Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Life Together
The marriage of Betty Howard and Jim Elliot took place on October 8, 1953. The ceremony, held at the Registro Civil in Quito, lasted all of ten minutes. Ed and Marilou McCully and Dr. and Mrs. Tidmarsh were the only witnesses. It wasn’t the type of wedding every bride would have enjoyed, but it suited Betty, who had no desire to plan a large wedding in the jungle. What mattered most to her was that she and Jim were finally able to embark upon their new life together as a married couple.
Following the wedding, Jim and Betty flew to Panama for their honeymoon and then on to Costa Rica to visit Betty’s brother Dave and his wife, Phyllis. Dave and Phyllis were surprised to see Betty and Jim together at their doorstep and even more so when they learned that the two were married. As the word filtered out to relatives and friends about their wedding, Betty and Jim began receiving a steady flow of congratulations and best wishes.
Two weeks after their wedding, the newlyweds were back in Quito working hard to gather the information and supplies needed to set up a new mission station at Atanasio’s clearing. The area they were going to was called Puyupungu, and Betty liked the sound of the name. The place would be their first home together.
Both Betty and Jim still had boxes in storage at Quito and had never unpacked some of the things they originally brought with them from the United States. The two of them set to work sorting through their belongings. It was exciting for them to see things they had forgotten they owned. It almost felt like unwrapping wedding presents.
After a few days of unpacking and sorting, they had quite a collection of usable items, including an assortment of garden tools, aluminum cooking pots and pans, a portable stove, and an old tent someone had given Jim before he left Oregon. These items were all duly rewrapped in heavy, waterproof paper, ready to be shipped to their new home in the Oriente.
Once everything had been organized in Quito, Betty and Jim rode the bus down the eastern slope of the Andes to Shell Mera, where Missionary Aviation Fellowship’s base of operations in the Oriente was located. Shell Mera was also the home of Nate and Marj Saint and their two children, Kathy and Steve. Once at Shell Mera, Betty and Jim made preparations for the rest of the journey to their new home.
Puyupungu was not an easy place to get to, even by jungle standards. There was no airstrip into which Nate could fly them, after which they could trek the rest of the way. The only way to Puyupungu, given all the baggage they had to transport with them, was upriver by canoe. Jim set about arranging for canoes to take them to their destination. When everything was organized, Nate drove Jim and Betty to the end of the road, where Betty was relieved to discover the canoes waiting for them. Soon the Elliots’ belongings were piled into the canoes, and Betty was waving farewell to Nate. She and Jim were under way on the final leg of the journey to their new home together in the jungle.
The Indians talked and joked as they paddled upriver. Betty could understand some of what they said, but she knew that she would have to continue to study Quichua diligently.
That night Betty and Jim slept in their own “house,” a tiny bamboo hut with a thatched roof. Atanasio had made a big ceremony out of presenting the hut to them. Once the Elliots moved in, everyone, including all of Atanasio’s wives and children, peered in between the bamboo slats to check on what the strange white people were up to.
Exhausted from the journey upriver, Betty went to sleep that night on a small folding cot, her heart overflowing with gratitude. She awoke about a half hour later with things crawling all over her.
“Jim, light the lamp,” Betty whispered.
Soon she wished she had not asked him to do that. Now she could see the hundreds of roaches swarming around in the hut. More dropped down from the thatched roof above them like tiny parachutists. There had been cockroaches at San Miguel, but nothing could have prepared her for this. Betty found it impossible to get back to sleep. Every time she pulled the sheet tightly up over her face, somehow a roach would find a way to crawl under it and across her body.
The next morning Betty talked Jim into pitching the old tent they had brought with them. She explained that she could not cope without sleep, and she would gladly trade a snug-looking hut for a roach-free tent. The tent, a large one, sixteen feet square, proved to be a much better option for living quarters, especially after Jim had outfitted it with a bamboo floor and built a small lean-to kitchen next door.
