Giants of the Faith - A Christian History Podcast

Giants of the Faith is a bite-sized podcast where we’ll explore some of the great figures in Christian history. Expect to hear episodes on Luther, Augustine, Wesley, and more. Some of the folks we talk about will be familiar to you and some will probably not be but all are noteworthy in some way.

All Episodes

Giants of the Faith - A Christian History Podcast

Episode 47 - Elisabeth Elliot

June 13, 2022 • Season 3 • Episode 47

Send us feedback

In this episode we're looking at a woman who, in the face of great personal tragedy rose above her circumstances and experienced God doing a great work through her and her ministry. Today I'm joined by my favorite guest host - my wife Jennifer. It was her suggestion to profile Elisabeth Elliot next and she's going to take the lead on presenting Elisabeth's story.

RESOURCES

Inspirationalchristians.org: https://www.inspirationalchristians.org/evangelists/elisabeth-elliot-biography/

Elisabethelliot.org: https://elisabethelliot.org/about/

The Gospel Coalition: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-elisabeth-elliot/

Haven Today: https://haventoday.org/blog/life-legacy-elisabeth-elliot/

New Life Publishing: https://www.newlifepublishing.co.uk/articles/faith/elisabeth-elliot-the-missionary-who-lived-with-the-tribe-that-killed-her-husband/

IMB: https://www.imb.org/2019/07/23/missionaries-you-should-know-elisabeth-elliot/

ROBERT: Hello and welcome back to the Giants of the Faith podcast where we are focused on men and women from Church history who have made an impact for the Kingdom of God. My name is Robert Daniels and I'm the regular host of this show. In this episode we're looking at a woman who, in the face of great personal tragedy rose above her circumstances and experienced God doing a great work through her and her ministry. Today I'm joined by my favorite guest host - my wife Jennifer. It was her suggestion to profile Elisabeth next and she's going to take the lead on presenting Elisabeth's story.

JENINFER: Hi everybody, it's great to be back on the podcast.

Elisabeth Elliot was born Elisabeth Howard on December 27, 1926 to parents Phillip and Katherine. Here parents were foreign missionaries but after Elisabeth was born in Brussels, Belgium, the family moved back to the US to Germantown, Pennsylvania. Phillip became the editor of The Sunday School Times which was a curriculum publication used in churches across the country. The family grew and eventually included four boys and two girls. They moved around a bit - living in New Hampshire and New Jersey during Elisabeth's childhood.

By the time she was ready for college Elisabeth knew she wanted to enter the missions field herself. She enrolled at Wheaton College to study Greek. She planned to use her acquired language skills to help her translate the New Testament to people in remote regions of the world without access to the scriptures in their own tongue. At Wheaton Elisabeth met fellow student Jim Elliot. The two were part of missions work in Ecuador - separately at first but then together after their marriage in 1953. The couple had a daughter, Valerie, born in February, 1955.

The Elliots worked with, and lived with the Kichwa Indians until 1956. Their daughter Valerie was born in February, 1955. Jim began making preparations to make contact with the Acua (Awqa) tribe.

ROBERT: The Awqas, also known as the Huaoranis, are a group of people that lived in the Ecuadorian jungle and were previously uncontacted by the outside world. Awqa is the Kichwa word for savage and they were known to be a very violent people. They were basically a stone age tribe untouched by the modern world.

For months a team of missionaries - Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian, worked to initiate contact. They flew airplane missions over the jungle looking for Awqa settlements. They finally identified several locations and began flying over them. They developed a method of lowering gift bundles from the airplane and began dropping in presents - things like cookware, buttons, machetes, and more. They also brought along a bullhorn and used it to open a dialogue. They'd learned some Huaorani words from a Huaorani woman named Dayuma who had left her tribe and befriended Nate Saint's sister Rachel. The team setup a camp on a stretch of beach near the Huaorani settlements and slowly the native began to make contact. Things were friendly at first but soon turned deadly. Due to a misunderstanding or miscommunication the Huaorani soon attacked the missionary camp and killed all five men on January 8, 1956.

Elisabeth, in cooperation with the families of the other dead missionaries, put together an account of the mission trip and the effort to engage the Awqas. She compiled letters and stories from the men and in 1957 published what would be her best known book, Through the Gates of Splendor. 10 years later, in 1967, a documentary film was produced from the book which Elisabeth herself narrated and which included actual footage from the missionary cameras.

JENNIFER: After the death of the men their wives and families grieved, of course, but their sadness was tinged with joy. There was gladness among the group that their husbands had gone to glory doing the Lord's work. And among two women in particular, there was a steadfastness to continue the work.

After the completion of Through the Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint remained determined to reach the Huaorani people for Christ. They learned more of the Huaorani language and culture from three women that had left the tribe to live with and near the missionaries and had come to faith in Christ. Elisabeth and Rachel studied with them for almost a year until the three women decided to return home to their tribe. After only three weeks the three women returned to the missionary compound and brought seven other Huaroni with them. They'd come with an invitation for the missionaries to come visit the tribe.

Rachel and Elisabeth decided to accept the offer, believing that God would use them to reach these people. Many of the other missionaries tried to dissuade the women but they could not be deterred. Elisabeth loaded up her infant daughter on her back and the women set out to reach the Huaorani camp. They arrived on October 8, 1958, the date that would have been Jim and Elisabeth's fifth wedding anniversary. The Huaorani were friendly and welcoming even giving Elisabeth a friendly nickname, Woodpecker.

Eventually Elisabeth came to understand why the missionaries had been killed. The Huaorani told her that they were worried that the outsiders would take away their freedoms. They were worried that they would lose their liberties. In essence, as Elisabeth understood things, they were defending their homeland. And she could accept that.

After a year with the Huaorani - a year in which several tribesmen came to Christ - Elisabeth returned to the Kichwa where she remained until 1963 when she moved back to the United States and took up residence in New Hampshire.

ROBERT: Back in the US, Elisabeth continued her quest to spread the Gospel of Jesus. She went on to author two dozen books on subjects like suffering and loneliness, biblical woman and manhood, family, and more. She also spoke at many events and churches sharing her testimony and that of her husband.

In 1963 Elisabeth married Addison Leitch who was a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Unfortunately, Leitch died in 1973. Elisabeth went on to become an instructor at the seminary and for years taught a popular class called Christian Expression which encouraged students to take a Biblical view of God's love. She taught that

She also hosted the long-running radio show Gateway to Joy from the late 1980s until about 2001. For the last decade of her life she suffered from dementia until she died on June 15, 2015, at aged 88.

JENNIFER: Elisabeth is that rare woman who took a great tragedy and used it for the Lord. She directly impacted the lives of the Houarani people and inspired millions of others with her story. Then continued to use her platform to encourage and instruct Christians to live more fully for Christ. She continues to be an inspiration to us all.

ROBERT: And that's it for this episode of Giants of the Faith. Thanks very much for listening. Until next time, God bless.

RESOURCES