Ellen Santilli Vaughn

Elisabeth Elliot was a young missionary in Ecuador when members of a remote Amazonian indigenous people group killed her husband Jim and his four colleagues. And yet, she stayed in the jungle with her young daughter to minister to the very people who had thrown the spears, demonstrating the power of Christ’s forgiveness.
This courageous, no-nonsense Christian went on to write dozens of books, host a long-running radio show, and speak at conferences all over the world. She was a pillar of coherent, committed faith—a beloved and sometimes controversial icon. And while things in the limelight might have looked golden, her suffering continued refining her in many different and unexpected ways.
Her early years, related in Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, traced the transition of a young woman who dealt in “certainties” to the woman who lived with the unknown.
Now, being Elisabeth Elliot increasingly meant confronting how much she did not understand. She sought her reference point beyond her own experiences, always pondering what she called the “impenetrable mystery” of the interplay between God’s will and human choices.
And it is that strange mystery which shaped the rest of her startling life story.… (mer)

Elisabeth Elliot was a young missionary in Ecuador when members of a violent Amazonian tribe savagely speared her husband Jim and his four colleagues. Incredibly, prayerfully, Elisabeth took her toddler daughter, snakebite kit, Bible, and journal . . . and lived in the jungle with the Stone-Age people who killed her husband. Compelled by her friendship and forgiveness, many came to faith in Jesus.

This courageous, no-nonsense Christian went on to write dozens of books, host a long-running radio show, and speak at conferences all over the world. She was a pillar of coherent, committed faith; a beloved and sometimes controversial icon. In this authorized biography, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, bestselling author Ellen Vaughn uses Elisabeth’s private, unpublished journals, and candid interviews with her family and friends, to paint the adventures and misadventures God used to shape one of the most influential women in modern church history. It’s the story of a hilarious, sensual, brilliant, witty, self-deprecating, sensitive, radical, and surprisingly relatable person utterly submitted to doing God’s will, no matter how high the cost. For Elisabeth, the central question was not, “How does this make me feel?” but, simply, “is this true?” If so, then the next question was, “what do I need to do about it to obey God?”… (mer)

First sentence: "I feel perfectly certain that I shall never marry again," Elisabeth Elliot declared early in 1956. It had been nine days since her muscular young husband and his four fellow missionaries had been speared to death by members of a remote tribal people in the Amazon jungle.

This is the second volume of Ellen Vaughn's biography of Elisabeth Elliot. It is an authorized biography. Both volumes are authorized. She was granted access to materials that other biographers haven't been able to access--exclusive access. While other biographers have had access to some of her letters and published excerpts from her journals, Ellen Vaughn was granted access to LOTS of her journals.

There is no "one" Elisabeth Elliot--her spiritual and theological growth was ever-changing and ever-evolving. And the Elisabeth Elliot of later years--particularly the last two or three decades of her life--radically differs from earlier decades. She was something of a radical in the 1960s and 1970s. Not anti-establishment necessarily, but anti-evangelical establishment. What some refer to today as "big Eva." It wasn't so much that she questioned God, just how the evangelical church liked to box him in and speak for him.

This volume focuses on Elliot's "later years" focusing primarily on the years 1956-1978 (or 1979?). Essentially the biography begins to wind things up when she marries her third husband. A little is said of this time. It was very productive in creating the Elisabeth Elliot legacy--many of her most iconic works were published at this time. (Though not the most iconic, perhaps). But her third marriage...was....well, it came at great sacrifice. For example, if someone tells you I want to FENCE YOU IN ON ALL SIDES AND PROTECT YOU, you should probably give serious thought to what exactly they mean. Because it might not be as swoon-worthy and romantic as you might think.

The writing style worked so well. This was a QUICK read. The chapters were manageable (unlike that other Elliot biography I reviewed this year.) Each chapter seemed to have a purpose, a point.

Some of the content did surprise me. I didn't necessarily want to read the lusty, sensual side of Elisabeth Elliot. But it is a way of making sense of her later years and the decisions she made.… (mer)