Fan Mail

Monday morning’s e-mail brought this missive from F*** V***:

RE: Aucas
I have never read so much biased and innacurate shite
in all my life,you should write for the national enquirer.
Fuck me are you stupid, you must be American.
Feel free to reply. Please.

Mr. F*** V*** refers to a piece I wrote about five missionaries who were murdered by the Auca Indians of Ecuador on January 8, 1956. All five were associated with Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Their story touched my own spirit deeply, and the motives which led these young men to die for the Aucas interested me.

I wrote this piece about them to inspire readers to a deeper commitment to Christ. I used it as the next-to-the-last chapter in my book Strangers On The Earth.

Here is a link to the article in html; and here is a link to the book:

And here is my reply to F*** V***:

Dear Mr. V***

You are right.

I am an American.

You are also right about my often being biased; that’s a sin I easily fall prey to. I'm working on it.

As to inaccuracies in my work, I wrote the Auca chapter about 20 years ago. Since I was not an eyewitness to the events described, I did rely on secondary sources which I believe are reliable.

My notes on this chapter are packed in a box in a storage closet, but as best I can remember, these sources included:

• Time, Life and Newsweek magazines; The title for my chapter, “The Worse People On Earth” is a quote from Time.
• Through Gates Of Splendo, a book by Elizabeth Elliot, wife of one of the martyred missionaries.
• The Shadow Of The Almighty by James Elliot, one of the murdered men; it’s a book made up of his diary entries.
• Jungle Pilot: A Biography of Nate Saint . Nate Saint was another of the murdered missionaries. I may be wrong but I think his sister either wrote the book or contributed to it. Sorry, but I’ve forgotten her name.
• I may have also consulted The Dayuma Story ; a book telling about some of the wonderful things resulting within the Auca Tribe from the martyrs’ deaths. Nor sure of the author’s name. (Not sure but I may have read this one after I'd already written my chapter).
• I remember using the New York Times Index to locate various newspaper reports about the incident;
• And I also recall at least one phone conversation with an official at Mission Aviation Fellowship (don’t remember his name) to confirm details.

I do try to quote and attribute sources accurately — but I can goof.

All of these sources are still available for you to check out for yourself.

I wish you joy and peace of heart in your search.

Sincerely,

John Cowart

PS: Once I did submit a freelance article to National Enquirer, but the editor rejected it.