Readability
Original Sources
Devotional Quality
Avoids Hagiography
Biblical Clarity
| Field | Ecuador |
| Missionary | Frank and Marie Drown |
| Author | Frank and Marie Drown |
| Era | 1940s–1970s |
Overview
This is the story you never heard. Jim Elliot got all the headlines from Ecuador in the 1950s, but Frank Drown took similar risks and survived. Just south of where Elliot and his four friends were martyred at the spears of the Waordani, Drown dared to introduce the gospel to Atshuara head-shrinkers with guns. Nate Saint and Roj Youderian who died alongside Elliot were originally Drown’s coworkers and played a vital role in introducing the gospel to these unreached people. Like with the Waordani, many Atshuaras eventually came to Christ.
This account could have been quite sensational. Yet, Drown writes in an understated way. The first few chapters give no hint of the drama that later unfolds in the book. Drown just tells what happened as if anyone might take a canoe over class-five rapids into headhunter territory alongside known murders. He simply recounts leading the team to rescue Elliot, Saint, Youderian, and their team and then conducting their funerals on that lonely beach in the jungle. Yet this humility lends gravity to the work God does through Drown and his wife in this book. You might be tempted to put the book down after the fifty pages. Keep going. It’s well worth it.
Highlights
- How Drown worked with Nate Saint and Roj Youderian to make initial contact with the Atchuara people.
- How Drown led the rescue team that discovered what happened to Jim Elliot, Saint, and Youderian.
- How God worked to transform people bent on murder and head-shrinking so that individuals were saved and the society changed for the better.
- How God led and provided in difficult circumstances.
Quotes
- “To follow Him often meant changing our ideas of what the future would hold” (p. 48).
- “I pointed my gun to his head. Then my arm went weak. My finger would not move. I could not shoot even though I wanted to” (p. 127).
- I “felt the urgency of the situation. The wars were still going on. Besides the Atchuara, the Shuara, too, would soon be wiped out. Only personal relationships with Jesus Christ could save them from their self-annihilation. I made up my mind. It was God’s will. But I would take every precaution to make sure I wasn’t killed” (p. 198).
Other Sources
Frank Drown will be highlighted in my upcoming missions devotional, Daring Decision.