The church would be impoverished if Joni Eareckson Tada was not a member of it. Christian history would be lacking if it did not involve the accounts of Marie Durand and Corrie Ten Boom. We would be missing out on much encouragement if its ranks did not include Amy Carmichael and Elisabeth Elliott. What binds these precious saints together is not first their common gender, but their common faithfulness in suffering. By facing trials in a distinctly Christian way, by ministering to others through their sorrows, by testifying to God’s light even in the deepest darkness, each of them has provided a testimony to God’s grace that has lifted many tired hands and strengthened many weakened knees. They have shown their fellow Christians how to suffer well and in that way provided much comfort to them.
Each of these women was called to a ministry that involved suffering and sorrow. This call ultimately came from God, for the trials they endured did not happen apart from his purpose and plan. The evil that befell them may have come by accidents or illnesses, by the spears of enemies or the conquests of Nazis. But none of it fell
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