Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts the “Show and Tell Friday,” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky.“

Over 25 years ago as a college student I first heard the well-known story of the five missionaries who were killed by the tribe of Indians in Ecuador known then as the Aucas (later it was discovered their name for themselves was the Waodani) with whom they were trying to make contact. I read the book Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, whose husband, Jim, was one of the five, which tells of these men, how they came to Christ and then to Ecuador, the events leading up to this moment, and the miraculous way the Lord opened the door for Elisabeth , her young daughte Valerie, and Rachel Saint, sister of Nate Saint who was another of the men, to go live with the same Indians who killed their loved ones and to bring them the gospel.

It’s a story that has been impacting lives for years. My life was one of them. To read of the faith and devotion of these men and their wives, the willing sacrifices they made, the way the Lord ministered to them and to the Waodani, and then to read about Waodani becoming brethren in the faith and growing in the Lord — I just don’t think I can convey everything the Lord has done in my own heart as a result.

Elisabeth’s book tells of a photographer for Life magazine named Cornell Capa who came out with the first responders to search for the men in the jungles after their deaths and the edition I have includes several of his pictures. It may seem an odd, silly thing, but I have always wished I could get a copy of that edition of Life.

Well, last Christmas I received a copy of it from my oldest son, Jeremy. We each make “Christmas lists” for the others in our family so that we have some idea of what to get for each other, but Jeremy likes to come up with something “just right” for the recipient that is not on the list. He had heard me speak of this and searched the Internet to see if he could find it. He had to buy a whole bundle of other issues that this one was in, but he ordered it and gave me the copy from January 30, 1956, which has a the ten-page story and pictures of this incident.

This is a treasure to me not only because it is a piece of history from an event that touched my life in so many ways, but also because of Jeremy’s thoughtfulness in getting it for me.

By the way, if you are interested in reading more about this story, besides Through Gates of Splendor mentioned above, several other books have been writen. Rachel Saint wrote The Dayuma Story, but the only copy of that I found searching the Internet shows Ethel Emily Wallis as the author: I don’t know if this is a republication of Rachel’s book or a completely different book. I read Rachel’s: I haven’t read this one. Another of the widows, Olive Fleming Liefeld, wrote Unfolding Destinies. The most recent one is End of the Spear by Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint. (I reviewed the film by the same name here.) These are just the ones I have read: there may be others I don’t know of. I have read most of Elisabeth Elliot’s other books since then as well.

You can visit Kelli’s place to see more “Show and Tell” stories or share your own.