Essay Sample on Missionary Jim Elliot

Introduction

Missionary Jim Elliot was an evangelical Christian who died among the five missionaries who were killed after they decided to engage in operation to spread the word of God to an Indian tribe that was known as Auca. Their aim was to evangelize on the Huaorani people of Ecuador.

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Early Life

Jim Elliot was born and raised in a Christian family that was strong in beliefs and every child was supposed to attend church and read the Bible regularly. He was the first born among all his siblings and by the age of six years, he had started to profess faith in Jesus as he grew up in a home where obedience and honesty were always enforced. It was through the encouragement of his parents that Elliot became adventurous and lived for Christ. Portland is where his life began with his father being a Christian minister. Elliot knew about Christ from when he was a young boy and had all the confidence to speak about him to his friends. As a little boy, he visited missionaries who told me more about life on far away missions' fields, and during this time, he asked questions as he was so curious of becoming a missionary one day. His main motivation came from the feeling of sadness about how many people from different countries died to lack knowledge about God. At the age of 29 years, he finally came to implement what he had really been waiting for the most part of his life. He wanted to go to Ecuador and join the missionaries. He and other missionaries decided to go and set a camp in the territory that was of a daring and uncivilized Indian tribe that was known as the Aucas. The Aucas was involved in killing people whom they considered as outsiders, but despite the area being considered as dangerous, Elliot believed that God had called him to tell the Aucas about Jesus but he ended up being killed in the operation Auca as well.

The Cement of Desire To Serve the Lord in Missions

Jim had joined a polytechnic high school and throughout that life, he carried a small Bible and in most cases was found speaking to the people about Christ. He was a person who had a different form of life from his mates and friends, for example, he was not interested in girls as he once mentioned telling a friend, "Domesticated males aren't much use for adventure". His main goal and aim were to be devoted to God. He acknowledged the significance of self-control in chasing the goal of spreading the word of God. There was no day that he would start without having some morning prayers and some time for Bible studies. In one of the journals he wrote, he said, "None of it gets to be 'old stuff' for it is Christ in print, the Living Word. We wouldn't think of rising in the morning without a face-wash, but we often neglect the purgative cleansing of the Word of the Lord. It wakes us up to our responsibility". He had the desire to the gospel of God to places that it had not reached and all these desires started when he was at Wheaton. His main desire and aim were to tour different countries sharing Christ with the world that had not recognized him with the United States, not an exception. Besides the high desires and aim of spreading the word of Christ, he at times faced a lot of demotivating moments when he tried to lead the people to Christ but only a few people showed him interest or concerned with what he had to say to them.

His Death

Elliot met his death when he and his friends decided and planned to visit Huaorani, they never knew that their intentions as missionaries had been interpreted by the residents they were going to meet. It led to their plans being obstructed by many Huaorani warriors who killed him and also his four companions. He was the first among the five missionaries to be killed when two of the attackers acted to be interested to take a plane ride with them only their bodies to be found downstream.

Through his life, it was clear that he expressed his beliefs and work dedicated to Jesus in a more important way that he considered his life. By doing this, he quoted a verse in the bible which was Luke 9: 24. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." He believed that he was not a fool to give what he cannot keep in order to gain what he could not lose. After his death, Elisabeth Elliot who was his wife organized another missionary work especially targeting Huaorani, continuing the evangelistic work.

References

Elliot, Elisabeth. Passion and purity: Learning to bring your love life under Christ's control. Revell, 2002.

Elliot, Elisabeth. Shadow of the Almighty: The life and testament of Jim Elliot. Hendrickson Publishers, 2008.