Missionary Martyrs in Ecuador: 70 Years of Lasting Legacy

The martyrdom of Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian in Ecuador has captivated and inspired Christians for 70 years. It’s an anniversary that continues to shape the heart of missions and the lives of those who came after them.

Saint was a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship. On Jan. 8, 1956, he and his four fellow missionaries were killed on a jungle beach by the very tribe they were attempting to reach with the gospel. For Gene Jordan, a former pilot who spent 22 years serving in Ecuador, the story is personal. His parents were missionaries in Ecuador starting in 1951 with a different mission organization.

“My parents knew all the missionaries in those early days,” he said. “I have a picture of myself sitting on Nate’s knee in the little jungle station of Shandia where the Elliots worked. I don’t remember it; I was too young. But what I do remember is always knowing of Nate with an airplane serving other people in the jungle.”

As a teenager, Jordan spent his time at the Mission Aviation Fellowship base in Shell, Ecuador, helping however he could — fueling and washing planes, loading cargo and buckling in passengers.

“I saw the difference the airplane made in the jungle communities,” he said. “But more than that, I saw the impact and the effect that the pilots had in living out their faith and caring for people. I decided this might be something that I could do, and I go back to the influence when I was young — of always knowing about Mission Aviation Fellowship, knowing Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots, seeing what they did and the main one being Nate Saint, because he was in Ecuador. I grew up with his kids and his widow, Aunt Marge. So it was always an influence in my life.”

Seventy years after the killings, the faith legacy of these men, their widows and a surrender to God’s will still echo today.

“When the five guys were killed on that day, the widows’ worlds fell apart,” Jordan said. “But I never heard any of them say or write that they doubted that God was in control. I have a letter that Elizabeth Elliot wrote my mom just a couple weeks after Jim was killed. In it, she said, ‘My house feels empty, but Jim died doing exactly what he felt God would have him do in the fullness of his manhood, and I cannot fault God for anything.’ Today, we have 70 years of being able to look back and see what God has done.”

–From Mission Network News