This is the story of the Martyrdom of Five American Missionaries in the Ecuador Jungle. "Through Gates of Splendor, " the story of Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Jim Elliot, was first recorded in 1956 by Jim's widow, Elisabeth. Decades later, its story of unconditional love and complete obedience to God still inspires new readers.

This is a memoir written by a missionary, about her now deceased husband and four other missionaries in his team. The five-member missionary team died in 1956 in the middle of their attempt to befriend aborigines living in Ecuadoran jungle. They were killed by the aborigines. I've heard this five-member team mentioned in church sermons, and I know their story was made into a movie The End of the Spear. The book gives a deeper, more realistic, and more detailed account of the lives of the five men and their mission work. Not as melodramatic. More thoughtful. I like it a lot. My favorite parts are the excerpts from the diaries and letters written by the five men in various stages of their lives. You get this really intimate encounter with the hearts and minds of these men of faith. I also really like the second epilogue written in 1996, in which the author communicated it is over-simplistic to say it was worth it for the five men to die since people from that aboriginal tribe received the Christian faith through continued missionary work, some performed by two of the five widows. She says there were problems with the missionary work she engaged in as well; things were not picture perfect. But God is sovereign; God is the God of human history. And to rest in that understanding and trust, instead of looking for an over-simplified, positive interpretation of tragedy is what she got out of this experience, 40 years after the incident. This is a book I would ask my kids to read some day, along with The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.

But there is A LOT of details on jungle life and the daily dealings of a missionary living in the jungle. They teach, they treat the sick, the drive airplanes around the jungle to deliver necessities, they build things, the airdrop gifts to yet unreached people groups, they build houses, they build runways for airplanes.....No exciting adventure here. In this sense, the book was not a page turner. ( )

Five men entered the jungle in search of a savage tribe . . . and never returned.

In January 1956, a tragic story flooded headlines around the world. Five men, spurred by a passion to share the good news of Jesus Christ, ventured deep into the jungles of Ecuador. Their goal: to make contact with an isolated tribe whose previous response to the outside world had been to attack all strangers.

At an agreed-upon time, their five young wives sat by their radios, waiting for a message that never came. . . .

"Through Gates of Splendor, " the story of Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Jim Elliot, was first recorded in 1956 by Jim's widow, Elisabeth. Decades later, its story of unconditional love and complete obedience to God still inspires new readers. This edition contains subsequent developments in the lives of the families and the Waodani tribe.

"Through Gates of Splendor, " Elisabeth Elliot's first book, has become the best-selling and most powerful missionary story of the twentieth century. Elliot has gone on to become a popular speaker and the author of several books and a host of magazine articles.

Read about the continuing story of the Waodani and the missionaries' families: This edition includes two preview chapters from "End of the Spear, " the new book by Steve Saint (Nate Saint's son), about his return to the jungle and the people who took his father's life. This story is now a major motion picture.

The true story of the murder of five Christian missionaries in 1956 in Ecuador during Operation Auca. The touching story of five men whose desire to be missionaries among the heathen turned out badly. ( )

Account of the faith and determination of five missionaries who died seeking to reach an Indian Tribe in Ecuador. ( )