Portraits of Courage – Elisabeth Elliot

It is a Christian biography of Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015), the missionary and writer whose husband Jim was killed with four other men by the Waorani of Ecuador in January 1956. It follows her whole life: her childhood in a Bible-centred home, Wheaton and the long courtship, her first missionary work, Shandia, the deaths on the Curaray, her years living among the Waorani, her return to America, her books and broadcasts, her second and third marriages, and her death in 2015.

Elisabeth Howard was born in Brussels in 1926 to American missionary parents and grew up near Philadelphia. She studied Greek at Wheaton College to become a Bible translator, went to Ecuador in 1952, and married Jim Elliot there in 1953. After his death she lived among the Waorani, then returned to the United States in 1963 and became one of the most widely read Christian writers and speakers of her generation, through books such as Through Gates of Splendor and Passion and Purity and the radio programme Gateway to Joy.

No. It is an independent biography, not published by, affiliated with, or endorsed by her family, her estate, or any company that holds rights in her writings. Her books are still in copyright and should be obtained from their publishers. This book tells her life in its own words and does not quote her writings.

The Key Teachings of Elisabeth Elliot sets out what she taught: the sovereignty and love of God, doing the next thing, suffering offered back to God, obedience, discipline, purity, loneliness and the quiet heart. This book is a narrative life. It tells what happened to her and to the people around her, and touches her teaching only where it is part of the story.

She had gone to Ecuador to give an unwritten people the Scriptures, and after Jim’s death she believed the work he had died attempting was still God’s work. In 1957 two Waorani women came out of the forest and lived in her home, where she learned their language. In October 1958 she went with them, with her three-year-old daughter Valerie and with Rachel Saint, to live among the Waorani, including men who had taken part in the killings.

Each chapter opens with a passage from the King James Version that carries its theme, and further passages are woven through the story. The appendices include lessons from her life, each resting on Scripture, a chapter-by-chapter study guide and a chronology.