Mary Ann Faulkner Thomson wrote the hymn, “O Zion Haste Thy Mission High Fulfilling” in 1871. One of her stanzas goes like this:

“Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious, Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way, Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious, And all thou spendest Jesus will repay.”

Clara Elliot trained and gave her son to bear the message of the gospel to the Auca Indians in Ecuador. As a young man at Wheaton College, Jim prayed:

“God, I pray thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee.  Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine.  I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.”

Jim Elliot was born in Portland, Oregon on October 8 1927. He was the third child of four. He had two older brothers, Herbert and Robert, and he had a younger sister named Jane. His father, Fred, was an evangelist. His father couldn’t finish school because he had to work. His mother, Clara, finished her studies and opened a chiropractic practice in their home to support the family. She devoted herself to the task of preparing her children for a lifetime of walking with God and ministering to others.

The fruit of her labors is seen in Jim Elliot’s note he wrote to his mother upon his departure to serve as a missionary in Ecuador:

“Remember how the Psalmist described children?  He said that they were as a heritage from the Lord, and that every man should be happy who had his quiver full of them.  And what is a quiver full of but arrows?  And what are arrows for but to shoot?  So, with the strong arm of prayer, draw the bowstring back and let the arrows fly– all of them, straight at the Enemy’s hosts.”            — Jim Elliot, age 22, Shadow of the Almighty, p.132.