by David Melton
It’s game on! We are still enrolling students for this fall, but most are here and the energy and excitement students bring is evident all over our campus. Nothing like being in “session” here in Boston!
We started a new tradition here to kick off our year of campus communities we call “Houses.” Campus is divided into groups or houses named after legendary missionaries, and those houses are the key to life on campus. House life shot out of the cannon with “the House Games” a weekend or two ago, which was an event I wish you could have seen! Great start for our students!
I really can’t let the summer of 2015 pass by, though, without a tribute — linked to one of our Houses — Elliot. That house is inspired, of course, by the lives of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, and their impact on the Waodani tribe of Ecuador. Jim Elliot and four others lost their lives back in 1956 trying to take the Gospel to the tribe. You probably also know of Elisabeth, author of her classic Through Gates of Splendor — who stayed in Ecuador after her husband’s murder and eventually, along with her young daughter, moved in with the tribe and helped evangelize them. In time, she returned to the U.S. and had a long and fruitful ministry in writing and teaching. She has been one of my heroes since childhood. So I was sad to see that this summer Elisabeth finally succumbed to dementia and accompanying ailments and went on to her eternal home with Jesus. I was fortunate to get to slip in to her memorial service. I’ve been saving some thoughts on Elisabeth Elliot, and as I watched Elliot House in action, I decided it was time to write some things down.
I had the high honor of getting to visit privately with Elisabeth Elliot about 25 years ago in her home, thanks to her unimaginable kindness to help me with a writing project. She was gracious and wise, and amazingly accommodating to this kid who was so intimidated that it was surely laughable. At the end of that amazing afternoon, I mustered up my courage and dared to go off script. All my life I had wondered how in the world Mrs. Elliot found the courage to stay in Ecuador and continue her missionary work after Jim was killed. That afternoon, in her home, I had my chance to ask. And I did. That marvelous, saintly lady wrinkled her forehead and pondered my question only briefly. She told me many had asked her the same question through the years, but she still had a hard time understanding why. “When I went to Ecuador,” she said, “I made a commitment to the Lord. When Jim died, it was terribly sad, but it didn’t change the commitment I had made. I’ve just always believed that neither great joy nor great sorrow affect a commitment to God.”
I had no follow-up question. That was Elisabeth Elliot. That’s quite a legacy for Elliot House. That’s quite a legacy for us all.