Monday, June 22, 2015

Amazing grace: Thomas Howard's sister, Elisabeth Elliot, dies

Elisabeth Elliot, the sister of Catholic convert Thomas Howard (author of Evangelical Is Not Enough, On Being Catholic, and Lead, Kindly Light), had a remarkable life. One of the most influential Evangelical authors and speakers of the 20th century, her husband was killed during their short-lived but legendary mission work among unreached tribes in eastern Ecuador in the 1950s, along with several other men who chose to die rather than use their firearms, because, as one of them said, their attackers were less prepared to meet their Maker than they were.

Elliot's book, Through Gates of Splendor, relates this remarkable story, about which the following gripping film was also made:


Even more remarkably, in a daring adventure of breath-taking commitment, Elliot (accompanied only by her daughter), returned to continue a ministry of Christian forgiveness and share the Gospel with those who had killed her husband and those of several other widowed women who returned to the United States. The result was the conversions of many to Christ and a remarkable transformation of the tribe from one engaged in continual blood letting to a peaceable people changed by the power of forgiveness.

The magazine, Christianity Today (June 15, 2015), has a substantial article on Elliot HERE.

[Hat tip to JM]

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