Elisabeth Elliot and her husband Jim were missionaries in Ecuador, and their daughter Valerie was born in 1955. In 1956, Jim and his fellow missionaries were killed by the Waorani people they had been trying to reach with the gospel. Elisabeth could have gone home. Instead she kept serving among the Quichua people, and in the fall of 1958 she, little Valerie, and fellow missionary Rachel Saint were invited to live among the very people who had killed her husband. She went, carrying the love of the same Savior her husband had died trying to share.
Daryl Davis is a Black blues musician who first met a Klansman after a gig, when a white man came up to say he’d never heard a Black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. They got to talking, and the man pulled out his Klan card. Instead of walking away, Daryl got curious. For about 30 years he went around the country sitting down with Klan members and leaders, studying up so he could talk with them, and asking one simple question: how can you hate me when you don’t even know me? Friendships grew out of those conversations, and Daryl says about 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. He’s quick to say he didn’t convert anybody. They saw the light and changed themselves.
Julio Diaz was a 31-year-old social worker in the Bronx who always got off the subway one stop early so he could eat at his favorite diner. One night in early 2008, a teenager pulled a knife on him on the platform and took his wallet. Julio handed it over, then called after the kid and offered him his coat too, since it was cold out. The boy was stunned and asked him why. Julio said if you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, you must really need help, and he invited him to dinner. At the diner, the kid noticed Julio was even kind to the dishwasher and said he didn’t think people actually acted that way. When the bill came, the boy gave the wallet back, Julio gave him $20, and the teenager handed over his knife.
