Lisa, five months pregnant with their daughter, was at home at the time with their two small boys. Todd Beamer died on 9/11 at the age of 32. Instead, Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Through the actions of Todd and other heroic passengers the terrorists were unable to run the plane into a strategic site and thereby murder many more people. He took a leading part in the group of passengers who bravely offered resistance. Traveling for his work on September 11, 2001, Todd was on United Airlines Flight 93, one of the planes that was taken over by terrorists. Variations on this pattern of a life have been repeated over and over again, most recently in the story of Todd and Lisa Beamer. Elisabeth Elliot even wrote a novel that was surprisingly candid and searching about the failings and dilemmas of missionaries, No Graven Image (1966). She went on to write more than a score of books in total, becoming for some years one of the most prominent figures in American evangelicalism. She lived among them in their remote world for two years.Įlisabeth's enduring ministry was not as a missionary, however, but rather as a writer. Along with Rachel Saint – the sister of Nate Saint, one of the other slain men – Elisabeth did fulfill their dream of bringing the gospel to the Waorani. One year later, Elisbeth Elliot had a second highly popular book, Shadow of the Almighty (1958).

It was also an immediate success, selling 175,000 copies in its first eight months. It was a gripping, powerful narrative which was inspiring without veering off into sentimentality. In the year following Jim's death her book about the tragedy appeared, Through Gates of Splendor (1957). And one would learn to write well.Ī widow and single mother at the age of 29, Elisabeth's response to her grief was to sit down and write. At Wheaton, one would study not only the Bible but also chemistry and anthropology, ancient history and the new physics. Its students were on fire to make their lives count 'for Christ and His Kingdom.' There were many other Christian colleges with no less spiritual fervor, but they were almost all Bible schools. Wheaton, however, was fervently evangelical. The other historic liberal arts colleges by then had mostly diluted or shed altogether their Christian identities. Wheaton College was itself a kind of curious wonder in the mid-twentieth century. Their relationship deepened as Jim came more and more to rely on her to help him translate Thucydides. They were both Classical Greek majors and would study together in the east wing of Blanchard Hall. Jim and Elisabeth had met as students at Wheaton College. His wife Elisabeth was taking care of their ten-month old daughter back at their mission station at the time. He and his colleagues longed to bring the gospel to this fierce and isolated Amazonian people. Because suffering is never for nothing.Jim Elliot, one of five men who in 1956 were speared to death by Waorani Indians, is the most famous American missionary of the twentieth century. This truth led Elisabeth to say, Whatever is in the cup that God is offering to me, whether it be pain and sorrow and suffering and grief along with the many more joys, I'm willing to take it because I trust Him. He has walked the ultimate path of suffering, and He has won victory on our behalf. Suffering and love are inexplicably linked, as God's love for His people is evidenced in His sending Jesus to carry our sins, griefs, and sufferings on the cross, sacrificially taking what was not His on Himself so that we would not be required to carry it. Why doesn't God do something about suffering? He has, He did, He is, and He will. Yet, it was in her deepest suffering that she learned the deepest lessons about God.

Her first husband, Jim, was murdered by the Waoroni people in Ecuador moments after he arrived in hopes of sharing the gospel. Elisabeth Elliot was no stranger to suffering. When we walk through suffering, it has the potential to devastate and destroy, or to be the gateway to gratitude and joy. Hard times come for all in life, with no real explanation.

No graven image elisabeth elliot