Religion: What Makes a Missionary

(2 of 2)

But when Nate heard of the Auca Indians, all his missionary enthusiasm seemed to focus on getting to those primitive tribesmen. He wrote it down 21 days before they killed him: "We realize that it is not the call of needy thousands. Rather it is the simple intimation of the prophetic word that there should be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day, and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ."

The opening was made. In Ecuador, Nate's missionary sister, Rachel, and Betty Eliot, widow of one of the martyred missionaries, have won the Aucas' confidence and have begun to teach them reading and the Scripture.