Jim had just completed building the kitchen when he complained of feeling tired. The next morning he could not get out of bed, and by lunchtime his temperature had soared to 104 degrees Fahrenheit and he was hallucinating. When she saw her husband’s condition, Betty was frantic. She gave Jim a shot of antimalarial medicine, but as night fell, Jim’s dangerously high temperature continued to rise. She kept a cool, wet cloth on Jim’s forehead and prayed throughout the night for him. The next morning she got out the shortwave radio to put in a call to Marj Saint.
This was not easy. The radio took two people to operate—one to turn the crank to generate electricity to run the radio and the other to operate the dials and switches. Betty had learned how to do both at Dos Rios, but now she had to convince someone to continually man the crank. No one seemed to want to help with this repetitious and apparently meaningless task. Eventually one of Atanasio’s sons agreed to turn the crank for Betty, who was then able to contact Marj on the radio. Betty described Jim’s symptoms to Marj, who was a registered nurse. Betty also told Marj that the antimalarial medicine had not seemed to have any effect and asked whether his condition could be something more than just a relapse of his malaria.
Marj did not know. There was no way of telling without medical tests, and given their location, such tests were out of the question. Marj advised Betty to continue doing what she was doing, keeping Jim cool and comfortable, and wait to see what happened. She also assured Betty that she would ask everyone on the radio link to pray for Jim.
As Betty shut down the radio, she felt her isolation more keenly than ever before. If Jim did need specialized medical help, how would he get it? The easiest way out of Puyupungu was by canoe, and that trip, which took hours, deposited you at a still very remote road head. There was no airstrip for miles, and Marj was the closest medical professional. This was sobering to think about but not something Betty chose to dwell on as she nursed her sick husband.
For the next three weeks, Betty sat beside Jim, keeping damp cloths on his forehead, spooning liquids into his mouth, and praying as he writhed and groaned on his bed. The rains came, and Betty had to move everything into the middle of the tent, since anything that touched the tent sides quickly became soaked through.
Finally Jim began to show signs of improvement. He asked the date and was shocked to learn just how long he had been drifting in and out of consciousness.
When Jim felt well enough again, he set about building a schoolhouse while Betty compiled the materials necessary to teach Atanasio’s twelve children. Atanasio also wanted to come along to school, and Betty encouraged him to do so.
Once the schoolhouse was completed, Betty started giving simple Quichua lessons. First everyone had to learn the alphabet and grasp the concept that words went from left to right across the page. Betty taught the sounds that went with each letter and how to string the sounds together to make syllables and then whole words. The work was slow but rewarding, especially since Jim had started translating the Gospel of Luke into Quichua. Betty imagined the day when her students would be able to read the book for themselves.
As Christmas 1953 approached, the Elliots decided they needed some encouragement and fellowship, and they accepted the McCullys’ invitation to come to Shandia for Christmas. On the morning of December 18, Betty and Jim set out on the journey to Shandia. Ahead of them lay a long trek on an overgrown jungle trail to Puyo. They hired a Quichua guide to lead them on the trail, and before long Betty realized just how overgrown it was. The guide and Jim had to hack away with machetes to clear patches of the trail—exhausting work in the jungle heat. The trail was not situated on the lowlands but followed the Indian tradition of building their trails on the highest ground possible so that it would not become flooded in the rainy season. Of course, this meant that they had to scramble up every hill and incline along the way. Nonetheless, the beauty of the jungle entranced Betty. Huge water plants and vines hung from trees, and everything was green and leafy. The jungle was abuzz with the sound of wildlife around them: chattering monkeys, croaking tree frogs, and squawking parrots.
After nine hours of trekking through the jungle, they emerged into a field of sugarcane. Beyond the sugarcane was Puyo, and waiting to meet them in Puyo was Marj Saint. Better still, Marj had several bottles of cold Coca-Cola and some slices of chocolate cake with her. Coca-Cola had never tasted so good to Betty as it did at that moment. Marj drove Betty and Jim to Shell Mera, and the next morning Nate flew them to Shandia, landing on the newly repaired airstrip.
