Overflowing Faith: Lettie Cowman and Streams in the Desert: A Biography

“How did an Iowa farm girl with a love of words change the lives of headhunters, emperors, Laplanders, and people from cultures throughout the world?” Michelle Ule’s Overflowing Faith is the biography of Lettie Cowman, author of devotional classic Streams in the Desert. “Converts were thankful a woman from rural Iowa responded to a direction from God.” “Margaret and Isaac Burd were 49 and 50 years old at her birth.” She married Charles E. Cowman, who “saved me from a life of wealth and leisure.” Shortly after, she was convicted, “I am serving the world and myself’...The Bible became her Morse code, relaying messages down the line to her soul.” When the offering plate passed at church, Charles “put in his solid gold watch and glanced at Lettie’s diamond engagement ring. She paused, took a deep breath, twisted off the ring, and dropped it in. When the call came for volunteers to join the mission field, Charles whispered to her, ‘That means you and me. Let’s stand and show our colors.’” They set off on their oceanic voyage for a distant land. “‘The waves are in their heroic mood…and are engaged in a pitched battle. A lashing, tossing, heaving, foaming, falling, glancing, rise and fall of liquid mountains and valleys, awful but ravishing to look upon!’ The same might have described their upcoming lives in Japan… ‘If you are called to the mission field do not think it is a road to romance, but a long hard road...The center of God’s will is our home’...They lived simply and sacrificed much for the sake of the gospel…God had been their instigator, Jesus their inspiration, and the Holy Spirit their guide.” While historian Robert D. Wood contends, “That was her greatest contribution, helping Charles,” her life and legacy far exceeded that of her husband. Esther Erny described Lettie as having a “‘platform personality’…Lettie Cowman advanced at her heart’s pace rather than her head’s’...‘Jesus led me all the way.’ May He do the same for all readers of Streams in the Desert and this biography. Soli Deo Gloria.”