“I’m going over to get them,” Jim yelled to Ed as he quickly unbuttoned his shirt, pulled off his shoes, and waded eagerly into the water.
“Slow down, slow down. You might frighten them,” Nate yelled after him.
Jim eased up his pace. As he reached the far shore, the teenage girl jumped off the log she was standing on and splashed her way over to meet him. Jim held out his hand, which she grasped. Then Jim reached for the other two Aucas. The man grasped Jim’s hand, and Jim led the group across the river to the camp.
Jim watched carefully for any signs that the Aucas might be frightened or violent, but he saw none. Instead, the visitors squatted comfortably around the campfire and began to chatter to each other.
Jim recognized a few words but not many. However, with the help of the phrases he had collected on index cards, Jim was confident he could make the Aucas understand they were welcome.
Roger reached into the box of kitchen equipment and found a paring knife. He handed it to the Auca man, who grinned with pleasure. After examining it closely, the man carefully placed the knife on the ground between his feet. Next, Nate unveiled a model he’d made of his Piper Cruiser. All five men watched eagerly for the Aucas’ reaction. Would the visitors understand the connection between their hosts, the airplane, and the gifts that had descended on Terminal City?
Again, the Auca man simply grinned and nodded. He seemed to understand just fine. So all eight people—the missionaries and the Aucas—sat together on the beach for about an hour, trying to communicate with each other. As that continued, the missionaries talked among themselves about their Auca guests and assigned them nicknames. The Auca man was called George, and the teenage girl, Delilah.
Since the guests did not seem to be afraid, Jim and Nate pulled out cameras and took many photos. Some of the funniest photos were those that captured the expressions on the two women’s faces as they flipped through a copy of Time magazine Ed had brought. Jim couldn’t begin to imagine what crossed those Stone Age minds when confronted with pictures of refrigerators laden with food and the latest Ford automobile.
After a while, Delilah stood up and walked slowly over to the airplane. She rubbed her body against the course yellow canvas on its fuselage. Soon, the other two Aucas joined her, and George began to gesture excitedly. As astonished as the five missionaries were, George’s message was clear. He wanted a ride in the plane. After a quick conference, Nate agreed to take him up and fly over Terminal City. Nate had a few concerns, though. What if George got bored during the flight and decided to climb out? Or what if he grabbed the plane’s yoke and would not let go? Still, the risks were worth taking, especially since George seemed to be indicating he would use the plane ride to invite other Auca tribesmen to visit the campsite.
Nate found a shirt for George to wear, since it would be much cooler in the air than on the ground, and buttoned him into it. George grinned with satisfaction. After placing the paring knife and a machete the missionaries had given him into the plane, George climbed happily into the front seat. Nate hitched up the safety belt, and they were ready for takeoff. George was about to become the first Auca to fly!
Jim watched as the Piper climbed off the sandy beach and disappeared over the treetops. He then turned his attention back to Delilah and the older Auca woman. The four men watched in amusement as the two women tried their hand at blowing up balloons and playing with a yo-yo.
About fifteen minutes later, the Piper Cruiser flew back into view. Jim could see George clearly, who was leaning out the doorway, waving and shouting. Things had apparently gone well.
The plane made a perfect landing on the sand. After Nate had undone the seat belt, George jumped out and ran over to the group where he chattered away in Auca. He was no doubt telling the two women what it was like to be in an airplane.
As George talked to the women, Nate filled the other missionaries in on the flight. All had gone well, and although George never stopped yelling and waving throughout the flight, he had been a perfect passenger. The man had even stayed buckled in his seat—Nate surmised that George didn’t know how to work the buckle—and he had not touched the controls once. But best of all, as Nate had swooped in low over Terminal City, George had yelled down to the Aucas below. Nate wasn’t 100 percent sure what he said, but he recognized enough words to know that George was inviting the others to visit the campsite on the Curaray River.
“You should have seen their faces!” Nate chuckled as he went on recounting the events of the flight. “They couldn’t believe it when they saw George in the plane! One woman in shock dropped the basket she was carrying.”
The five men all laughed. Things were going better than expected. The missionaries had made contact with three friendly Aucas, and now one of them had been able to tell other Aucas it was safe to visit.
Pete and Ed prepared hamburgers for lunch while the Aucas looked on. When the hamburgers were cooked, the missionaries offered one to each of their guests. The three Aucas took the hamburgers gratefully and devoured them in just a few bites. They then put out their hands for more. After two more hamburgers each, the guests focused on the next thing: strawberry cake with lemon frosting that Marilou McCully had sent in with Nate and Pete that morning.
The rest of the day passed quickly. Before long, it was time for Nate and Pete to head back to Arajuno. As they were preparing to leave, Jim collected all the film they had shot that day and placed it into a canvas bag. Nate loaded the bag into the Piper. Although a sobering thought, if anything were to happen to the men on Palm Beach, at least the photographic record of their historic meeting with the Aucas would be safe.
After sharing a pot of baked beans and some rolls for dinner, Jim motioned to their guests that the three missionaries would soon be climbing up to the tree house to sleep. He then invited the Aucas to spend the night on the beach around the fire and under the roof of their cooking area. The Aucas seemed to understand, but Delilah was obviously upset about the arrangement. She stood up, collected her gifts, and stomped off down the beach. George yelled after her, but she did not turn back. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Women—who can understand them?” before collecting his things and trotting off after her.
