The time came to make a solid commitment to Operation Auca. Jim, Ed, and Nate were fully committed to an up-close and personal meeting with the Auca Indians. Pete Fleming supported the idea, but he wasn’t sure he felt called to go with the others. In case Pete decided not to go, the others decided to recruit a backup person for the team. But who?
Because Nate flew to nearly all the mission stations across the Oriente, he knew better than anyone most of the missionaries in the area. Roger Youderian came immediately to Nate’s mind. Roger was a rugged, outdoors type. He had been a paratrooper in Europe during World War II, been decorated for action in the Battle of the Bulge, and survived the American assault at the Rhine in 1944. Originally from Montana, Roger and his wife Barbara had been missionaries for three years with Gospel Missionary Union at Macuma. They worked alongside Frank and Marie Drown, sharing the gospel message with the Jivaro Indians—a tough assignment. Until very recently, the Jivaros had been a tribe with a special reputation. They were the only people in the Amazon who were known to cut off their enemies’ heads and shrink them. When the heads had been shrunk to the size of a baseball, the Jivaros wore them for decoration, hanging them from their waistbands. If there was to be another man on the team, Nate could think of no one more suitable than Roger Youderian.
Although Jim, Ed, and Pete knew of Roger, they didn’t know him personally. So they took Nate’s word that he was the right man for the job. Within a few days, Nate had talked to Roger about Operation Auca, and Roger had agreed to be part of the team.
On December 24, 1955, Jim, Betty, and ten-month-old Valerie, along with Pete and Olive Fleming, joined Ed and Marilou McCully and their two sons, Stevie and Mike, at Arajuno for Christmas. A sense of anticipation filled the air. Events were quickly unfolding.
Jim was particularly struck by an encounter that Marilou McCully had had only two days before the Elliots and the Flemings arrived. Marilou poured out the details the first night everyone was together.
On Friday, Marilou was awakened at five-thirty by a Quichua Indian named Fermin, who was staying in the little schoolhouse within the Arajuno compound to guard the house while Ed was away overnight holding an evangelistic meeting at Puyupungu with Pete Fleming. Fermin was yelling outside her window, saying something about needing ammunition quickly. Marilou threw on some clothes and ran to see what Fermin was yelling about. She managed to calm him down enough for him to tell her he had seen an Auca warrior carrying a spear no more than fifty yards from the house, just outside the electric fence. Fermin begged Marilou for ammunition for the gun so he could chase after the Auca and shoot him.
Marilou had another idea. She took the gun away from Fermin and grabbed a machete. Seven months pregnant, she walked toward the electric fence perimeter, holding the machete above her head and yelling at the top of her lungs, “Bito weka pomopa!” (I want to come near you).
At the same time, Fermin was yelling after her in Quichua, “You’re crazy, lady. They’ll kill you. Come back!” He was panicking because he did not have the gun to protect her. But Marilou did not turn back. Instead, her eyes eagerly searched the jungle. If the Auca warrior had come to pay her a visit, she wanted him to know he was welcome. However, the Auca had already blended back into the dark undergrowth.
Jim and Betty and the others talked for a long time about the possible significance of the event. Did it mean their neighbors were becoming more friendly? Was it a sign the Aucas were ready to meet with the missionaries? The group decided it was, and plans for the next phase of Operation Auca sped into their final stage.
Almost the entire Christmas holiday was taken up with Operation Auca. Jim taught Ed and Pete several more Auca phrases so they would be able to speak a few friendly words when they finally met the Aucas face-to-face. The men also plotted exactly what they would do once they landed on Palm Beach. Jim had made good progress on cutting the wood for the tree house. Once Nate Saint had ferried the timber in, the men would hoist it up into one of the tall ironwood trees and assemble the tree house. Before sunset each day, Nate Saint would fly back to Arajuno and stay there overnight, keeping the airplane out of danger from both the unpredictable river and Auca spears.
The other men would spend the night in the tree house. In the morning, they would climb down and yell Auca phrases into the jungle while Nate flew over “Terminal City,” the name given to the Auca settlement where the missionaries had conducted the gift drops. Using the loudspeaker, Nate would broadcast in the Auca language, “Come to the Curaray. We want to meet you.” He would then fly to Palm Beach and land. Then all the missionaries would wait to see what happened.
The men repeatedly went over every aspect of their plan, looking for flaws and examining every possible contingency. By the time Jim returned to Shandia the day after Christmas, he was sure of two things: one, it was God’s timing to visit the Auca now; and two, they had taken every possible precaution. Jim hoped and prayed with the others that the final phase of Operation Auca would be a success.
Chapter 14
Operation Auca
In Shandia, there was plenty to do. Jim’s garden, which had been so hard to establish, was now thriving. He was proud to be able to supply his family with homegrown squash and tomatoes. And the white gladioli bulbs his mother had sent him the year before were now standing tall and in full bloom. Tiny bushes of Mexican peppers dotted the garden, and the smell of citrus trees sweetened the air.
Valerie was growing even faster than the garden. She was now eleven months old and already pulling herself up on the furniture and standing on her wobbly legs.
The church was also thriving. On New Year’s Day, Jim finished hosting another Bible conference. As in years past, it was a great success.
