These Strange Ashes: Is God Still in Charge?

Here goes a feeble effort to summarize a book I just finished reading. I am neither expressive like my brother, Bob, poetic like my brother Dan, succinct like my brother Tim, or eloquent like my sister-in-law, Ruth, but I humbly offer my very short summary, opinion, and lessons learned from this book.

In her book, These Strange Ashes, Elisabeth Elliot Gren shares the memories of her first year as a single missionary in the jungles of Ecuador. When Elisabeth first arrived, she was stationed for 6 months in the larger city of Quito, where she studied Spanish along with several other single missionary candidates including Jim Elliot. After those months of training she went off to the jungles of the Colorado Indians, while Jim went the opposite direction to the Quichua Indians.

Elisabeth and 3 other single missionary women were stationed in a little village (really nothing more than a clearing) called San Miguel de los Colorados. The difficulties of the living situation are far beyond what any of us could imagine, and Elisabeth found herself immediately frustrated with the great amount of time spent “surviving” and the small amount of time spent “ministering.”

During her year, she learned 4 major lessons. Each lesson was accompanied with a difficult experience that tested her faith. The first lesson came after the death of a village woman whose family was very much against the Evangelicos. Elisabeth began to question God. Why would He let this woman die when He knew there was so much at stake in the situation? Did He not care that they were the ones to administer medical care, the ones that would be blamed for her death? Elisabeth said that as she questioned she seemed to look into an abyss, finding “nothing there but darkness and silence.” It was sometime later that she was able to accept that God’s ways are not man’s ways. That God sees the whole picture, not just what is immediately visible to our concept however righteous our concept might be.

The second lesson came after the murder of her primary language informant. God had sent Macario to her in direct response to prayer. He spoke both the Indian language and Spanish fluently and helped Elisabeth begin putting the Indian language into written form. Elisabeth was devastated. How could the work of the language continue without such a person? It was during this time that she learned lesson two: the lesson of “bow[ing] down before that which I could not possibly explain.” “Faith’s most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain.”

Lesson three came at greater personal loss. After Jim’s proposal to Elisabeth, she had given her all to completing the alphabet for the Tsahfihki language in order to finish as quickly as possible and move to Jim’s area of Ecuador to begin language training there. Through many difficulties and trials, as she no longer had a formal informant, Elisabeth finally succeeded in completing the alphabet on June 16, 1953. She then trained the other missionary woman in the alphabet, the phrases she had learned, and the pronunciation so that they could begin teaching the Indians how to read their own language. She was then transferred to the Eastern jungle to begin learning Quichua. Shortly after her arrival, she received word that the entire alphabet, all of her notes, charts, and files, had been stolen. Everything for which she had just dedicated the last 10 months of her life was gone. “Why dost thou hide thyself in times of trouble?” She begged to have an answer. It was then that she realized that “to be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross.” … “There is a certain reticence to infer that our little troubles may actually be the vehicles to bring us to God.” It took Elisabeth some time to realize that God had possibly allowed this to break her own heart, to prepare her for harder things to come.

The fourth lesson actually came through experiences that Jim encountered. Shortly after their engagement and Elisabeth’s move to the Eastern jungle, Jim contacted them by radio with the sad news that all of his hard physical labor (of his entire first year) of building missionary homes and buildings had been washed away in a flood. Elisabeth’s heart cried out to the Lord again, asking why He would allow such things to happen when they were giving their all to Him. The answer seemed to come through to her aching heart: “faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements. We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world’s woes. What we are offered has to do with another world altogether.”

Elisabeth says that many times God used hymns to sustain her during times of testing and trial One hymn that became dear to Elisabeth during dark times and encouraged her faith when it seemed there was nothing to cling to is by Georg Nuemark.

If thou but suffer God to guide thee and hope in Him through all thy ways

He’ll give thee strength whate’er betide thee and bear thee through the evil days;

Who trust in God’s unchanging love builds on a rock that naught can move.

Obey, thou restless heart, be still, and wait in cheerful hope, content

To take whate’er His gracious will, His all-discerning love, hath sent;

Nor doubt our inmost wants are known to Him who chose us for His own.

Sing, pray, and swerve not from His ways, but do thine own part faithfully.

Trust His rich promises of grace, so shall they be fulfilled in thee.

God never yet forsook in need the soul that trusted Him indeed.

Georg Neumark

Though I feel guilty giving any frank opinion of Elisabeth Elliot’s writings, I, while humbly recognizing that in no way could I write (or live) like she does and has, feel that this book is basically a haphazard attempt to recall events of her first year on the mission field and derive some lessons from them. It is more journalistic in nature and seems to jump from one story or event to the next. The continuity of the book seems somewhat lost in the recollections of many years past. However, I was reminded of my own selfishness and lack of trust in God and His sovereignty. Certainly the things that she had to endure strengthened her faith in God and helped mold her into the remarkable woman that she became. If I could have but a portion of her knowledge and love of/for God, I would be grateful. She is truly a woman that God has used greatly in thousands upon thousands of lives. I highly recommend the book, as it is an encouragement to see that such a great woman struggled with many of the same things I struggle with--just in a different environment.