Today, January 8, 2026, marks to the day the 70th anniversary of the death of the five American missionaries: Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian, who were speared to death by the Waoroni Auca Indian tribe in Ecuador as part of the missionaries’ “Operation Auca” mission. For a complete account of the lead up and aftermath of this event, we invite you to read “Through Gates of Splendor” written by Elisabeth Elliot. For today’s devotional, we provide these passionate excerpts explaining the men’s motivation of why they went, having counted the cost. . .
The time was ripening fast. The men and the other wives and I spent long hours discussing this project of which we had dreamed for so many months and years. Olive Fleming remembered what she had read in Pete’s diary of his willingness to give his life for the Aucas. I reminded Jim of what we both knew it might mean if he went. “Well, if that’s the way God wants it to be,” was his calm reply. I’m ready to die for the salvation of the Aucas.” While still a student in college Jim had written: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” p. 167
The other wives and I talked together one night about the possibility of becoming widows. What would we do? God gave us peace of heart, and confidence that whatever might happen, His Word would hold. We knew that “when He putteth forth His sheep, He goeth before them.” God’s leading was unmistakable up to this point. Each of us knew when we married our husbands that there would never be any question about who came first— God and His work held first place in each life. It was the condition of true discipleship; it became devastatingly meaningful now. It was a time for soul-searching, a time for counting the possible cost. Was it the thrill of adventure that drew our husbands on? No. Their letters and journals make it abundantly clear that these men did not go out as some men go out to shoot a lion or climb a mountain. Their compulsion was from a different source. Each had made a personal transaction with God, recognizing that he belonged to God, first of all by creation, and secondly by redemption through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. This double claim on his life settled once and for all the question of allegiance. It was not a matter of striving to follow the example of a great Teacher. To conform to the perfect life of Jesus was impossible for a human being. To these men, Jesus Christ was God, and had actually taken upon Himself human form, in order that He might die, and, by His death, provide not only escape from the punishment which their sin merited, but also a new kind of life, eternal both in length and in quality. This meant simply that Christ was to be obeyed, and more than that, that He would provide the power to obey. The point of decision had been reached. God’s command “Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature” was the categorical imperative. The question of personal safety was wholly irrelevant.
On Sunday afternoon, December 18, Nate Saint sat at his type-writer to tell the world why they were going-just in case. In speaking these words he spoke for all: “As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages? As we ask ourselves this question, we realize that it is not the call of the needy thousands, rather it is the simple intimation of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Aucaprison for Christ.”
“As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness.Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.” p. 171
**Excerpt originally published in Through Gates of Splendor, p. 167, 171