One of the most consistent encouraging voices for me personally through this writing process was Luis Palau’s. Every time I ran into him, his first question was always, “Gilbert, how’s that book coming along?” He was convinced their story needed to be told. Here is an edited version of his comments at Bert and Colleen’s memorial service:
I listened carefully to what everybody said and nobody talked about Bert’s humor. I think he had a very wry, self-deprecating sense of humor. He came visiting our offices which are here in Portland five or six years ago. He seemed to be all laughter that day. The staff at our office remembers the humorous stuff that he told us, you know? Because we all honored him like many of you have said; we revered them. I, as a little boy—I was born in Argentina by the way, which is south of Peru, but we are sort of the Southern Cone and so the word gets around. We came to Christ through missionaries who also were Plymouth Brethren like Bert and Colleen. There were missionaries in Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile, and the Elliots, of course, in Peru were very famous in our circles. And then, when his brother Jim was killed, of course he became even more famous. But many people didn’t know about Bert and Colleen. And so, when he came to speak, he told us when he first arrived in Peru they had to room in a portioned-off part of the living room with another missionary couple on the other side of a flimsy sheet! And he said the wind sometimes would blow through, and you could see the other couple! And he said it was really hard to do—well… you know—what young couples want to do when there’s another one with just a divider between us! And then he told us that one of the first times he remembered when I saw her with the accordion and him playing with a guitar. He said, “I was a terrible singer.” [In fact Bert wasn’t a terrible singer. He had a good strong voice. They were often asked to sing duets together.] But, one day they were in the plaza in the park downtown. Colleen was playing the accordion and Bert was singing. And he said, “It was awful, but it drew the people.” And they came to listen. So, a drunkard walked up and pulled out a local peso (which is called a sol). He said, “Here, Gringo, take these ten soles but please, stop your lousy singing!” Bert loved that kind of story. So, one day when he was talking about planting churches—you know, we just heard from Dr. Dryden a few minutes ago that he planted a hundred and fifty churches! You say that in about three seconds! And I’ve been sitting here listening—you know, he was there over sixty years, right? And then he planted a hundred and fifty churches, and with all you visiting, I wondered—he must have planted about four a year! You try and do that, and I’ll give you a crown, you know? And so, I said to him, “You know, Bert,” (Because he was a humorous fellow - he was fun. I know none of you have mentioned it – maybe he was just funny with me.) But I said to him, “You know, your brother died when he was just starting as a missionary. He wasn’t—as far as I know—able to plant one church and he’s famous! You’ve planted a hundred and fifty churches and nobody knows you!” I said, “Bert, if you want to become famous, have yourself killed!” He said, “I don’t want to be famous,” he said. “I just want to plant another church!” He was so loving, you all have said that so I’m not going to repeat myself. But to me, I always looked forward to seeing him because he always had that twinkle in his eye. So, about ten years ago, we had a campaign in Lima. (I had been up to Trujillo once when he was there with Bill Conard who was a missionary that he also discipled, and always honored Bert Elliot. He worked on our team for a while; now he works with the Graham association.) We were having a big campaign in Lima. We knew it was going to be pretty big. And knowing that he had been there so many decades, I thought, “We’ve got to fly them down, so that they can be on the platform and see the crowds.” And so, we did. The Lord—I don’t know where we got the money—but, we flew them both down from Trujillo to Lima. We put them up in the nicest hotel that we could, because we wanted to honor them. The Bible says, “Honor to whom honor is due.” They were honorable! And so, we brought them on the platform—they were just holding hands. You know, it kind of makes you sick, because they loved each other so much. I said to him one day, “Man, you really love that woman.” He says, “Have you seen how pretty she is?” You know, and she is pretty as I looked at the pictures over there. They were spiritually beautiful. And then he said, “Well, you know, when you don’t have children, you can spend all your love on just her!” Which I thought was terrific. But anyway, to see them on the platform—there were three hundred thousand people down on Main Avenue in Lima those two days. We brought them on the platform to just sit here, and rejoice. And they were just crying like babies. Because he said, “I remember when there were only fourteen local churches in Lima, and look at the crowd now!” And somebody talked about a book should be written: I totally agree, and I’ll give any time and any effort if you all write the memories you have. We talked about writing it. In fact, when we brought them to Lima, we brought a youngish woman who was a pretty good writer to interview them and record the interview, so that we