Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot

Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot

In January 1956, a tragic story flooded headlines around the world. Five men, spurred by a passion to share the good news of Jesus Christ, ventured deep into the jungles of Ecuador. Their goal: to make contact with an isolated tribe whose previous response to the outside world had been to attack all strangers.

At an agreed-upon time, their five young wives sat by their radios, waiting for a message that never came. . . .

Through Gates of Splendor, the story of Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Jim Elliot, was first recorded in 1956 by Jim's widow, Elisabeth. Decades later, its story of unconditional love and complete obedience to God still inspires new readers. This edition contains subsequent developments in the lives of the families and the Waodani tribe.

Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot's first book, has become the best-selling and most powerful missionary story of the twentieth century. Elliot has gone on to become a popular speaker and the author of several books and a host of magazine articles.

Read about the continuing story of the Waodani and the missionaries' families: This edition includes two preview chapters from End of the Spear, the new book by Steve Saint (Nate Saint's son), about his return to the jungle and the people who took his father's life. This story is now a major motion picture.

Elisabeth Elliot was born Elisabeth Howard to missionary parents who were serving in Belgium. Upon their return to the United States they settled in Pennsylvania and New Jersey before she began college at Wheaton College. It was there that she discovered her love for biblical Greek, a love that would ultimately lead to her making the New Testament accessible to some of those for whom it had not been previously accessible. Wheaton College is also where she met Jim Elliot, who she later married in Quito, Ecuador, where they were both serving as missionaries.

Jim and Elisabeth had one daughter, Valerie, who was ten months old when her father was killed by some Waorani men who he, along with four other missionaries, had been seeking to develop a relationship for gospel purposes. Elisabeth continued working with the Quichua people of Ecuador when, through a remarkable providence, she met two Waorani women with whom she and Valerie lived for a year. They were the key to Elisabeth and Valerie going to live with the tribe that had killed the five missionaries. They remained there for two years.

Elisabeth and Valerie returned to the Quichua work and remained there until 1963 when she and Valerie returned to the U.S. Subsequent to her return to the United States, her life was one of writing and speaking. It also included, in 1969, a marriage to Addison Leitch, professor at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts. He died in 1973. After his death she married Lars Gren, to whom she was married until her death on June 15, 2015 at her home in Magnolia, Massachusetts.

Elisabeth's influence continues to span generations through her daily radio program on air for many years and now re-airing in many locations, her rigorous conference schedule, including still referenced messages such as those from the Urbana But it is through her books that her reach spread the furthest. With millions of copies of 21 books in print over the years, one cannot begin to fathom the influence this one surrendered life had on the choices, godliness, and overall sanctification of millions.