Getting to Know Susan Ellis, Part Four
Life Lessons
Life Lessons
Susan Ellis and I co-authored Sacred Friendships. Readers of my blog know all about me. But what about Susan? I'd like to introduce you to Susan through several blogs interspersed over the next week or so.
For part one, please visit: http://bit.ly/2o33WZ. For part two, please visit: http://bit.ly/26MojZ. For part three, please visit: http://bit.ly/1fAmFc.
*Sacred Friendships examined the lives of women care-givers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Who stood out and what can we learn from these women heroes?
Catharine Brown
Catharine Brown was a Cherokee woman born around 1800. In her late teens, she learned about a school run by missionaries and asked her parents to let her go which they eventually did. When we read snippets of her writing or read what others had to say about her, we see an amazing young woman, humble beyond words, who loved and adored the Lord with every fiber of her being.
She loved her people as well and poured herself into her biological family and into the Cherokee nation, praying for them, ministering to them, being a godly example for them day in and day out, often at a great cost to her personal desires.
There’s no question that her life mattered. In the six short years between her conversion and her death she saw both parents, at least two brothers and a sister come to faith in Christ. And yet, if Rufus Anderson had not written a brief account of her conversion and short life no one today would ever have heard of her. As it is, I imagine very few people know anything about her.
That’s what’s so appealing about Catharine. Here was a woman who quietly committed herself to the Lord and lived for Him and those He put in her path. She wasn’t concerned about making a name for herself; in fact, she was quite embarrassed by the attention she did receive. She wasn’t looking for a more exciting ministry. She did what she could for the people in her life. She wasn’t waiting anxiously for the next book on spiritual disciplines to be published. She simply spent time with God.
One day she became so engaged in prayer for her brother that the entire day passed without her realizing it until it became dark. We don’t have to be famous or do something with a huge wow-factor to matter and have impact. We just have to be intimately connected to God. The rest will follow.
Betsy ten Boom
Betsy ten Boom is another woman who stands out. Her situation is very different from Catharine’s. Betsy grew up in a devoutly Christian home and found herself, along with her very well-know sister, Corrie, plunged into dire circumstances. Most people know that Corrie and Betsy were held in Nazi prison camps because they were part of an underground network that helped Jews escape the Nazis.
Most of us are also familiar with The Hiding Place, written by Corrie after her release from the camps. Unfortunately, Betsy did not survive the camps, but we learn a lot about her from Corrie. As Corrie unfolds their story, it becomes very apparent that Betsy’s faith is extraordinary. While Corrie was a believer before their time in the camps, her faith faltered along the way and Betsy basically discipled her in the midst of their living hell. Sometimes she very tenderly and compassionately eased Corrie’s fears and sometimes she absolutely insisted that Corrie do the right thing, no matter how hard or inane it seemed. Corrie eventually took that faith whole-heartedly as her own and went on to live out a life of reconciliation.
Betsy is a great example of a prepared life. She took her faith and her relationship with the Lord seriously and internalized it in the ordinary routine of a simple life. It was that preparation that empowered her to keep loving, to care about her enemies, and to provide soul care and spiritual direction to her sister. Betsy never knew this side of heaven just how much God used her. It’s a good reminder that we don’t always get to choose our circumstances and we don’t always get to see the results of our ministry.
*Of the over fifty women you write about in Sacred Friendships, do you have one or two “favorites” and why?
Amelia Sieveking
I truly came to love each of these women, but one I haven’t mentioned yet is Amelia Sieveking. She was a German woman who lived in the early-to-mid 1800’s. She was like a spiritual energizer bunny. She loved children and developed a free school so that underprivileged children could receive an education. Then she created a society to help the poor. The society was such a great success that similar societies sprung up around the country and even outside of Germany. If that wasn’t enough, when cholera broke out in her community, she literally lived at a cholera hospital for weeks in order to help the patients and assist the doctors.
It wasn’t so much what she accomplished, but how she was able to accomplish it that is so inspiring. She was devoted to the Lord and she took her marching orders from Him. In her autobiography we see how committed she was to her relationship with Jesus. She didn’t make decisions without Him. She knew His voice above all others and trusted that He would strengthen her to do whatever He called her to do. She cared about the things Jesus cares about…people. She was able to relate to people from all walks of life, from the penniless, uneducated woman in a tenement to royalty and she treated everyone with respect. While she was a compassionate and encouraging woman, she wasn’t afraid to confront.
The other thing about Amelia that I find particularly endearing and encouraging is that she was single, not because she didn’t have at least one serious offer, but because she refused to settle. I encounter a lot of single women and when they choose personal desire over God and marry a man with whom they are unequally yoked, it almost always ends in disaster. My hope and prayer is that single women of all ages will take Amelia’s example to heart. We all can learn from Amelia’s example because we all are tempted to let our personal desires win over God’s best for us from time to time.
