Family History: Ed McCully and the Amazon Jungle
IN JANUARY of 1956, Ed McCully (my dad) was one of five missionaries killed in the heart of the Amazon jungle by a group of people they were trying to befriend in an effort to bring them the Good News that God loves them.
Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Nate Saint and Roger Youderian were the other four missionaries involved and the story was first reported in Life Magazine and was later told in the book Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot and has been a well known story for the last 65 plus years.
When our dad was killed our mom was eight months pregnant with her third child. We flew back to the United States for his birth in February and before we returned to Ecuador in November mom was asked to speak all over the Midwest recounting the story of what happened.
As it turns out, one of those talks was recorded, and that is what we have for you down below.
She entitled her talk Did God Fail and for 30 minutes gives her own, very personal answer to that question. We each get to decide on our own whether or not we believe in God, or whether we feel like God has failed us in any of the countless times of hardship we all face, but I know that mom’s three sons (Steve, Mike and Matt) are forever grateful not only for the words she spoke here in Grand Rapids, Michigan in October of 1956, but for the lifetime she lived (she died in April of 2004) that demonstrated to us that God definitely did not fail.
Steve, Mike and Matt McCully