Lettie Cowman left a legacy of faith when she died on Easter Sunday, 1960.
I knew little about her life when I began researching in 2019.
Many people have heard about Streams in the Desert, the devotional she published in 1924.
That’s 1924.
It hasn’t been out of print since first published nearly 100 years ago.
But, my jaw dropped when I discovered Streams in the Desert is only the hinge of her life.
She was so much more–both before and after–1924.
What is a legacy of faith?
Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” according to Hebrews 11:1.
A person’s legacy is the mark they leave on the world–whether it’s an inheritance, books, joy, friendships.
A faith legacy is the people we leave behind when we die–who carry our faith forward into, well, eternity.
The president of a missionary organization once reminded me that everyone who is a Christian heard the “old, old story,” from someone else.
The Word of God may have spoken to them through reading the Bible.
But most of the time, a legacy of faith comes when someone loves you enough to explain the truth of salvation through Jesus’s death on the cross.
I, personally, am the product of people praying for their descendents. I saw a letter once, written by my grandmother five generations back, praying for those of us who would come.
I’m honored to be a part of that chain–and surprised, as well.
But, I saw it even more clearly while researching Lettie Cowman’s life for my new biography, Overflowing Faith: Streams in the Desert and Lettie Cowman.
Frankly, it didn’t take much digging to learn about the many lives she personally touched.
What kind of a legacy of faith did Lettie leave behind?
Return with me to a research trip in fall, 2019.
I sat on the floor in the One Mission Society (OMS) archives leafing through hundreds of old photographs.
Littered around me were all sorts of pictures: massive groupings before a Bible school; small bands of missionaries; and a rich photo of jubilant adults preparing to step into a canvas baptismal font.
All those faces–some in sharp detail, others blurred small in the background– shone with the joy of their new found salvation.
Many people dressed in white and proudly held Bibles. I smiled back, rejoicing in their happiness.
The years spanned 1925 to 1950.
As I mentally reviewed that particular nation’s history, it hit me. Most of these people were dead.
Grim and drastic events destroyed the converts: wars, sieges, invasions, starvation, and misery.
Many of these brothers and sisters were martyred because of Jesus.
Their deaths were a legacy of faith.
My face crumpled that day and tears rose. But the Holy Spirit whispered, “You’ll meet them in heaven one day. You’ll know their names and will rejoice with them.”
How can martyrs be a legacy of faith?
They refused to back down when evil stalked their lands.
Many people–both the nationals and those who came from overseas–died because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
Some were beheaded. Others starved.
It still goes on today all over the world.
But as I examined the photos, my mind reminded me on that day, they shone with happiness.
Today they wait in Paradise rejoicing in eternal life because of a woman born on an American prairie farm in 1870.
Lettie Cowman, a contemporary of Laura Ingalls Wilder, seized that same faith in Jesus as a young woman.
For a month or so, she worried her new-found faith might destroy her marriage.
But her husband adored her and with a stony face attended a gospel service with her.
He didn’t react while they walked home afterward through the streets of 1892 Chicago.
But Charles Cowman couldn’t escape his family’s legacy of faith.
That night, he bowed his knees and submitted to the same God Lettie loved.
You could say his martyrdom came after he, too, focused everything on spreading the news of his faith.
In his case, it took a heart attack–but from that suffering, Lettie Cowman wrote Streams in the Desert.
How? Why?
How did a farm girl from rural Iowa influence the lives of headhunters, emperors, Laplanders, and countless people of languages and cultures around the globe?
Including her husband.
And why?
What can we learn from her life?
Who was Lettie Cowman?
Overflowing Faith tells the whole story.
You can read more about Lettie, Streams in the Desert, and the OMS starting here.
Tweetables
A new biography and the eternal legacy of a great faith. Click to Tweet
Streams in the Desert’s author and Overflowing Faith. Click to Tweet
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?