The Missionaries:JIM ELLIOT

His name is Philip James Elliot, he was bornOctober 8, 1927  and died  January 8, 1956. He was an evangelical christian who was one of five missionaries killed while participating in operation Auca, an attempt

to evangelise  the Huaorani people of Ecuador.
    Jim Elliot began his life in Portland, Oregon in the USA. His mother, Clara, was a chiropractor and his father, Fred, was a minister. They married and settled in Seattle, WA where they welcomed their first son, Robert in 1921.

Later they relocated the family to Portland where Herbert arrived in 1924, Jim in 1927, and Jane in 1932.

Jim knew Christ from an early age and was never afraid to speak about Him to his friends. At age six Jim told his mother, “Now, mama, the Lord Jesus can come whenever He wants. He could take our whole family because I’m saved now, and Jane is too young to know Him yet.”

THE YEARS THAT CEMENTED HIS DESIRE TO SERVE THE LORD IN MISSIONS

Jim entered Benson Polytechnic High School in 1941. He carried a small Bible with him and, an excellent speaker; he was often found speaking out for Christ. He and his friends were not afraid to step out and find adventure. One thing Jim didn’t have time for in those early years were girls. He was once quoted as telling a friend, “Domesticated males aren’t much use for adventure.”

In 1945 Jim traveled to Wheaton, IL to attend Wheaton College. His main goal while there was to devote himself to God. He recognized the importance of discipline in pursuing this goal.  He would start each morning with prayer and Bible study. In his journal he wrote, “None of it gets to be ‘old stuff’ for it is Christ in print, the Living Word. We wouldn’t think of rising in the morning without a face-wash, but we often neglect the purgative cleansing of the Word of the Lord. It wakes us up to our responsibility.”

Jim’s desire to serve God by taking His gospel to unreached people of the world began to grow while at Wheaton.  The summer of 1947 found him in Mexico and that time influenced his decision to minister in Central America after he finished college.

Jim met Elisabeth Howard during his third year at Wheaton. He did ask her for a date which she accepted and then later cancelled. They spent the next years as friends and after she finished at Wheaton they continued to correspond. As they came to know each other there was an attraction, but Jim felt he needed to unencumbered by worldly concerns in order to devote himself completely to God.