Author and Missionary Elisabeth Elliot Passed Away

By Timothy Yap Jun 16, 2015 03:13 AM EDT

Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; born December 21, 1926) died this Monday morning (June 15, 2015) at the age of 88. She was a Christian author and speaker whose husband, Jim, was killed during their short-lived but legendary missionary work among unreached tribes in eastern Ecuador in the 1950s. She had been suffering from dementia.

She wrote two books about her husband's martyrdom and the years she and her newborn daughter spent living among the Aucas, the tribe that killed him. Her "Through Gates of Splendor" had became a bestseller, as did "Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testimony of Jim Elliot." Those became the definitive inspirational mission stories for the second half of the 20th century," said Kathryn Long, professor of history at Wheaton College. "She really had a sense of her audience as evangelicals, and she could tell this story in a way that keyed into [their] values."

Here is her brief testimony, told in her typically understated way:

My parents were missionaries in Belgium where I was born. When I was a few months old, we came to the U.S. and lived in Germantown, not far from Philadelphia, where my father became an editor of the Sunday School Times. . . .

Our family continued to live in Philadelphia and then in New Jersey until I left home to attend Wheaton College. By that time, the family had increased to four brothers and one sister. My studies in classical Greek would one day enable me to work in the area of unwritten languages to develop a form of writing.

A year after I went to Ecuador, Jim Elliot, whom I had met at Wheaton, also entered tribal areas with the Quichua Indians. In nineteen fifty three we were married in the city of Quito and continued our work together. Jim had always hoped to have the opportunity to enter the territory of an unreached tribe. The Aucas were in that category-a fierce group whom no one had succeeded in meeting without being killed. After the discovery of their whereabouts, Jim and four other missionaries entered Auca territory. After a friendly contact with three of the tribe, they were speared to death.

Our daughter Valerie was 10 months old when Jim was killed. I continued working with the Quichua Indians when, through a remarkable providence, I met two Auca women who lived with me for one year. They were the key to my going in to live with the tribe that had killed the five missionaries. I remained there for two years.

After having worked for two years with the Aucas, I returned to the Quichua work and remained there until 1963 when Valerie and I returned to the U.S.

Since then, my life has been one of writing and speaking. It also included, in 1969, a marriage to Addison Leitch, professor of theology at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts. He died in 1973. After his death I had two lodgers in my home. One of them married my daughter, the other one, Lars Gren, married me. Since then we have worked together.