Remembering Bert Elliot

Trip to Cajamarca, 2003 or 2004.

It was my first full day in Trujillo, Peru, there for the summer of 2000 to live with Bert and Colleen Elliot and help out in their Christian school, one of many extremely blessed young women welcomed with literally open arms, to live and learn with them for a season while assisting in the English program.

There I was, bags unpacked, awkwardly awaiting what was next as one always does when first arriving in another's home. Bert comes up to me and asks, with that ever present twinkle in his eye, "Want to come with me to pull teeth?" I was baffled, assuming he meant going with him to do something very difficult, but of course I said yes. I don't remember the drive over to the coastal town of Juanchaco that day, but I remember pulling into a place that he then told me was a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, where I later learned he was very involved in teaching and counseling the men. I still had no idea what we were doing there. We go in, are greeted by several people, he pulls out a bag, men line up, and he starts...pulling teeth... Literally!

 So began a "summer" (it was actually winter there) that would change my life.

Some things are "better caught than taught." Bert, together with Colleen, was the type of person whose life, day in and day out, spoke volumes. Being in that home for 3 different summers, was the greatest "school" I could ever have attended as a young believer - the kind I needed.  I was convicted and challenged constantly. My fleshly confidence was torn down and I began to see, that so much in my head had not yet made the trip to my heart. Later I was to return in 2003 and 2004, a sharer in that joy experienced, yet light years behind in maturity, continuing to be humbled and challenged...and so through the memory of it to this very day.

When it had been arranged earlier that year (2000), my mother, nervous about my traveling out of the country for the first time alone, was listening to Elizabeth Elliot's radio program. That day she happened to be talking about Bert and Colleen because that year was their 50th anniversary. She testified that they were the most joyful and down to earth Christians she had ever known. She was right.

Uncle Bert was known for his joy and his love...for God, for Colleen, for others, and ice cream.

I'll never forget one night after an evening meeting headed back home, all of a sudden the car jolted to a stop. We were all surprised, thinking that the car had broken down, even Colleen looked perplexed. Bert said nothing but got out of the car, went into a store, and came out with a big container of ice-cream and a huge grin on his face. We all laughed and went home and enjoyed it, as you can see in the picture below.

In home on Las Orquideas, Trujillo, 2000.

I was always amazed. There were constant phone calls, knocks on the door, spontaneous visitors and invitations. All were received with sincere concern...hugs...unassuming and open. There was never stress or complaint, never a sense of having been interrupted. Bert was very straightforward and honest, uncompromising in his counsel, but one was so aware of his compassion. He modeled "speaking the truth in love."

It was a selfless love, a love that was not motivated by the recipients acceptance or rejection, approval or disapproval, but motivated by the love of God within, for the recipient. To this day, the memory of this example lived before me spurs me on to seek to grow into maturity, to decrease so that Christ may increase.

This tireless hospitality is one of the first things I think about when I think of Bert and Colleen, along with their tireless service reaching out. Over the summers I was there, for the most part there were Bible Studies in the homes of believers and seekers young and old  most nights of the week. The days were also spent teaching and counseling, yet without weariness and toil. It was natural...just overflow...just life. It was all joy...evident joy. I so enjoyed tagging along as much as I could on these outings.

One that most stands out was also from my first summer there. A student in the school, a young boy, was dying of cancer. The family were not believers at the time. Bert and Colleen were meeting with them and sharing with them. When I returned 3 years later they were joyful believers as well, and dear friends.

One Sunday during my first summer there, Bert came up to me and put his hands on my shoulders and said in a very serious voice, "I want to take you to the high mountains."

Some of my fondest memories of Uncle Bert are unsurprisingly related to these trips up into the 

Andes mountains, another great love of his. He loved taking visitors to Cajamarca. One time when I thanked him for taking me along, he said with a grin and a gleam, "I like to show people where I've been."

My first trip into the Andes, 2000.

This first time, we were a group of four headed to a conference in a small village called Callancas, to be followed by a brief visit to Cajamarca and Granja Porcon. As we climbed and twisted up the rugged mountains, I began to see a small glimpse of the scope that their ministry had spanned...village after village, churches had been planted.  It seemed like every place we passed, people came to the car seeking out a hug from "Hermano Heriberto".

He said that it was going to be like turning the clock back 300 years, and it was...

On the way to conference in Callancas, 2000.

He told story after story of sharing the Gospel in these villages, persecution that arose, and fruit that was born. He described how the people used the land...he knew the plants and what they were used for. I really wish I'd have been able to record it all.

One story I loved was about how he and Colleen would stand and sing in the squares to draw a crowd to preach the gospel to. One time a drunk man came up with a bill in his hand (I forget how much), and told them he'd pay them to shut up. Needless to say, they didn't take the money, and the didn't stop.

Warm reunion with a family in Granja Porcon, 2000.

There are so many memories, so many stories, so much I could say, but I'll leave you with this:

I recently visited with some friends from the church there, Centro Biblico, who now live in North Carolina. They said that someone had asked Bert why he was so happy, and he replied that he had not had a deep life of hours and hours spent in prayer, but that everything the Lord had put on his heart to do, he had done.

I would contest that his life could be described as nothing less than deep. Bert Elliot's life and example (along with Colleen's) has been one of the biggest human catalysts in my life, urging me to seek to really know the Lord, and to make Him known, to see every relationship as an opportunity to share His love, and to live in simple trust and obedience. May I never forget and never cease to strive for this.

Saying goodbye after a short week long visit in 2008.

*(I hope to do a "Part Two" with primarily pictures later on. I did not enter the digital age until 2007 so a myriad of pictures from Peru remain to be scanned.)