A Real Christian Hero in MY Living Room!
By Theresa Bowen

My family has come to “know, respect and love Keitha Wittig—“Miss Keitha”—as we call her. Tall, stylish and recently turned 90, Miss Keitha, a retired missionary to Equador, is a faithful member of our church. We had heard “bits and snippets” of her life story—some connection to the young missionaries martyred by the Auca Indians in the 1950s… involvement with HCJB Christian radio… and a frequent reference to her late husband’s relocating a power plant from Washington state to Quito, Equador (How does one do that ?!!) So we called her up and invited her to dinner. When extending the invitation, I specifically asked if she would share with our children the story of God’s faithfulness in her life.

After dinner, we all gathered in the family room with a roaring fire and watched Through the Gates of Splendor, a documentary narrated by Elisabeth Elliot that chronicled the martyrdom of five American missionaries by the savage Auca Indians of Equador, and the subsequent conversion of some of them to Christ.

Miss Keitha watched with rapt attention: “That’s my kitchen—there, that was our home! Jim courted Elizabeth there at my kitchen table…” You see, her husband, a missionary pilot had served the same mission station as Nate Saint, who was home on furlough in ’52:

“It fell to my husband to welcome the young missionaries to the jungle,” she             explained. “He became a sort of ‘father figure’ to them. When we heard of their murder, we were back in the states on furlough. We couldn’t believe it. ‘Lord’, I prayed, ‘Why would you take those young men—the brightest and the best—leaving all those young children???’”

As she talked her voice trailed off and her gaze seemed distant, as if reliving the events of a half century before… Needless to say, our children were spellbound. They had heard the stories of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and the others, but Miss Keitha was right there at their table and she had known them and even questioned their deaths!?                    

“But after all these years,” she continued, “and after seeing so many of the ways that God has used the deaths of those young men to further his will, I trust Him more.”

Selah. It was a wonderful evening.

Looking back, I believe the evening was a blessing to Miss Keitha as well. Her eyes sparkled as she proudly recounted the story of her late husband finding an abandoned power plant while home in the states on furlough, of getting it donated, disassembling it, shipping it to Equador and reassembling it there where it was gratefully put to use. It also built a bond between her and our family having her in our home. She often asks us how we are doing and tells us she’s thinking of us.

There are many people in our lives and churches with stories to tell. These are the testimonies I want my children to hear—the testimonies of those who have lived long  and struggled and in the end concluded, “I trust Him more.”

These are the testimonies your children will grow up with when you intentionally invite godly men and women into your home and ask them to share their stories. Why, our church is less than 100 people and yet, we have had the opportunity, over and over again, to hear of God’s faithfulness.

I join the Rev Stephen Olford in praising “God for the enrichment that came through …
 godly men and women who passed through our home…”

Romans 12:13
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