murder approaches. Thirty previously unpublished letters, dated from 1953 to 1959, provide insights into the relationship the Elliots had with the Williams Community Church of Williams, Oregon.

The church was one of several which provided financial and prayer support for the Elliots. Williams Community Church donated the letters to the Archives last year. They are now posted here.

In the letters, the Elliots write about the joys and challenges of their day-to-day life. Jim’s letters describe their wedding and honeymoon, the joy of baptizing new converts, and the birth of their daughter Valerie. In one, he writes, “I wish I had time to write to you each one, but that is impossible out here where one has to be doctor, nurse, teacher, work boss, repair man, builder, traveler, missionary and a whole lot more things besides being his own secretary!”

Later, after Jim’s death, Virgil Terry, who pastored Williams Community Church at the time, writes to affirm Elisabeth’s continued work and promises that the church will continue to send support. Elisabeth writes them about the comfort her faith provided her, the challenge of her work in Shandia, and her efforts to write a grammar of the Quichua language. She also provides occasional anecdotes about Valerie, and writes about her work on Through Gates of Splendor, an account of the missionaries’ work among the Waorani.

Archivist Bob Shuster says the tone of the letters conveys a striking immediacy. “Each letter is very much in the moment, with the Elliots writing about events as they happened,” he says. “They testify to both Jim and Elisabeth’s faith and to how they saw the Lord working. Each one tells a little piece of their story—and not only their story, but also the story of the people groups they were sharing the gospel with.”

The letters also express the Elliots’ hope for their work in Ecuador. Jim writes, “We trust in time that our ministry will change from evangelism to teaching as young men begin to show themselves willing to carry the word further and better into the forest than we.”

“The Elliots wanted to raise up Indian Christians to be pastors, teachers, and evangelists,” Shuster says. “They hoped to build up an indigenous church that could thrive on its own.”

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SOURCE: http://www.wheaton.edu/news/releases/09-10_releases/01.06.10_Elliot_Letters.html

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]