I have a deep love for missionary biographies. Few things stir the soul like the story of a life spent for the gospel.
I was a college junior when I encountered the story of Jim Elliot’s death. It didn’t just move me. It stoked a lifelong fire for missions.
Jim Elliot
On Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1956, Jim Elliot and four other missionaries—Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian—landed on a jungle sandbar in Ecuador. Years before, Jim and his missionary friends set their hearts on reaching the Waodoni people with the good news of Jesus.
The Waodoni were a notoriously dangerous tribe, known for spearing to death friends and enemies alike. For three months, Jim Elliot’s team flew over a village and dropped gifts as peace offerings before landing to meet them.
On Friday, Jan. 6, three Waodoni approached the plane and things seemed to go well. Footage and pictures remain of the friendly meeting.
On Sunday, Jan. 8, the team was due to radio home. Silence. When no message came, a plane was sent, and then a rescue party. Four of their bodies were recovered—all speared to death. The fifth body was never found.
In a powerful testimony of faithfulness, the widows of the five missionaries stayed in the jungle of Ecuador and eventually led many in the Waodoni tribe to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I viewed these missionaries as the pinnacle of faithfulness to Jesus. I still do.
I first heard the Elliot story through a documentary, but then devoured books about it. Through the Gates of Splendorand Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot provide a front-row seat to sacrifice and the spiritual life that fueled Jim Elliot’s obedience. The Journals of Jim Elliot edited by Elisabeth Elliot is a volume I return to on a regular basis.
Missionary biographies
Other favorite missionary biographies include To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson by Courtney Anderson and Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan. Anderson provides a portrait of perseverance through suffering on the mission field. Donovan rethinks how missionaries should take the gospel across cultures.
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Missiology
If missionary biographies have stoked a fire in you, pair them with theology. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission by David Bosch presents missions as participation in God’s work. Transcending Missions: The Eclipse of a Modern Tradition by Michael Stroope critiques traditional missional language and calls for “pilgrim witness to the kingdom.”
Fiction
Silence by Shusaku Endo, one of my all-time favorite novels, tells the story of two Portuguese Jesuit priests who travel to seventeenth-century Japan. They watch the persecution of Christian brothers and have their own faith tested. It was adapted in 2016 into a Martin Scorsese film.
May good books stoke your fire for missions until we stand among a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne of Jesus (Revelation 7:9).
Jeff Gravens is pastor of First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.
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