Learn More
Learn more about Susan at her author website: http://www.eternalcommunity.org/.
Also, return to my blog in the coming days for more Susan Ellis author Q/A.
For part one, please visit: http://bit.ly/2o33WZ. For part two, please visit: http://bit.ly/26MojZ. For part three, please visit: http://bit.ly/1fAmFc.
*Sacred Friendships examined the lives of women care-givers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Who stood out and what can we learn from these women heroes?
Catharine Brown
Catharine Brown was a Cherokee woman born around 1800. In her late teens, she learned about a school run by missionaries and asked her parents to let her go which they eventually did. When we read snippets of her writing or read what others had to say about her, we see an amazing young woman, humble beyond words, who loved and adored the Lord with every fiber of her being.
She loved her people as well and poured herself into her biological family and into the Cherokee nation, praying for them, ministering to them, being a godly example for them day in and day out, often at a great cost to her personal desires.
There’s no question that her life mattered. In the six short years between her conversion and her death she saw both parents, at least two brothers and a sister come to faith in Christ. And yet, if Rufus Anderson had not written a brief account of her conversion and short life no one today would ever have heard of her. As it is, I imagine very few people know anything about her.
That’s what’s so appealing about Catharine. Here was a woman who quietly committed herself to the Lord and lived for Him and those He put in her path. She wasn’t concerned about making a name for herself; in fact, she was quite embarrassed by the attention she did receive. She wasn’t looking for a more exciting ministry. She did what she could for the people in her life. She wasn’t waiting anxiously for the next book on spiritual disciplines to be published. She simply spent time with God.
One day she became so engaged in prayer for her brother that the entire day passed without her realizing it until it became dark. We don’t have to be famous or do something with a huge wow-factor to matter and have impact. We just have to be intimately connected to God. The rest will follow.
Betsy ten Boom
Betsy ten Boom is another woman who stands out. Her situation is very different from Catharine’s. Betsy grew up in a devoutly Christian home and found herself, along with her very well-know sister, Corrie, plunged into dire circumstances. Most people know that Corrie and Betsy were held in Nazi prison camps because they were part of an underground network that helped Jews escape the Nazis.
Most of us are also familiar with The Hiding Place, written by Corrie after her release from the camps. Unfortunately, Betsy did not survive the camps, but we learn a lot about her from Corrie. As Corrie unfolds their story, it becomes very apparent that Betsy’s faith is extraordinary. While Corrie was a believer before their time in the camps, her faith faltered along the way and Betsy basically discipled her in the midst of their living hell. Sometimes she very tenderly and compassionately eased Corrie’s fears and sometimes she absolutely insisted that Corrie do the right thing, no matter how hard or inane it seemed. Corrie eventually took that faith whole-heartedly as her own and went on to live out a life of reconciliation.
Betsy is a great example of a prepared life. She took her faith and her relationship with the Lord seriously and internalized it in the ordinary routine of a simple life. It was that preparation that empowered her to keep loving, to care about her enemies, and to provide soul care and spiritual direction to her sister. Betsy never knew this side of heaven just how much God used her. It’s a good reminder that we don’t always get to choose our circumstances and we don’t always get to see the results of our ministry.
*Of the over fifty women you write about in Sacred Friendships, do you have one or two “favorites” and why?
Amelia Sieveking
I truly came to love each of these women, but one I haven’t mentioned yet is Amelia Sieveking. She was a German woman who lived in the early-to-mid 1800’s. She was like a spiritual energizer bunny. She loved children and developed a free school so that underprivileged children could receive an education. Then she created a society to help the poor. The society was such a great success that similar societies sprung up around the country and even outside of Germany. If that wasn’t enough, when cholera broke out in her community, she literally lived at a cholera hospital for weeks in order to help the patients and assist the doctors.
It wasn’t so much what she accomplished, but how she was able to accomplish it that is so inspiring. She was devoted to the Lord and she took her marching orders from Him. In her autobiography we see how committed she was to her relationship with Jesus. She didn’t make decisions without Him. She knew His voice above all others and trusted that He would strengthen her to do whatever He called her to do. She cared about the things Jesus cares about…people. She was able to relate to people from all walks of life, from the penniless, uneducated woman in a tenement to royalty and she treated everyone with respect. While she was a compassionate and encouraging woman, she wasn’t afraid to confront.
The other thing about Amelia that I find particularly endearing and encouraging is that she was single, not because she didn’t have at least one serious offer, but because she refused to settle. I encounter a lot of single women and when they choose personal desire over God and marry a man with whom they are unequally yoked, it almost always ends in disaster. My hope and prayer is that single women of all ages will take Amelia’s example to heart. We all can learn from Amelia’s example because we all are tempted to let our personal desires win over God’s best for us from time to time.
Learn More
Learn more about Susan at her author website: http://www.eternalcommunity.org/.
Also, return to my blog in the coming days for more Susan Ellis author Q/A.
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