Lisa Barry: Today on Gateway To Joy, we're going to take a journey vicariously with Elisabeth Elliot as she reads from her travel journal. And what you'll like about these entries are the vivid pictures that form in your mind as she describes the landscape, the people and the happenings. First, we'll finish up a trip to India and then move on to another undisclosed destination.

Why take such an approach in this series? Because I think you'll see throughout each journey the special provisions God made for Elisabeth and her husband, Lars. Once you've done that, maybe your own faith will be strengthened to trust God with your situation. Let's get started on our second leg of the journey on this Tuesday edition of Gateway To Joy. Here's Elisabeth.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking with you again today about journeys with God, reviewing with you some of the faithfulness of God-the wonderful ways in which God went before us and blessed us and helped us in our overseas travels last year. We had more overseas travel in 1997 than we have ever had at any time.

It is a very great privilege. It does entail some uncertainties. I was describing the difficulties that we had yesterday with the lady who had been corresponding with us. We did have a time before we could find out where we were supposed to fly to.

Then I told about a very strange message that I got early in the morning at our hotel room. The phone rang and a voice said, "Newspaper door open." I said, "I beg your pardon?" "Newspaper door open." Well, I sort of guessed that I should open the door. So I opened the door, and there stood a little boy with a newspaper. Amazing!

We made a trip to the hospital to see the fiance of our lovely guide, whose name was Princess Nahomi. We saw the usual crowded villages, garbage, people, tamarind trees, bicycles, motorcycles, auto rickshaws, huge trucks and buses which blast their horns continuously, because we were told that if a man has not blown his horn and happens to hit somebody, then of course it's his fault. So the thing to do is to just blow the horn continuously.

Men in long white skirts called "dhotis." A truckload of apparently dead bullocks (or were they caribous?) piled on top of each other. It turned out later that they were not dead and they were water buffaloes. But they were lying on their sides with their heads hanging more or less over the back of the truck. It was really a horrifying sight, stacked up like cordwood.

May 7. 4:45 a.m. in the railroad station in Coimbatore. Several women sit on the floor, combing their own and their children's hair, applying face cream also. Two women lie on top of a table, one of them with a baby prone on her chest; all of them sound asleep. We went to bed at 10:15. I was awake till after 12:00. We got up at 2:30. Tom, our escort, is with us. Thank God!

Princess' parents came to the hotel to bid us good-bye at 3 a.m., not having been to bed at all. They had just bidden good-bye to the 200 ladies at the conference on four buses headed south. As we drove here in a taxi, we came through sidestreets lines with tiny hovels, and the occupants lay in the street, which was very narrow-only a dirt road with many bumps.

The people are able to sleep anywhere. No pillows, usually shrouded head to toe like corpses. They were all over the train stations. Dozens of auto rickshaws stand at the entrace to the station, their drivers lying curled asleep on the cement.

A scarecrow in a rice field was wearing a sari. That's that beautiful Indian dress that women wear. A band of monkeys was capering in an empty, windowless house. Our train trip of nearly ten hours was over. Now we find that our flight out of Madras for Bombay was canceled because we failed to confirm. Correction-our reserved seats were canceled. We rode in an auto rickshaw through the streets from the train station to the airport.

Well, our next trip was a month later, one of those countries not very hospital to Christians. There are many expatriots there who are teaching English. A small group of American women had asked me to come to their annual get-together in a hotel in a big city. I think my listeners understand that there are some countries that really do not wish to have foreigners, especially Americans, and it presents some major problems for those who would like to take the Gospel there.

We arrived at 12:45 a.m. eastern daylight time. I wrote in my journal, "I have no idea what time it is here. For hours we've passed over vast tundras with puddles of various sizes, then great stretches of sea with weird patterns of broken ice. More tundra, snow. Now low mountains, striped with snow, and a large body of open water to the east and south."

June 1 is my diary entry. A very luxurious hotel, far better than most U.S. hotels. I was to speak at 9:30 in the morning to 12:00 here in the hotel. A group of women had come for a brunch.

