Jim Elliot

Jim Elliot is my hero. Though he only lived twenty-eight years, he made those years count. He went to Wheaten College in order to prepare himself to become a missionary. While there Jim Elliot participated in wrestling in order to have a strong body to serve God. Because he felt called to Ecuador, South America, Jim waited five years to ask Elizabeth Howard to marry him. They married and served in South America for three years before Jim died.

In Ecuador Jim felt called to tell the gospel of Jesus Christ to an unreached group of people called the Aucas or Huaorani. “Why should some hear twice,” he said, “when others have not heard once?” Aucas lived deep in the jungle and did not have any contact with the rest of the world. Hoping to make friends with them, Jim and his companions dropped gifts from a plane. Finally, Jim and four missionaries flew into the jungle in January of 1956 to make contact with the Aucas. Afraid of these strangers, the Aucas killed all of them.

Life magazine reported about their mission and death, and God used their death to bring many people to work in missions. Jim Elliot knew he could die, but he went to the Aucas any way. He said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” I would like to be a strong Christian like Jim Elliot, who loved Jesus more then anything else. Everything he did, whether marrying or exercising, he did to bring God glory. Perhaps God will call me to missions, but either way I can live for Jesus the way Jim Elliot did.