The older Auca woman did not follow. She appeared to think it was her duty to stay and explain the situation. She spent ten minutes talking to Roger at top speed. Roger did not catch a single word of what she said, but the woman seemed to calm down once she had gotten it off her chest. The woman indicated that she would stay and sleep by the fire, and that is where the men left her.
As best as a person in a cramped tree house thirty-five feet off the ground can, Jim bounded out of bed the next morning. His mind was crystal clear. Today, for certain, was the day they were going to meet more Aucas. Jim quickly dressed and climbed down from the tree house, anxious to see whether the older woman was still there and whether George and Delilah had returned.
When Jim got to the beach, he was disappointed. The older woman was nowhere to be seen, nor was George or Delilah. Jim picked up a stick and raked the embers of the fire, which still glowed red. He found some encouragement in that. The older woman must have stayed most of the night and stoked the fire, and felt safe doing so.
It was Saturday, January 7. At around 9:00 a.m., Nate and Pete arrived from Arajuno. Together, the five men waited excitedly for more Aucas to arrive. Morning gave way to afternoon, but no one arrived. Their hopes began to fade with the late afternoon sun. Dejected, Nate and Pete climbed back into the plane and headed out for the night. As Jim, Ed, and Roger prepared dinner, they discussed possible reasons why the Aucas had not come. If George and Delilah had returned to the rest of the Aucas, why hadn’t they convinced them to come and visit? Surely the others would want their own machete and even a plane ride? No matter how the men tried to explain it, it just didn’t seem to make any sense why more Aucas hadn’t come.
The Piper Cruiser touched down around lunchtime Sunday, the sixth day of homesteading at Palm Beach. Nate jumped from the cockpit with a large picnic hamper, the sight of which greatly cheered Jim, Ed, and Roger. Marilou McCully had sent more treats for them.
As they all devoured the muffins and ice cream, Nate and Pete delivered some great news. On the way in from Arajuno, they had flown over Terminal City, where they had seen only a handful of women and children. Then, about halfway to Palm Beach, Nate and Pete had spotted more Aucas. A group of about ten men was walking determinedly toward the treehouse. The missionaries were about to have more Auca visitors at Palm Beach. The men whooped and hollered with delight as they finished their muffins and ice cream. Sunday, January 8, 1956, was going to be a day to remember!
At 12:30 p.m. Nate cranked up the radio and relayed the good news to Marj at Shell Mera, using code words, of course. He promised to call back at 4:30 and give an update. If his calculations were correct, their new visitors would have been with them for about two hours by then.
After three o’clock, Jim spotted the first of their new guests. Three Auca women had emerged from the undergrowth on the far side of the river. Jim motioned to Pete, and together they began to wade across to meet them. Jim and Pete repeated friendly Auca phrases, but the women did not appear to be as neighborly as the previous Auca visitors. The faces of the women remained blank, and the women did not try to talk back to the missionaries.
Jim and Pete were nearly to the far side of the Curaray River when they heard a bloodcurdling cry behind them. They turned to see a swarm of Auca warriors, their long spears ready to strike, running across the beach toward Nate, Ed, and Roger. Jim stood transfixed for a moment, his hand on the gun in his pocket. Should he use it? Even before he’d processed the question, he knew the answer. Each of them had promised the other they would not kill to save themselves from being killed. They would not kill those they came to share the gospel with in the name of Jesus.
Within seconds, Nate Saint had been speared. As he fell to the ground, his arm smashed against a rock, breaking his watch. The hands of the watch stopped at 3:10 p.m. As Ed McCully rushed over to help, a spear was thrust into his back. Ed slumped onto the sandy beach beside Nate.
Jim scanned the scene for Roger Youderian. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Roger running toward the airplane, probably trying to get to the radio to call Marj for help. In reality, there was no help for them. No one would be able to arrive in time. Having killed Nate and Ed, the Auca warriors sprinted into the water. Pete Fleming scrambled up onto a log and yelled as best he could in Auca, “We came to meet you. We aren’t going to hurt you. Why are you killing us?”
Those were the last words Jim Elliot heard on this earth. Within seconds, a spear had been thrust into Jim, who splashed facedown into the water. The gentle current of the Curaray River flowing past Palm Beach nudged his body downstream.
Chapter 16
One Great Purpose
At 4:30 in the afternoon, Betty Elliot waited by the radio at Shandia to hear the transmission between Marj and Nate Saint. She, like all the wives of the men in Operation Auca, were eager to hear whether the Aucas had arrived and, if so, what they were doing. Were they as friendly as George and the two women? Had Nate taken any more of them up flying? Was Jim learning more Auca words?
The hands on the wall clock crawled past 4:30, then 4:40, then 4:45. With increasing apprehension, Betty fidgeted by the radio. She got Valerie up from her afternoon nap and mashed some vegetables for her daughter’s dinner. Still, no message on the radio. Finally, Betty radioed Marj Saint just in case she had somehow missed the message from Palm Beach. Marj had heard nothing, but she would let Betty know as soon as she did hear.
