brown on green, A Regular column about finances

Perseverance

Jim Elliot and a missionary team arrived in Ecuador in February 1952 and began to reach the Quechua Indians for Christ. They first stayed in Quito and then moved into the jungle. They eventually took up residence at the Shandia mission station. It was there, in 1953, that Jim met and later married Elisabeth Howard. While working with the Quechua Indians, Elliot began preparing to reach the Huaorani.

Elliot and four other missionaries—Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Flemming, and their pilot Nate Saint—contacted the Huaorani from their Piper PA-14 airplane using a loudspeaker and a basket to pass down gifts. After several months, the men decided to build a base a short distance from the Indian village along the Curaray River. Encouraged by friendly encounters, they began plans to visit the Huaorani. Their plans were preempted by the arrival of a larger group of ten Huaorani warriors who killed Elliot and his companions January 8, 1956.

After Jim's death, his wife Elisabeth and other missionaries, including Nate Saint’s sister Rachel, began working among the Huaorani. They continued the evangelistic work started previously, living with the tribe in the jungle. Steve Saint, Nate’s son, continued to live in Ecuador with his mom and family and, at ten years old, began to stay with the Huaorani in the jungle during summer months. He learned about living in the jungle and began to develop relationships with many members of the tribe. In June 1965, at age 14, Steve was baptized in the Curaray River (where his dad died nine years earlier) by Kimo and Dyuwi, two of his fathers’ killers since converted to Christianity.

Today an evangelical church sits near the beach where the missionaries were killed. The church continues to reach the Huaorani people for Christ to this day. The spear pictured above was made by descendants of those who killed the missionaries. I received this spear as a gift because Free Will Baptist Foundation gave grants to the Jungle Kids for Christ ministry, a partner school of IM, Inc. that teaches kids from the jungles of Ecuador.

What does this amazing story teach us? Let us not grow weary in well doing for we will reap if we keep at it.

The Foundation has been around for 42 years, growing from zero dollars to over $110 million today. I have been associated with the Foundation for almost 30 years, and many times it seemed we were not making much progress. We were weary in well doing, but we did not faint. Today, in a typical year, the Foundation distributes $1.2 million in endowment earnings to various Free Will Baptist ministries and almost $1 million in earnings from money management for ministries. And, starting in 2022, we will distribute $750,000 in grants. The Foundation impacts ministries every year by providing almost $3 million. We have reaped because we did not faint.

About the Columnist: David Brown is director of Free Will Baptist Foundation. To learn more about the grants program, visit www.fwbgifts.org.