The news shocked the nation. Five young missionaries were murdered by Ecuadorian jungle tribesmen. Early in January 1956, the five had established contact with a band of Auca Indians, but then radio contact was lost; rescue teams went in and found the bodies.
Life magazine sent its ace photographer Cornell Capa to the jungle to do a riveting cover story. Readers Digest sent editor Clarence Hall to do a major article. But the story that the world was waiting for was Through Gates of Splendor, written by Elisabeth Elliot, widow of one of the five martyrs. Published by Harper and Brothers of New York, it launched a string of popular missionary biographies by major New York publishers. It also launched Elisabeth Elliot as a major evangelical author and speaker. But more than that, it touched the hearts of readers, many of whom responded to the missionary call to give their lives in sacrificial service.
The five young men came from varied backgrounds and were sponsored by different mission boards. Elisabeth's husband, Jim, was from Oregon, a Greek major in college and a star wrestler. Pete Fleming, from Washington, had majored in literature. Ed McCully, from Wisconsin, was a business/economics major who had lettered in football and track. Philadelphian Nate Saint was the group's pilot, one of the original pilots of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, who had learned the ins and outs of aircraft in the Air Force during World War II. Roger Youderian, raised on a ranch in Montana, became a paratrooper in Europe and was decorated for action in the Battle of the Bulge. All five were married, and their wives were stationed in South America with them.
Elisabeth Elliot weaves the story of the five men slowly and suspensefully—even though the reader knows how the story
will end. Each man and each wife are carefully and empatheti-cally drawn. Unlike some missionary stories of the past, these people are not cardboard saints. They laugh and kid and groan. Ed writes his wife: ״Dearest Baby, ... We are certainly eating well. This has been a well-fed operation from start to end." Nate scrawls in his notebook, "Except for the forty-seven billion flying insects of every sort, this place is a little paradise."
After they prayed together, these missionaries would sing a hymn, "We Rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender." The last two lines are, "When passing through the gates of pearly splendor, victors, we rest with Thee through endless days." Elisabeth Elliot chose her title from those words.
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It seemed at first that the Aucas were receptive to the missionary visitors. Preliminary contacts were favorable. "Looks like they'll be here for the early afternoon service," Nate radioed on that fateful day. "Will contact you next at four-thirty." But no call came at four-thirty. The five young missionaries, who had been so careful to do everything right, had been slain.
In the next twelve months, Elisabeth, a grieving widow, wrote the classic manuscript, closing with a prayer that the gospel would yet be gotten to the Aucas. "How can this be done? God, who led the five, will lead others, in his time and way."
And he did. Two years later, the author continued her missionary work by taking her infant daughter and living among the Aucas. Many of them were converted. Returning to the United States in 1963, she became well-known as a speaker and writer. Among her best-known books are Shadow of the Almighty, The Making of a Man, A Chance to Die, and Passion and Purity.
But the book's greatest impact came in the hearts and lives of readers who dedicated themselves to follow in the footsteps of these five martyrs. The missionary life had lost some luster since the colonial days of David Livingstone. But in dramatic fashion, Through Gates of Splendor painted a portrait of five ordinary Joes totally committed to sharing Christ with the most unlikely recipients. There would be no more Livings tones, but this book inspired an army of Jim Elliotts and Nate Saints.