Through the gates of splendour

The life of a missionary calls for infinate adaptability- from winning a national oratorical contest to struggling with an unwritten language...from starring on the college football field to teaching a bunch of small indians to play volleyball...from prospects of a law career in a north american city to a life in the jungle of south America. marilou, who had been music director in a big church slowly and carefully taught the indian children to sing two line songs which seh and Ed had written in the Quichua language...They were fully prepared to be fools for Christ's sake

'Through the gates of splendour' Elisabeth Elliot P42 .

There is no such thing as attainment in this life. As soon as one arrives at a highly coveted position he only jacks up his desire another notch or so and looks for further achievement- a process which is ulitmatly interuppted by the interventio of death. Life is truly likened to a rising vapour...coiling, evanescent, shifting. may the Lord teach us what it means to live in terms of the end, like Paul who said 'neither count i my life dear unto myself, that i might finish my course with joy.

Jim Elliot quoted in 'Through the gates of splendour' Elisabeth Elliot P7