Christ is All!: Elisabeth Elliot Grew Up Less Than Four Miles From Where I Live!

Yesterday I was excited to learn that one of my favorite authors and Christian role models grew up less than four miles from where I live. Elisabeth Howard (later Elisabeth Elliot) grew up at 103 West Washington Lane in the Germantown area of Philadelphia. I took a field trip today to see what I could see and to meet who I could meet. Sadly, the home she grew up in is no longer there, but I got a picture with all of her books I own in front of the property where the house used to stand. A neighbor near the house kindly took my picture, and I was able to give her two of Elisabeth's books. I was also helped by another young man who lived nearby, and I was able to give him a book on the cross, a Gospel tract, and send him several of Elisabeth's books through the mail. His mom made a comment to the effect that this encounter we had was sent from God. God uses everything. Praise Him! Please pray that all of these people will read the books and pursue Christ as Elisabeth did.

In the picture above, her home is the left side of the duplex - the picture is from her book, The Shaping Of A Christian Family. Elisabeth wrote: "Over the front door bell button hung a little copper plate with these words:

Christ is the Head of this house,

The unseen Guest at every meal,

The silent Listener to every conversation."

Above is the property today. Only half of the duplex is still standing (101 West Washington Lane). The home where Elisabeth lived (103) had to be removed because of an unsafe collapsed wall from 2007, according to License and Inspection records. Google Street view shows it came down between 2014 and 2018.

In one of her talks, Elisabeth noted that when she was three years old, she sat in this house and heard the testimony of Betty Scott Stam. Betty was headed to China to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Later, Elisabeth heard from her father that Betty, along with her husband, was beheaded in China because of their bold witness to Jesus Christ and His life, death, burial, and resurrection. Betty's radical prayer was answered by God:

Lord, I give up my own plans and purposes, all my own desires, hopes and ambitions, and I accept Thy will for my life. I give up myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee, to be Thine forever. I hand over to Thy keeping all of my friendships; all the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart. Fill me now and seal me with Thy Spirit. Work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, for to me to live is Christ. Amen.

This photo of Elisabeth is taken from the article, "Peaches In Paradise: Why I Love Elisabeth Elliot" written by John Piper on the occasion of her departure to be with the Lord Jesus Christ on June 15, 2015.

The three photos above are of Sister Lena and I at "Birdsong" - this is the name of the home Elisabeth Howard grew up in at 3 Maple Avenue in Moorestown, NJ, after they moved from the Germantown home when Elisabeth was about 9 years old. This home is about 12 miles from where I live in Olney. Jim Elliot came to visit Elisabeth here on Christmas break in 1947 while they were at Wheaton College.

Above is a photo of the five widows and their children. Elisabeth's husband, Jim Elliot, along with four other missionaries, were speared to death by a tribe in Ecuador that they were trying to reach for Jesus Christ. After her husband's death, Elisabeth and her young daughter, Valerie, went to live with the very tribe and men who killed Elisabeth's husband in order to reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They departed for this mission on October 6th, 1958. Below is the letter she wrote to her supporters two days before she and her daughter left:

Eventually, many in the tribe came to faith in Jesus and began to follow Him. Elisabeth wrote this about her marriage to Jim and his death:

"Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him" (Isaiah 25:9) was the verse given us on our wedding day. We could not have waited in peace had we known that our marriage would last only 27 months. But God gives us our "daily bread" (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3), enough grace for a day at a time. When Jim died in January of 1956 the grace was there. He had gone with four missionary friends to take the gospel to a tribe called Auca, but they were taken for cannibals and speared to death.

Books were asked for then. The whole world was interested in that story, and that is how I began to write. I was a missionary before I married Jim and there was no reason to stop being a missionary when he died. I went ahead with the work we had been doing in the Quichua tribe, fitting in the writing whenever I could find the time. An opportunity came to go and live with the Aucas — I had "asked for it," I had prayed, "Lord, if there's anything you want me to do about them, show me, I'm yours," and He took me up on it. Of course I did not really expect Him to. I was a widow with a 10-month-old child. What could I do that five men did not do? But we went. Rachel Saint, the sister of one of the missionaries killed, went too. After two years in an Auca settlement Valerie and I went back to the Quichuas, then returned to the United States for her schooling when she reached fourth grade (Love Has A Price Tag, Pages 8-9).

She wrote this poem while in college:

Perhaps some future day, Lord,
Thy strong hand will lead me to the place
Where I must stand utterly alone;
Alone, Oh gracious Lover, but for Thee.

I shall be satisfied if I can see Jesus only.
I do not know Thy plan for years to come.
My spirit finds in Thee its perfect home: sufficiency.
Lord, all my desire is before Thee now.
Lead on no matter where, no matter how,
I trust in Thee.

As this article notes: "Thirteen years after Jim’s death, in 1969, she married a professor at Gordon Conwell, Addison Leitch, who was 18 years her senior. Three years after they married, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died less than a year later." Then, she married her third husband, Lars Gren, who was nine year her junior and a seminary student. You can read about her final days here, and watch memorial services for her at Wheaton College here and at Gordon College here.

Her books and lectures have helped me in some of my darkest times in life. Some of her other books include:

1. Passion And Purity: Learning To Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control (I have probably read this book more than any other book besides the Bible. She gave several talks on this same topic here.)

2. Quest For Love: True Stories Of Passion And Purity

3. A Path Through Suffering: Discovering The Relationship Between God's Mercy And Our Pain

4. Shadow Of The Almighty: The Life & Testament Of Jim Elliot

5. Through Gates Of Splendor

6. The Path Of Loneliness: Finding Your Way Through The Wilderness To God

7. Discipline: The Glad Surrender

8. Let Me Be A Woman

9. Elisabeth Elliot's two-part biography, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, and part 2, Being Elisabeth Elliot, was written by Ellen Vaughn

You can find all of her books here, and many other resources on her website here. You can learn more about Jim's death for the sake of the Gospel here.

By God's grace, may we follow Jim and Elisabeth as they followed Christ!

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

To learn more about the glorious Gospel of King Jesus that captivated both Jim and Elisabeth's hearts, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the whole documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

To learn more about Elisabeth Elliot and her remarkable story, see:

Through Gates Of Splendor

Beyond The Gates Of Splendor

Elisabeth Elliot Foundation Videos

Family Life Interview, Part 1

Family Life Interview, Part 2