Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; December 21, 1926 – June 15, 2015) was an American Christian missionary, author, and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Waorani people of eastern Ecuador. She later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband. After living in South America for many years, she returned to the United States, wrote over 20 books, and became widely known as an author and a speaker. Elliot toured the country well into her seventies, sharing her knowledge and talking about her experience.

Early life and education Elisabeth Elliot was born Elisabeth Howard in Brussels, Belgium, on December 21, 1926; her family included her missionary parents, four brothers, and one sister. Elisabeth's brothers, Thomas Howard and David Howard, are also authors.

Her family moved to the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when she was a few months old. In addition to Philadelphia, she lived in Franconia, New Hampshire, and Moorestown, New Jersey. She studied Classical Greek at Wheaton College, believing that it was the best tool to help her with the calling of ultimately translating the New Testament of the Bible into an unknown language.

It was at Wheaton that she met Jim Elliot. Before their marriage, Elisabeth completed a year of specialized post-graduate studies at the Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta where a campus prayer chapel was later named in her honor. Jim Elliot and Elisabeth Howard individually went to Ecuador to work with the Tsáchila.

Career After she married Elliot, she joined him in his work with the Quichua (or Quechua) indigenous people; the two married in Quito in 1953. In January 1956, her husband was speared to death along with four of his missionary friends while they were attempting to contact the Waorani people. Their daughter Valerie (born on February 27, 1955) was 10 months old when her father was killed. Elisabeth continued her work with the Quichua for two more years.

Two Waorani women living among the Quichua, including one named Dayuma, taught the Waorani language to Elisabeth and fellow missionary Rachel Saint. When Dayuma returned to the Waorani, she created an opening for contact by the missionaries. In October 1958, Elisabeth went to live with the Waorani with her three-year-old daughter Valerie and Saint. The Waorani gave her the tribal name , Wao for 'woodpecker'. She later returned to the Quichua and worked with them until 1963, when she and Valerie returned to Franconia, New Hampshire. Leitch died in 1973. In the fall of 1974, she became an adjunct professor on the faculty of Gordon–Conwell and for several years taught a course entitled "Christian Expression". In 1977, she married Lars Gren, a hospital chaplain. In 1981, Elisabeth was appointed writer-in-residence at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. From 1988 to 2001, she could be heard on a daily radio program, Gateway to Joy, produced by the Good News Broadcasting Association of Lincoln, Nebraska. She almost always opened the program with the phrase You are loved with an everlasting love,' – that's what the Bible says – 'and underneath are the everlasting arms.' This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot..." Today re-runs of the program may be heard over the Bible Broadcasting Network.

Later life and death Elisabeth Elliot suffered from dementia during the last ten years of her life and stopped giving public presentations in 2004. She died in Magnolia, Massachusetts, on June 15, 2015. She was survived by Lars Gren; a daughter, Valerie Elliot Shepard; Valerie's husband Walter; and eight grandchildren.