STORY
Elizabeth Elliot
“You are loved with an everlasting love, that’s what the Bible says, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” These are the words Elizabeth Elliot repeated for many years to welcome listeners to her daily radio program. These words create a beautiful picture of being held like a child in the loving and mighty arms of our heavenly Father. Nothing can touch us that He doesn’t allow. These words can fill us with courage when we feel afraid, and Elizabeth Elliot was no stranger to life’s terrifying and tragic moments.
Elizabeth came to Lord at an early age and knew God was calling her to a life of ministry. She met the man who would become her husband, Jim Elliot, while they were both studying and preparing for missions work at Wheaton College. Both Elizabeth and Jim had been influenced by stories of missionaries who had suffered and died for their faith. And soon after they were married, they embarked on their own missionary adventure. They traveled with a small team into the remote jungles of Ecuador, and their desire was to connect with an unreached, tribal people group to share the gospel with them. They began by routinely dropping gifts from a small airplane over the area where the tribe lived, in hopes of showing they were coming as friends. When Jim and four other missionary men eventually tried to make contact with the tribe in person, they were brutally speared to death. Elizabeth’s husband was “slain by those they came to minister to” (elizabetheliiot.org). Earlier in his life, Jim Elliot had journaled these famous words which represent the hope he and Elizabeth had in the Gospel: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Many people would have given up after facing such tragedy and loss.
Surely Elizabeth had every reason to be afraid of what could happen to her if she went back to those jungles. But Elizabeth believed God was calling her to return to the same people group who had killed her beloved husband, and bring them the good news about Jesus. Her mission was not over. Elizabeth knew her life was held in the hands of the God she trusted, and two years after Jim’s death, Elizabeth and her young daughter returned to the jungles of Ecuador to live among the tribal people and continue in the ministry she and her husband had begun together. As she lived with the tribe and learned their language, Elizabeth was able to tell Bible stories and lead people to faith in Jesus. One of these converts was one of the men who had murdered her husband and his friends.
After returning home to the United States, Elizabeth continued a life of ministry. She authored over 20 books and was a respected Bible teacher and speaker for many years. Elizabeth reflected, “The deepest things I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering. And out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things I know about God.” Elizabeth lived to tell others about these deep truths of God. She faithfully taught and wrote about the goodness and faithfulness of God, and encouraged listeners to trust Him wholeheartedly. Elizabeth’s life is marked by bravery, not because she was never afraid, but because she chose to put her trust in a God who she knew was trustworthy.