It felt good to be back at Shandia, and Betty marveled at how different the place looked from how it had looked after the flood. Pete and Ed had been busy clearing jungle and constructing new living quarters. They all had a great time celebrating Christmas together and catching up with each other. Pete was making final preparations to return to the United States for several months. He planned to marry his childhood sweetheart, Olive Ainslie, and return to the Oriente with her. Betty and Jim were delighted to catch up with him before he left.
Betty and Jim ended up staying in Shandia until January 5, 1954. They stayed on to help out at Shandia’s first ever Bible conference. The event sounded grander than it was, but during the conference many Quichua Christians were challenged to take the gospel to their own people instead of relying on foreign missionaries to do the job. Jim had the joy of baptizing two women, Eugenia Cerda and Carmela Shiwangu. The conference was a happy occasion for all the missionaries in the area, and Betty looked forward to seeing many more Quichuas become Christians and be baptized.
The success of the Bible conference caused the missionaries to rethink their plans for the future. There was more Christian growth at Shandia than at any of the other stations, and since the aim of the missionaries was to train Quichuas to become missionaries to their own people, it made a lot of sense to make Shandia their central mission base.
With this goal in mind, Jim and Betty decided that once the first school year was finished at Puyupungu, they should relocate back to Shandia and then work part-time at Puyupungu. In this way the students at Puyupungu could still have classes, and Jim and Betty would be freed up to help disciple and encourage the Quichua Christians at Shandia.
Refreshed and encouraged by this new vision, Betty and Jim trekked back to Puyupungu. Jim set about building a permanent house for them beside the river. He also began laying out a site for an airstrip that would make it easy for him and Betty to get in and out of the place. By Easter, both tasks were completed ahead of schedule. Many local men had come from Pano to help Jim do the work.
Just as Jim was finishing the screened windows on the house, he and Betty received a letter from Oregon. Every letter in their isolated jungle home was a welcome one, but this one was especially so. It was from Jim’s father, who wrote that he was coming down to visit them in Ecuador. He was planning to stay a month, during which time he wanted to be involved in a building project. With the house and the airstrip finished, Puyupungu had no immediate need for more building projects, and Betty’s thoughts immediately turned to Shandia.
With its new designation as the center of missionary work for the area, additional simple housing was needed at Shandia. Betty asked Jim whether he thought his father would be interested in helping with a building project there. After several radio conversations with the other missionaries, everyone agreed that Betty and Jim would move back to Shandia when the school semester was over, and Jim’s father would join them and build a house for them.
Betty had also just learned that she was expecting a baby early in the new year. She was thrilled to think that she would have the added blessing of being around other young missionary mothers. It was difficult enough for an adult, much less a newborn baby, to stay healthy in the jungle. Marj and Marilou would provide Betty with strong shoulders to lean on.
In May, Jim and Betty left Puyupungu behind and made their way to Shell Mera, where Jim’s father was waiting for them. It was a happy reunion. To top things off, Jim’s dad had brought a lot of construction equipment with him, including gasoline-powered saws and drills, which would make the construction job much easier.
Life at Shandia soon fell into a pleasant rhythm. Betty and Jim stayed in a tiny bamboo hut that Pete had built, and Jim’s father stayed in a hut in the clearing. They all ate with the McCullys, and during the day Jim and his dad and a group of Indians worked hard at the construction of a new house for the Elliots. The house was situated in the jungle, a twelve-minute walk from the clearing at Shandia. First the site had to be cleared of jungle, and then sand and rocks were brought from the river to make concrete for the foundation of the new house. It was hard, hot work, and in the afternoons Betty would walk to the construction site with a large pitcher of lemonade for the men to drink. Just before the sun went down Jim would return to their tiny hut and bathe in the river, and then he and his dad and Betty would eat with the McCullys. In the evenings Betty and Jim would write letters home, prepare Bible studies for the local Christians, or sometimes just sit and talk with the McCullys.
