Lisa Barry: All this week Elisabeth Elliot has been speaking to a group in Houston, Texas, and we've been taking up a few seats in the back row. But Elisabeth isn't the only speaker on the platform.

Many of you know Elisabeth's daughter, Valerie Shepard, as she's visited this radio program in the past. We'll have the privilege of hearing from her again today as she talks about a powerful trip to Quito, Ecuador, where she spent a good portion of her childhood. Let's join Valerie now as she steps up to the podium her in Houston, Texas.

Valerie Shepard: Good morning. I am glad to be here. It's a privilege to be able to speak along with Glenda and with my mother. Lars thought that I should say something of our trip to Ecuador. On January 3, my husband and I flew to Quito, Ecuador, where our son Walter, who is 18 years old and has been in Peru since September, met us. So we were thrilled and excited to get to see him. We stayed in Quito for one day.

First, let me say that the Lord planned this trip for us in ways that we could not have imagined. All we knew was that we were going to Ecuador to see the Quichua Indians whom we had lived with and to see the Auca Indians whom we had lived with. We didn't know who we would get to see, as my mother had tried to plan the few days with the Indians through correspondence with one of the Indians himself--a man whom my father had taught to be a leader of the Quichuas. Because there was no telephone, we weren't sure if we would be able to meet him on the particular day, where we would meet him, what time, or where we would stay when we were with the Quichuas.

Well, when we came back from our little tour of Quito on the day before we went down to the jungle, we were coming to our guest house and there came Steve Saint and Ginny, who live with the Auca Indians. He said, "How are you getting down to the jungle?" My mother said, "We thought we would take a bus," which is crowded and uncomfortable. But Steve said, "Well, let me get a car and we'll all drive down together, because we have to go also." So that was a gift from the Lord that we were able to drive with Steve. He is a wonderful tour guide. As we went down the mountains from Quito into the jungle, he was able to give us all kinds of interesting facts, information about the jungle and about the Indians.

The way we met Venancio, the man who had been taught by my father and had corresponded with my mother, was just incredible. He wasn't actually in the town where we had thought we would meet him. He had gone to Quito that morning, but he had had to see the doctor. We thought, well, we wouldn't get to see him probably until Saturday or Sunday. The Quichua Indians who knew him kept assuring us that he would be back and that there was a place for us to stay.

Well, we drive along this gravel road and through the jungle and we stop at a Quichua house. It looked very much the same as what I had remembered Quichua houses looking like. A little road into the jungle, this young man was showing us, was where we were going to stay. So my mother and Lars and Walter went down this little path, and I stayed at the truck with Ginny Saint. And who should come out of this Quichua house, but one of my childhood playmates. Her husband and she owned this little place made for tourists--little Quichua huts with thatched roofs, bamboo walls.

They had made this place so that anybody who wanted to come and see what jungle life was like could come and stay there. So she spoke Spanish, also, and Quichua. And she spoke Spanish to Ginny Saint. I don't know either language, although I had known Quichua when I was little I had forgotten it. So she began to cry when she saw who I was. She began to express the different things that we had done together. Then as we stood there talking, my mother comes back up the little trail and says, "These cabanas will be great. That's where we're going to stay."

That night we each had a little hut. Walt and I, Walter had a little hut, Lars and my mother had a little hut, with beds and mattresses and blankets and pillows. We literally were in the middle of the jungle on the edge of the river. Venancio arrived right about dusk with a whole group of Quichuas, and it was a wonderful reunion with him. He brought us jungle fruit, which is what I remember eating so well. Then he told us he would meet us the next morning on the bus to go to Shandia.

Well, we got on the bus. Usually they're five or ten minutes late, and it was absolutely packed with Quichua Indians. We're the only foreigners. There was no place to sit. But this Quichua Indian lady got up, and she looked at me and looked at my mother. I could tell there was some shock in her face. She said to my mother, "Señora," and she pointed to her seat for my mother to sit down. My mother began to speak to her in Quichua.

She said, "I remember you. I'm one of Valerie's childhood playmates." It was an incredible way that the Lord planned that. She said, speaking Quichua to my mother and my mother interpreting to me, "I have thought of you almost every day since you left." I was eight years old when I left, and I remembered her face. I remembered her name even. She said, "Do you remember when we used to play together in the playhouse that your mother and dad built by the Quichuas? Do you remember the little miniature pots and pans we used to play with?"

