Lisa Barry: Have you ever heard a news story that uncovered severe child abuse in a family? Did it make you stop and wonder what happens to people like that after having such a rocky start to life? Unfortunately, the statistics bear out that most abused children wind up repeating their parents' mistakes. But today you're going to meet someone who overcame the odds, because she gave her life completely to Christ. Find out who this special someone is as we begin this Monday edition of Gateway to Joy.

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 today with a very special guest in the studio. Before I tell you who this is, I want to tell you the words of that lovely hymn, "Loved With Everlasting Love." Most of you know that that is a Scripture verse, but there's a hymn.

The second line says, "Led by grace that love to know, Spirit, breathing from above, Thou hast taught us it is so. Oh, this full and perfect peace; oh, this transport all divine, in a love which cannot cease, I am His and He is mine."

I have with me today Glenda Revell, author of a book which I hope very many of you have read, and I hope the rest of you will read if you haven't, entitled GLENDA'S STORY. But Glenda chose this for the subtitle, and I'm sure Glenda would have been very happy if this were the only title-but the subtitle is LED BY GRACE.

And how did I get to know Glenda Revell? Well, once upon a time I had a letter from a radio listener. Over the years, we became acquainted. I learned about her amazing story. I read her story, which she had written down by hand in a journal just for me. She had no idea that it would be read on the air, let alone that it would ever come out in book form.

But I felt that her story was something that was much too good to keep to myself. So some of you have heard her speak. Some of you have read her book, and you heard me read her book several years ago. Welcome, Glenda Revell. Thank you for being with me.

Glenda Revell: Thank you for having me.

Elisabeth Elliot: Tell me now a little bit of your story.

Glenda Revell: My mother was an alcoholic who had become promiscuous and conceived me outside of the confines of her marriage, wanted to have an abortion, but I'm thankful to say was talked out of it, and gave me birth into a home where there was no love and where I was not wanted. She forced me to sleep with my stepfather between the ages of four or five until I was twelve years old. During those years, he sexually molested me. Those were difficult times, and yet when I look back today, I can see the hand of God on my life. I saw that He used the pain and the suffering of my childhood to draw me to Himself.

When I was about six years old, I started attending a church by myself. While I didn't hear the truth of God's Word preached there, I did learn the great hymns of the faith. I carried them back home with me in my heart. In our tiny backyard, we had a huge willow tree. I would sit under that tree on a scrap of a blanket or on a towel or sometimes just on the warm, moist earth and I would sing those hymns. "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." "Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes."

While I didn't understand all of the words I was singing, those hymns helped me to develop a picture of God. I began to understand that He was holy and He was pure. I learned that He was almighty and powerful. I did not understand that He was love, and I never would have believed that He could love me. Yet I did find great comfort in singing those hymns as a child.

As I continued to grow up, I became emotionally disturbed. As a young teenager, I began down a path of self-destruction, cutting myself with razor blades and eventually developing anorexia nervosa, which I believe led me to the point of death. But God spared my life again, because He had a plan for me.

Later on, I graduated from high school and went to nursing school. Although I was removed from the terrors of my childhood home at that point, I was not disentangled from that past. I began having nightmares and sank into a deep depression. I decided that life wasn't worth it-- that I had no reason to live. No one would ever love me. No one ever had. I just wanted to die.

So I began saving tranquilizers and sleeping pills from my patients' boxes when they went home from the hospital. I'm ashamed of that, but I did it. I was a very determined young woman, and I was determined that I was going to end my life and I was going to do it right. So I saved pills for three months until I had a huge bag full of sleeping pills and tranquilizers.

The very weekend that I had planned to end my life, as I was walking out of the hospital lobby, I noticed a brochure on the coffee table. I had seen these lying around the hospital for years as I worked, but that day I felt compelled to go over and pick it up. I did that, took it back to my dormitory room, and after all the other girls went home for the weekend, sat on my bed with my bag of tranquilizers and that Gospel tract.

I opened it up and the truth of God's Word pierced my heart. It told me that I was a sinner. I could agree with that. I knew it. I knew it was true and that my sin had separated me from that holy God I had sung about all my life. I believed with all my heart that that was true. Then it showed me the remedy-that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, had bridged that gap between God and me with His cross. In that moment, I trusted in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and I became a new creature.