The weeks flew by. Before long Betty and Jim were celebrating their first wedding anniversary, and in December Marilou gave birth to a second son. Once the construction of a modest home for Betty and Jim was complete, Jim’s father returned to the United States. Betty loved the house. It even had a room for Betty to prepare as a nursery.
In February 1955, Betty and Jim went to stay at Shell Mera. Betty had decided not to go to Quito to give birth to the baby but rather to go to Shell Mera and trust Marj to be her midwife. This proved to be a good decision, and on February 27 Valerie Elliot was safely born. She had white-blonde hair and very pink skin, something that Betty knew would make the child an instant hit with the Quichua Indians in Shandia. And so it was. When the Elliot family arrived back at Shandia, everyone wanted to tickle Valerie’s toes and stroke her fine hair. Few of them had ever seen a white baby before.
Soon after the Elliots’ arrival back at Shandia, Betty’s parents came to visit to see their new granddaughter. On their way to Ecuador, the Howards stopped in Costa Rica to visit Betty’s brother Dave and his wife, Phyllis.
Betty was glad to see her parents when they arrived. Her parents doted over Valerie, and Betty was able to show them all the progress that was being made in sharing the gospel with and discipling the local Quichua Indians. In the evenings they all loved to sit and talk in the Elliots’ new home. During these times, Betty’s parents filled her in on all the family news. One piece of particularly exciting news was that Betty’s younger sister Ginny, her husband Bud DeVrie, and their baby Kenny were leaving the United States in April for Palawan in the Philippines, where they would serve as missionaries with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.
During the visit Betty noticed that her father was not quite his old self. He had always been an inquisitive man, interested in people and the things going on around him, but now he just sat and stared. Betty spoke to her mother about this, but neither of them knew why he was acting the way he was.
After her parents had returned to the United States, Katherine Howard wrote to say that Betty’s father had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He had emergency surgery to remove the tumor, and Betty’s mother reported that he was recovering well and was back to his old self. Betty breathed a sigh of relief and prayed a prayer of gratitude.
Meanwhile, the mission work at Shandia was progressing nicely. Ed and Marilou were preparing to occupy a second outstation at a place called Arajuno, an old Shell Oil exploration base. Located just across the river from a large Quichua Indian village, the base had been abandoned in 1949. The McCullys planned to establish a school and church among the Quichua there. But before they could move, a house had to be built for the family at the site. Fortunately, the Shell Oil Company had left behind a well-formed, packed-sand airstrip, and Nate had offered to fly Ed in and out of the site and help him build a house there for the family. With the new house nearly complete and the McCully family getting ready to move into it, Betty found herself confronting some difficult questions.
While Arajuno was located opposite a large Quichua village, it was also located just outside Auca territory. Long ago Jim had confided to Betty that his ultimate dream was to reach the Auca Indians with the gospel. But the Aucas were not like the Quichuas, who wore Western-style clothing and were friendly toward outsiders. The Aucas wore only a woven string around their waist and had balsa wood plugs in the lobes of their ears. They also had a fearsome reputation as vicious killers. Their mentality seemed to be kill or be killed—not only other Aucas but also outsiders, including Shell Oil Company workers. The brutal attacks were one of the reasons the company had decided to abandon its base at Arajuno.
On numerous evenings at Shandia, Jim, Ed, and Pete had sat together talking about the Aucas and strategizing about the best way to make friendly contact and take the gospel to them. Now that the work at Shandia was progressing well, Betty wondered what might lie ahead for her and Jim. What would happen if they did make friendly contact with the Aucas? Was she prepared to take Valerie and go and live with them? If reaching them was really Jim’s vision, could she embrace that vision as well?
Betty was not sure of the answers to those questions, and she was grateful that, for the time being, she did not have to make any decisions. There was still plenty of work at Shandia to keep her and Jim busy.