I didn't know that it would be such an emotional thing for me, but it was a wonder that the Lord had put her right at the front of the bus and that we could talk through my mother. I was so thankful that my mother still remembered the Quichua language. Anyway, she got off the bus before we got to Shandia, but it was a gift from the Lord that day that we were on the bus and I met my childhood playmate.

We got to Shandia, where we saw the house my father built. It has Quichua Indians living in it, and the main thing that I will say about that little part of our trip was that it was sad to see the people in Shandia split in the church over who owns my father's house and who owns the land around it. So it gave me a new burden to pray for the Quichua Indians, because in that settlement there may be 50 to 100 people. It hasn't changed much since we lived there, yet the church has fallen apart just because they've argued over who owns what. So if you think of the Quichua Indians in that little area of Shandia, pray that the Lord will bring reconciliation and maturity to those believers.

We went the next day to Steve Saint, who lives with the Auca Indians, and we spent two nights in their home. The Aucas are still fun-loving, laughing, simple people. When we first got off the plane, we landed in this little airstrip in the middle of the jungle and a bunch of Aucas were standing there to greet us. They all started talking at once.

They all started slapping me on the back, my mother on the back, slapping Walt and Walter on the back, and calling my husband Walt the name of the little boy that I played with. They were joking that when I was little that I would grow up and marry this little boy. We just stood there and listened and smiled and watched as they just went on and on and on. Again, it was a privilege and joy to be with them and to be able to share them with my husband and with my son Walter.

The third day that we were there, we were told that we were going to be picked up about 11:30 by an MAF airplane and taken to Shell Mera, and then we would go to Quito from there. At the time that they said we would be picked up, it was pouring rain so they couldn't come into the airstrip and pick us up. So we waited and sat around Steve Saint's house. Aucas are in their house all the time it seems like, almost all the time. They start coming around 6:15 in the morning and they sometimes don't leave until 9:30 at night or whenever Steve and Ginny decide that it's time for them to go back to their houses.

It was incredible to me that Steve and Ginny have given their lives. They made the goal when they went down there that they would go for one year, because Steve wants to help the Aucas become independent of the welfare that has occurred because of the oil companies coming in and taking over the land in Ecuador and taking away the territory of the Aucas. And also, the Ecuadorian government is trying to appease the Aucas. So Steve has a burden to help the Aucas do things for themselves, have an industry or have work that they can do so that they're not just receiving from the government. Again, we got a new burden to pray for the Auca Indians. There are Christians there and there are good, upstanding men, and yet they need even more strength to be people of integrity.

Steve shared with us that there was a group of men who went to meet together to decide what to do about the oil companies encroaching upon their territory. They decided all together that they would not let the oil companies use them or do any more to them. They were going to hold them off. Within two weeks, a couple of the guys had forgotten that promise and gone ahead and went to work for the oil companies. So things like that are happening.

But for me to experience that--just to see the Aucas, to see that they live pretty much the same as the way they lived when I lived there. They do wear clothing now, so clothing kind of makes things messy because they can't wash their clothing. They wash it in the river, but they can't get it as clean as we get our clothing. And so they all kind of look messy and dirty. They also sell their hammocks that they used to sleep in, so now they have board beds with mosquito nets. And all the board beds had piles of clothing on them, so it just looked like a messier place than when we lived there. But again, it was a privilege.

On that day we sat around and waited for the plane, there was an opening in the weather around 4:00 in the afternoon and the plane came in. They took us to Shell Mera, where I thought I might be able to see the house where I was born. But we only had five minutes in Shell Mera because they said, "We have to get into Quito by 6:10 or they will not let any more MAF planes in." So we were in Shell Mera for five minutes, got back in the plane, and took off for Quito and got into the airport at 6:00. So again, the Lord timed the weather perfectly for us to be able to get out that day, even though we had to wait earlier during the day. And every part of the trip was a gift from the Lord.

Lisa Barry: Thanks Valerie. It's hard to believe that what we've been hearing about today is the history of Gateway To Joy. After all, if it weren't for that missionary experience, we might not have even known who Elisabeth Elliot was. But now, nearly 40 years later, the legacy continues. We're thrilled to be a part of such a great moving of God, and we're equally honored to be a part of your life. If Gateway To Joy has made a difference in your life, it's our prayer that you will drop us a line and let us know. God has assembled a great team, hasn't He? Here's our address:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. That's Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. Or, call toll free 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or, on the Internet you'll find us at gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Monday, Elisabeth talks about the importance of choosing ones attitude. Find out more the next time we meet for Gateway To Joy.