Through Gates of Splendor

Summary

Through Gates of Splendor is Elisabeth Elliot's account of five young American missionaries who were killed in January 1956 while trying to make friendly contact with the Waorani, an isolated people of the Ecuadorian rainforest then known to outsiders as the Aucas. Elliot, the widow of one of the men, tells the story largely through the men's own letters, diaries and the recollections of their wives. She begins with each man's background and call: Jim Elliot, a Wheaton graduate and her husband, working among the Quichua at Shandia; Pete Fleming, a scholarly young man from Seattle; Ed McCully, a former college athlete and law student; Nate Saint, the Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot whose small plane linked the jungle stations; and Roger Youderian, a paratrooper veteran of the Second World War who worked among the Shuar. She describes their marriages, their stations at Shandia, Arajuno, Shell Mera and Macuma, and the long history of violence between the Waorani and their neighbors, oil workers and settlers. In September 1955 the men decide to attempt contact and keep the plan secret. Beginning in October, Nate Saint flies over a Waorani settlement and lowers gifts in a bucket on a long line while the plane circles, and the men shout friendly phrases learned from Dayuma, a Waorani woman living outside her tribe. The Waorani send gifts back up the line. On 3 January 1956 the men land on a sandbar on the Curaray River that they call Palm Beach and build a tree house. On 6 January a man they nickname George and two women visit; the man takes a plane ride, and the missionaries are hopeful. On Sunday 8 January, after a last radio call, the men are silent. A search party and military and civilian helpers find the bodies, killed by spears, and bury them near the sandbar, while the wives wait together at Shell Mera. Elliot closes by describing how the widows faced their loss, their conviction that God had not failed them, and the continuing work among the Indians of Ecuador. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1957, illustrated with photographs, and became a best seller; later editions add epilogues. In 1958 Elliot and Rachel Saint, Nate's sister, went to live among the Waorani, and in later years several of the men who had taken part in the killing became Christians.

Top Lessons

• Obedience without a guarantee

  The five men believed God had called them to bring the gospel to the Waorani, and they went knowing the danger. Elliot does not claim their deaths made sense at once; she insists that obedience is right even when the outcome is hidden. The book asks readers to consider what faithfulness means when results are not promised.

• Patience in building trust

  Before landing, the men spent months making gift drops and calling out friendly words from the plane. They did not carry weapons for attack and had agreed not to use their guns against the Waorani. Their plan shows the slow work of earning trust with people who have good reason to fear strangers.

• Grief held in faith

  Elliot describes the wives waiting by the radio, the news of the deaths, and their decision to keep serving in Ecuador. She presents grief honestly but without bitterness, trusting that God remained good. Later history, including her own life among the Waorani from 1958, gave the story a further chapter.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The book's medical interest is slight. It records the spear deaths of the five men and the recovery and burial of their bodies, described with restraint, and it gives a first-hand account of the wives' anticipatory and acute grief as they waited by the radio at Shell Mera. The missionaries' jungle work included simple medical care among the Quichua and Shuar, mentioned in passing. Elliot's later writings on suffering and loss draw on this experience.

• Chapters on the search

  The wives wait at Shell Mera through the days of silence while the search party goes to Palm Beach.

• Closing chapters

  Burial of the men near the sandbar and the widows' reflections on loss and faith.