Then the Lord led me into a church where I heard the Word of God preached and I began to grow, became grounded and rooted in God's Word. God also had a young man in that church waiting for me, a very godly, wonderful man.

Elisabeth Elliot: Named David.

Glenda Revell: That's right.

Elisabeth Elliot: And I could agree with you. You certainly have a godly, wonderful husband. Such a sweet man. I don't think I've ever known a sweeter man. He works very hard, doesn't he?

Glenda Revell: Yes. Yes, he certainly does.

Elisabeth Elliot: Just a dear father and husband.

Glenda Revell: Then God blessed us with four marvelous children. So I can only lift my heart up in praise to a wonderful God, who could reach down into the life of a little girl. If you had seen me then, I'm sure anyone would have said, "There's no hope for her."

Elisabeth Elliot: Well, tell us the story about your going to church when you were just a little girl.

Glenda Revell: I had passed by a church on my way to the grocery store and back and forth to school. We didn't have a car, so we walked everywhere. As a little girl, I wondered about God. I wondered where He was and how I could know Him. I began to develop the concept that He must live in church. If I could just go there, I might be able to know Him. Or if I could pray in church, maybe He would answer my prayers.

Then when I started school, a little girl in my class started telling me that she went to the very church I passed on my way to school every day. She had wonderful times there and she heard stories and sang songs. I knew I wanted to go.

I went home and I was very afraid to ask my mother if I could go, because my parents of course did not attend church and didn't think very highly of God, I was sure. But I gathered up all my courage and I asked my mother if I might start going to church. She said yes. So I started getting up on Sunday mornings by myself and getting dressed and walking to that little church by myself.

Elisabeth Elliot: And you went and sat on the front row.

Glenda Revell: Yes.

Elisabeth Elliot: And how long did you go to that church?

Glenda Revell: I went to that church from the time I was six years old until I was in my early twenties.

Elisabeth Elliot: And did anybody, when you were six years old, did anybody in the church want to know who you were and how you got there?

Glenda Revell: I really don't know. It was a small community, so some of the people might have known my family. But I didn't know anyone there. They certainly made me feel welcome.

Elisabeth Elliot: They did?

Glenda Revell: Yes. I loved it there. While I didn't hear about the Lord Jesus Christ there, not in the way I know Him now, they still laid the foundation for my future faith.

Elisabeth Elliot: And you learned those great hymns.

Glenda Revell: Yes.

Elisabeth Elliot: I think that's one of the most important things, don't you, Glenda?

Glenda Revell: I certainly do.

Elisabeth Elliot: And I'm sure you're teaching your four children to sing hymns. And the fact that as a little girl you could learn a hymn, like "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise," is amazing to younger parents nowadays. In fact, the young parents themselves would say, "Well, that's way over my head and we would rather just sing choruses." I'm so glad that you've brought up this question of hymns, because I find it very sad when I visit churches where they only sing the choruses and the praise songs. I have nothing against choruses and praise songs, but the Bible says that there are three kinds of Christian music-psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Glenda Revell: I agree with you completely. I love hymns. Many of the hymns I learned as a little girl, I still remember every word, even though in the church we attend now they don't sing all of those same hymns.

Elisabeth Elliot: Did you learn "Loved With Everlasting Love" at that time?

Glenda Revell: No, I did not.

Elisabeth Elliot: That's one you've learned since then.

Glenda Revell: Yes.

Elisabeth Elliot: And you picked those three words for the title of your book, "Led By Grace."

Glenda Revell: I thought it was a picture of my life.

Elisabeth Elliot: Well, that certainly is what it is. I'm so glad to have had Glenda Revell with me today, and she's going to be with us all this week. Particularly, it means a great deal to me because I didn't have anything like that kind of a background. I came from a very strong Christian home. I do a lot of writing and speaking, and I sometimes receive letters from people saying, "Well, you don't really know what you're talking about, because you had this Christian background." We've been listening to a woman who knows what she's talking about when she talks about suffering. I think we'll talk more about that during this week. Thank you, Glenda.

Glenda Revell: Thank you.

Lisa Barry: I know many of you will want to read GLENDA'S STORY for yourself, so here is the information you need. You can purchase it in book form from Gateway to Joy for $11.50, and that includes shipping and handling. It's also available on cassette.

Here's the number to call: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or you can write to Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Gateway to Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

We'll hear more from Glenda next time, so be sure and join us then for another Gateway to Joy.