Elisabeth Elliot: A Woman who Inspired a Generation

 This article was first published in French at TPSG and then in English at the Crossworld blog.

June 15 marks 6 years since Elisabeth Elliot went home to be with the Lord she had loved and served so faithfully. As we remember the life of this missionary statesmen, I am moved to share the role her story played in my own call to the nations.

 

Elisabeth Elliot Speaks at Moody’s Founder’s Week Bible Conference

I remember that night as if it were yesterday: Wednesday February 10, 2001. The anticipation was palpable as members of the Moody student body, the faculty, and the community assembled in the sanctuary of a nearby church. For that evening, at the midweek point of the Founder’s Week Bible conference, we would be hearing from a woman many of us considered a living legend. And she did not disappoint. With Matthew 16:24-25 as her text, Elisabeth Elliot spoke with power and conviction of the cost of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

 

 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

 

The three prerequisites for a life of service to Christ from this text, she explained, are:

 

1)   Give up our right to self

This commitment could be summarized, she added, in the statement, "He is my captain. He gives the orders. No questions asked."

2)    Take up our cross

For most modern Western ministers of the Gospel, she expounded, this will not mean martyrdom, but rather enduring the annoying things in life and persevering in small duties and that no one is going to notice.

3)    Follow 

“This takes sheer dogged endurance,” she testified. The motto of her local coast guard inspired her in this regard. It reads, "You have to go out. You don't have to come back."

Elisabeth Elliot’s Roots

What many may not know about Mrs. Elliot is that she was born in Brussels, Belgium, herself the daughter of missionaries. And five of the six children in her family went on to become missionaries. What a legacy! When the Lord led her parents back to service in the U.S., they welcomed missionaries so often over the years that 42 countries were represented in their home’s guestbook. I can just picture young Betty sitting around the dining table, hearing first-hand accounts of God’s work in distant lands. One such missionary her family hosted was Betty Stam, on route to China. 

Young Elisabeth Counts the Cost

At the age of 8, Elliot learned of the martyrdom by decapitation of John and Betty Stam in China. And rather than being dissuaded toward missions, she declared, “What a wonderful way to go!”

 

At age 18, Betty Stam had prayed:

 

“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, and work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost now and forever.” 

 

“At any cost.” These words sank deep into Elliot’s soul. That was the kind of missionary she wanted to be. 

 

The life and legacy of Amy Carmichael also left its imprint on Elliot, leading her to write a best-selling biography of this beloved saint. We remember Carmichael for two great works: rescuing countless little girls from sex slavery in Hindu temples, and writing prolifically following an injury that left her bedridden for the final 20 years of her life. 

 

Elisabeth Elliot Touched by Martyrdom

Upon completing her studies in Linguistics at Wheaton College, Elliot answered God’s call to missions, relocating as a single woman to a remote jungle in Ecuador. After five and a half years of waiting on the Lord, Jim Elliot finally asked her to marry him. Their shared vision for taking the Gospel to remote, unreached indigenous peoples led them to learn Quechua. But it was the untouched, isolated Aucas that they dreamed of taking the Good News to.

 

After years of praying and seeking an opening, the day finally came in which Jim Elliot and four other men flew in a tiny plane to the strip of sand closest to the village inhabited by Aucas. The men checked in with their families that first day over short-wave radio, reporting excitedly about their promising first contact. The long radio silence over the next days, however, proved that the tide had turned against them. A team of colleagues assembled to investigate. A five-day trek through the jungle confirmed their worst fears. All five men had been speared to death.

 

A Widow’s Response to Loss

What is so remarkable about this story is what followed. Elliot didn’t pack up her 10-month-old daughter and go home. Instead, she remained in her jungle station in Ecuador and continued the work the Lord had called her and husband to. She gave literacy classes to young girls and taught the Scriptures to the young men her husband had baptized.

 

All the while, Elliot prayed, “Lord, is there any possibility that you may be calling me to work among the Auca?” She knew her family and colleagues would think she was crazy. But a year after her husband’s death, the Lord answered her prayer and opened the door for her to live among the Aucas. You can read the rest of her remarkable story in her autobiography, “Through Gates of Splendor.” 

 

Two Conclusions

Elisabeth Elliot concluded her message that night with the following exhortation:

 

The will of God is always going to be different from our imaginings. It’ll be much bigger than we thought. It’ll be a good deal harder, but it will (and I am absolutely certain of this), for the obedient servant, be far more glorious than we could ever have dreamed. But that glory will be reserved until we get to heaven. It is a deep understanding and acceptance of the cross that will hold us steady in the toughest of times.

 

Well, to be honest, the quote above was near the end. But in her final thirty seconds, she addressed students with these blunt words on purity in typical Elisabeth Elliot fashion: “Keep your hands off. Keep your clothes on. And stay out of bed. God bless you.”:D

 

A few minutes later, I stood in line with my copy of “The Journals of Jim Elliot,” eager to meet this amazing woman and have her sign it. When my turn finally came, I gushed, “What an honour to meet you! You make me want to get my head chopped off for Jesus!” I don’t recall her exact words, but they were something like, “Well, that’s nice, dear.” 

 

Pray for the Next Generation

Countless thousands of men and women have answered to call to missions thanks to the death of Jim Elliot and his companions, and thanks to the life of Elisabeth Elliot. As we honour her memory, let us pray that the Lord would raise up a generation of disciple-makers with the strength of conviction to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. At any cost.