I was rereading bits from my old favorite, de Caussade, and this is what he said: "The holiness of lives is mysterious in its simplicity and humility." Here I was, in this foreign country, thinking about dear old Mrs. Kershaw, a dear lady who was a blessing in our home as sort of a maid, but just a dear, poor widow who came every day to help my mother. She was just nothing but a ray of sunshine every day. I thought of Mom Cunningham. I think of these saints of God wh have so blessed my life.

Christ disguises Himself, de Caussade says, "In order to raise souls up to that perfect faith which will discover Him under every kind of disguise." Have you learned to see Christ in your husband, in your children, in that difficult neighbor? We're supposed to learn to discover Christ under every kind of disguise.

I'm reminded of the hippie couple who appeared at my door at a very inopportune moment one time many years ago, and how often do I actually consciously see Christ in people like that. "O divine love," says de Caussade, "conceal yourself. Leap over our suffering. Make us obedient."

What contrasts we saw in that country! Women sweeping the streets with homemade twig brooms. And on the same street, heavy equipment, and around many building sites and skyscrapers, there were cranes everywhere. It seemed as though there were cranes everywhere, skyscrapers going up, buildings being demolished, traffic. Half the traffic was cars, trucks and buses. The other half, it seemed to me, if I could have counted, were bicycles and hand carts and motorbikes and wagons.

I began then to pray constantly that the Lord would enable me to see Christ in these people and to help these women to whom I was to speak to see Christ in all those to whom God had sent them. I gave them those words from de Caussade: "Christ disguises Himself in order to raise souls up to that perfect faith which will discover Him under every kind of disguise."

I'm sure you remember that when Malcolm Muggeridge interviewed Mother Theresa and asked her why she did what she did-going around and picking up people who were dying from the streets in Calcutta-her answer was a very simple one: "We try to do for them what we would like to do for Jesus, if we could see Him."

More of my journal. Yesterday afternoon, with Cathy's young university women. All speak English. They have made a commitment to Christ, which means great danger for them. Six were called in for questioning recently. I've learned since we left that country that one of those six had been expelled from the country because she had become a Christian.

Cathy's house was a tiny apartment, dismal, badly in need of all sorts of repair, and cramped. But what a charming, sweet, happy crew of young women were waiting for me when we got there!

Then I spoke the next day to two university classes. I said to my hostess, "What am I allowed to say here? Surely I'm not allowed to mention Christian missions." They said, "No. Try to avoid words like that." They gave me a list of code words. I said, "I can't do this. I'm sure that I'm going to blow it. I'm going to blow your cover." Finally, they just said, "You just go ahead and say anything you want to say. They can't very well kick you out of the country."

So I told the story of my missionary work in Ecuador with the Auca Indians. That day we had boiled dumplings for lunch. We went to several-I wish I could tell you exactly what they were, but it would be best if I don't reveal what country we were in. Then I had time with another group of Americans in a hotel room, eagerly asking me for my wisdom. I said, "Lord, who is sufficient for these things? Help me to give them words which will be helpful to strengthen and encourage them in what seems to me an impossible job."

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you about our trip from that place to another place, which was very different indeed.

Lisa Barry: As we say good-bye for today, I want to offer you a chance to purchase this fascinating series for yourself. It's called JOURNEYS WITH GOD and the cost is $7.

But whether or not you decide to purchase any resources today, I would ask if you'd like to support this program financially. We've heard so many incredible stories from people who weren't even familiar with this program and just stumbled upon it one day. Then they became faithful listeners after that.

Other people have told stories about how much they hated the program at first, because God was speaking directly to them through Elisabeth about a problem area in their lives. But after a few weeks, they too became faithful listeners because they realized we all need to hear the truth, even though it's painful at times.

That is the goal of Elisabeth Elliot-to speak the truth in love. Frankly, I don't hear too many people with that kind of a goal anymore. If you appreciate what Elisabeth is saying each day, then we need to hear from you. Not through an emotional appeal of desperation, but just to say, "This is how God has chosen that we operate." He prompts those He wants to give, and then it's up to you. We thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do.

Here's our address: Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow we'll join Elisabeth as she travels to Mongolia, so be sure and be with us then for the next Gateway To Joy.