On 8 January 1956, five American missionaries were speared to death on a sandbar in the Ecuadorian jungle. One of them was Jim Elliot. His wife Elisabeth was at their mission station with their ten-month-old daughter, Valerie. She was 29 years old. And she made one of the most extraordinary parenting decisions in modern history.
The Day Everything Changed
Jim Elliot and four others had been trying to make contact with the Huaorani tribe — a group known for killing outsiders on sight. When the search party found the five bodies in the river, Elisabeth's world collapsed.
She was a young mother, alone in the jungle, with a baby. Every logical option pointed toward going home. Back to the United States. Back to safety. Back to people who could help her grieve and raise her daughter.
The Decision That Made No Sense
Elisabeth stayed. Not just in Ecuador — she eventually moved INTO the Huaorani village, bringing baby Valerie with her. She went to live among the people who had killed her husband.
This wasn't recklessness. It was a deliberate choice rooted in a conviction she'd held since before Jim's death: that the gospel was worth more than her own safety, and that her daughter deserved to see that faith wasn't theoretical.
Living Among Her Husband's Killers
Elisabeth spent two years living with the Huaorani. She learned their language. She built relationships. She raised Valerie in a community that had taken her father. Over time, the tribe was transformed — many of the warriors who killed Jim Elliot came to faith.
The story of a widow who forgave the men who killed her husband, and raised her daughter among them, became one of the most powerful testimonies of the 20th century.
What This Means for You
Elisabeth didn't insulate her daughter from pain or danger. She brought Valerie into the heart of their story and showed her what radical faith looks like when it's lived out, not just talked about. The way you respond to your worst moment is the sermon your children remember forever.