The following morning, January 2, Jim waited anxiously by the radio for news. Finally, he heard what he’d been waiting for. According to Nate Saint, everything was in place for visiting their neighbors. Nate was flying in at lunchtime to pick Jim up and take him to Arajuno to prepare for the next day’s mission to Palm Beach.
With Valerie balanced on her hip, Betty helped Jim pack into his bag the last few items for the mission. Among them were things that might amuse an Auca visitor. Since Jim knew only enough of their language to have a two-minute conversation, he felt he needed some other way to hold their attention and show them he was friendly. He packed a harmonica, a View-Master with several different picture reels, and a yo-yo. He also tucked a gun into the side pocket of his bag. The men had spent a long time discussing whether or not they should take guns. After all, they were going in the name of God, the King of Peace. What would the Aucas think of the gospel if the missionaries brought guns? In the end, they all decided common sense required them to arm themselves. There would be many dangerous animals—pumas, alligators, and snakes—around Palm Beach, and the men wanted a means of protection. In addition, they agreed that if the Aucas did attack them, they could fire over the attackers’ heads as a last resort. The members of the team promised each other that on no account would they shoot directly at the Aucas. If it came to a choice between losing their own lives and taking the life of an Auca, the missionaries were ready to lay down their lives.
Before Jim and Betty had had time to say a proper good-bye, the yellow Piper Cruiser was buzzing overhead. It was time for Jim to leave. Jim and Betty walked to the airstrip, and when Nate Saint brought the plane to a halt, Jim loaded his things into the back of it. Jim kissed Betty, hugged Valerie, and climbed into the cockpit beside Nate. Minutes later, he was peering down at Shandia. As he and Nate headed for Arajuno, Jim caught a glimpse of his wife and little girl.
By nightfall, Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Pete Fleming, who had finally decided to go on the mission, were all gathered at Arajuno. As they made their final plans, the mood was a strange mix of exhilaration and somberness. The men were excited about what lay ahead but also mindful of the potential danger. They made lists of everything that would need to be transported to Palm Beach and then marked each item with a number code according to its priority. Those items marked with a 1 would be needed first, consisting mostly of the materials required for building the tree house. Everyone had agreed on the importance of a safe shelter by nightfall. The handcranked radio also had a 1 beside it. Communication with the outside world was vital right from the start.
The number 2 next to an item meant the item would be important to have as the day wore on, such as a pot to cook dinner in, coffee mugs, and air mattresses. The number 3 was for things like notepaper, books, and magazines, which would come in handy once the mission was established on Palm Beach.
Jim, Ed, Nate, Roger, and Pete talked long into the night until there was nothing left to say. In the early morning hours, Jim lay in bed trying to imagine what would happen by the end of that day. Would the Aucas visit them? Would he have the opportunity to look an Auca warrior in the eye, smile, and be able to show him he’d come in peace? If he did, the missionaries would be the first group in history to meet Aucas face-to-face and live to tell about it. And if not… Jim chose not to dwell on that possibility. Yet whatever happened, he knew they had taken every precaution possible. Now, as always, his life and the lives of his four missionary companions were in God’s hands.
Jim was awakened the next morning by the squeal of a boiling kettle. For a moment, he couldn’t remember what he was doing at the McCully house, and then it came back to him with a flood of excitement. Today was the day! He quickly got up, got dressed, and bounded into the living room. He glanced at his watch. It was six-thirty, only an hour and a half before Nate was scheduled to take off for Palm Beach. Since they had packed everything the night before, the five men sat down to a hearty breakfast, but Jim was too excited to eat much.
After breakfast, it was time to help Nate weigh cargo and load the plane. Every ounce of cargo had to be accounted for. Each extra pound of weight meant the Piper needed an extra foot of runway on which to land and take off. It was going to be tight at Palm Beach, even without extra weight to worry about. It would be a disaster to overload the plane and end up running into the Curaray River.
Nate wanted to be extra cautious, insisting on taking only one passenger on each trip. The men drew straws to determine who the first passenger would be. Ed McCully won, but winning the draw was a dubious honor. So many things could go wrong on the first landing. If, for instance, the sand was too soft or the plane was damaged in the landing, Ed and Nate would be stranded in the heart of Auca territory. They would have no other option but to walk out to Arajuno, and that would prove difficult because they knew of no paths to follow. Being in their neighbors’ backyard would also be dangerous, since the Aucas did not have a record of being kind to people who strayed into their territory! The five men gathered on the airstrip for a brief prayer. Then Jim stood back with Roger Youderian and Pete Fleming while Nate Saint, with Ed McCully tucked in the seat beside him, cranked the Piper Cruiser’s engine to life. Operation Auca had entered its final stage!
An hour later, Nate returned to Arajuno. As he climbed from the cockpit, he announced that things had gone okay, though not quite according to plan. A heavy fog had developed about two miles out from Palm Beach, but Nate had been able to find a spot where it thinned enough for him to locate the landing site. The sand on Palm Beach had been softer than Nate had expected, causing the plane’s tires to dig into the sand. Nate and Ed had manually turned the plane around and pushed its tail out over the water so that Nate would have enough distance to take off. Despite these unexpected events, Ed was safely on the beach and waiting anxiously for Nate to return with the second load.
