Marjorie Saint Van Der Puy, 1923-2004

Marjorie Farris was born on June 11, 1923, in Missouri. After serving with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, she entered a training program for nursing at the California Lutheran Hospital in 1945. While studying there, she met Nate Saint through a mutual friend. Marj and Nate began corresponding in 1947 and were married on Valentine’s Day in 1948. After joining Mission Aviation Fellowship, the Saints were charged with opening a new mission field for MAF in Ecuador. While developing an aviation base in the remote village of Shell Mera with her husband, Marj coordinated the radio contact for Nate and other MAF pilots. The Saints had three children while stationed at Shell Mera – Kathy, Steve, and Philip.

After Nate’s death in January 1956, Marj stayed in Shell Mera until MAF pilot Hobey Lowrance and his wife arrived a few months later as interim replacements. Marj and her three children moved to Quito, where Marj ran the HCJB guest house, along with other mission activities. In September 1958, Marj flew out to Arajuno to visit Elisabeth Elliot while she anxiously waited for Dayuma to return from her first attempt to contact with her estranged kin group. Together Marj and Elisabeth greeted Dayuma, accompanied by nine other Waorani women and children, and heard of Dayuma’s successful reintegration into her Waorani kin group. In 1965, Marj returned to Palm Beach with her children, Rachel Saint, and the Christian Waorani community to commemorate the 10-year anniversary Nate Saint’s death. Her two oldest children, Kathy and Steve, along with Oncaye and Iniwa, were baptized in the Curarary River. A year later, Marj married Abraham Van der Puy, president of HCJB World Radio. The two continued to live in Quito until retiring to the United States. Marjorie Saint Van der Puy died in 2004.