could write a book to the glory of God. But also, the Bible says, “Honor to whom honor is due.” You know, it’s right for them to give all the glory to the Lord, but it is also right for us to honor those who have honored the Lord like Colleen and Bert did. They recorded all the interviews, and the tape-recorder wasn’t working! It absolutely made me sick, but I thought maybe the Lord didn’t want us to write the book while they were alive. But now that they’re in heaven—alive, but not with us—maybe we should for the glory of God, and to encourage other people. But this morning in my reading—my devotions—was First Corinthians thirteen: “Love never fails.” Love never fails. And I thought, “Oh, well, how appropriate that we are going to remember Bert and Colleen today that love actually never did fail.” The thing to never forget is how they devoted themselves to Peru. When I walked in today and saw the Peruvian flag, I was really touched because my mom and my dad are in heaven thanks to missionaries. I honor missionaries because they brought us Jesus Christ. The missionaries brought us the Bible. The missionaries brought us eternal life! And my five sisters are all Christians because missionaries brought us the Gospel. I am going to heaven because a missionary led me to Jesus Christ. And in Latin America, we love missionaries, and we love those who helped missionaries, and we thank God for those of you who supported them financially, who visited and worked in those Chapels. And when I saw all the photos of Northern Peru, and what they did! (It’s so easy to say it, you know, they went up and down the rivers like it was a game. Those rivers up there are not fun! I mean, they’re fun once you look at the movies, but not when you’re there.) And to see what God did through this couple—what a privilege to have known them, and to honor their memory in the name of Jesus Christ! You know, missionaries like them, who taught me and my family and thousands of us Latins how to love the Word of God, how to truly be baptized like the Bible says, how to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, how to spread the Gospel and live for the Gospel of Jesus Christ—it was the example of people like Bert and Colleen, who just settled in a country and stayed there for life! I am not sure what you are going to do about burial for Colleen, but I know they wanted to be buried in Peru. It’s not going to be easy because the laws of the countries are tremendous along these lines. But I know they wanted to be buried there because they loved the country so much, and they loved the people so much, and that’s what missionaries mean to me and our family and millions of us! Now a days it has become fashionable to criticize missionaries and what they did. We get pretty alarmed at this. I get pretty angry when they criticize missionaries because they brought us the Lord. And just before Bert went to be with the Lord, I called Colleen two or three times before. (Jane was there also.) And two days before he went to be with the Lord, I called her up from Wheaton College – I was speaking at a Missions in Focus. And I said, “Colleen, how are things?” And she said, “Well, Luis, he doesn’t hear anymore, he’s not drinking, he’s not eating. But he’s surrounded by all the brothers and sisters who take care of him, and turn him over, and feed him.” They tried to feed him, anyway, at the end he wasn’t eating or anything. And I said, “Well, I want to use you guys as an illustration of Missions in Focus here at Wheaton College.” And she said to me, “Now, Louis, don’t you play us up too much!” She said, “You remember that we are here to honor the One Who deserves the honor. We are just nothing but servants of Jesus Christ.” And I thought, “Man, that says it all.” You know? I mean, two days from Bert going to be with the Lord and she’s stopping me from ‘playing him up too much,’ because she really knew how much we love them. But you know the one verse that comes into my mind and I’m through (though I have plenty to say, we still have a sermon to come) was the verse in Corinthians. And I really feel how they live for Christ! Second Corinthians four, where the apostle says, “We fix our eyes, not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen, because the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” They lived that way and they left a great example that the rest of our lives—we should live that way. Well, of course we live with the seen things. We have to take care of life. But we fix our eyes on the things that are unseen. So, to God be the glory! And we thank God for the memory of this wonderful couple. To you look at their picture – they’re just so loving, it makes you crazy! Till you want to give them a hug! You know, I know you Yankees don’t hug much, but we Latins hug a lot. And Bert – I especially loved to hug him; he was soft, and cuddly, you know? And you felt, “If I’ve ever got a problem, I’m talking to Bert Elliot, even if I have to fly down there.” Because, it was a blessing. So, praise God for a couple that honored our Savior so much and blessed us all so much.
Luis Palau joined Bert and Colleen in heaven in March 2021. About a year before he passed away I had the privilege of sharing with him the manuscript of Love So Amazing. He was thrilled to see that their story was soon to be told. We spent an hour together in his office reminiscing on the life and ministry of this special couple.