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A Leopard Tamed: 50th Anniversary Edition
Set in Nasir, a tiny village on the banks of the Sobat River in the Sudan, A Leopard Tamed reads like the story of another world, of another time—but it is very much of our world, our time.
Eleanor Vandevort is an American missionary who lived with the Nuer tribe in Nasir for thirteen years. A Leopard Tamed is the vivid, exciting description of what those years were like for her. Eleanor became friendly with Kuac, a small boy whose burning ambition was “to do the work of God.” He proved invaluable in helping her. He taught her his language, which enabled her to translate the Bible for the Nuer people for the first time. After she discovered he was a born teacher, he even led Bible classes for her. Although Kuac is the central figure in this engrossing story, it is also the story of the whole Nuer tribe.
A Leopard Tamed stirs the reader with strange tribal customs—such as the brutal rites initiating young boys into manhood; a typical native wedding; detailed description of housing, cooking, child-bearing, and so on. The author transports us to a land “that lies flat on its back, rolled out like a pie crust and crisscrossed with a network of footpaths linking village to village. The path is the highway in this land, covering hundreds and hundreds of miles, the imprint of a people who walk in order to communicate and who must communicate in order to live.”
This special 50th anniversary edition includes the original introduction by Elisabeth Elliot and a new introduction by Valerie Elliot Shepard.
Eleanor Vandevort is an American missionary who lived with the Nuer tribe in Nasir for thirteen years. A Leopard Tamed is the vivid, exciting description of what those years were like for her. Eleanor became friendly with Kuac, a small boy whose burning ambition was “to do the work of God.” He proved invaluable in helping her. He taught her his language, which enabled her to translate the Bible for the Nuer people for the first time. After she discovered he was a born teacher, he even led Bible classes for her. Although Kuac is the central figure in this engrossing story, it is also the story of the whole Nuer tribe.
A Leopard Tamed stirs the reader with strange tribal customs—such as the brutal rites initiating young boys into manhood; a typical native wedding; detailed description of housing, cooking, child-bearing, and so on. The author transports us to a land “that lies flat on its back, rolled out like a pie crust and crisscrossed with a network of footpaths linking village to village. The path is the highway in this land, covering hundreds and hundreds of miles, the imprint of a people who walk in order to communicate and who must communicate in order to live.”
This special 50th anniversary edition includes the original introduction by Elisabeth Elliot and a new introduction by Valerie Elliot Shepard.
263 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 14, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 10, 2025
“Eleanor Vandevort was a woman of profound Christian faith, certain of Jesus Christ and yet ready to question everything else…a study in mystery and paradox.” When this single white woman moves to Sudan, “I was full of excitement that day, nerved with the hope of helping these people, confident that life could and would be better for them. It never crossed my mind then that my definition of their need was meaningless to them, that for all practical purposes I would have to invent a need in order to validate the message I had come to give.” She meets Kuac, which means “leopard” in honor of his father’s friend who brought him a leopard skin on the day Kuac was born.
“I was among people who sought God, but the way they sought Him was alien and mysterious and incredible to me…Is it not immoral, I thought, to overpower people against their will, without their invitation or consent, thrusting oneself upon them in the guise of goodness? We were missionaries. We had meant only to bring people the Gospel: salvation, and the benefits of the Gospel: love, peace, joy, and freedom from the fear of death. But our possessions came with us, our trucks, our motor boats, our electricity. These were the things we were using to evangelize…We did not foresee that our things would become more important to the people than our Gospel, that they would want them…were we not becoming more of a stumbling block than a help to the people?”
“Hard questions were the pathway to well-tested faith…great mysteries can lead to great certainties–not certainties of outcomes, but certainties about the character of God…If you have come up against life and are looking for a way through, if you are looking for a story that reveals a path of faith in the midst of paradox and mystery…read on in earnest.” A Leopard Tamed “is a reminder that no story is ever truly complete…at any moment more of the story may be revealed…a perceived ending might yet be changed.”
“I was among people who sought God, but the way they sought Him was alien and mysterious and incredible to me…Is it not immoral, I thought, to overpower people against their will, without their invitation or consent, thrusting oneself upon them in the guise of goodness? We were missionaries. We had meant only to bring people the Gospel: salvation, and the benefits of the Gospel: love, peace, joy, and freedom from the fear of death. But our possessions came with us, our trucks, our motor boats, our electricity. These were the things we were using to evangelize…We did not foresee that our things would become more important to the people than our Gospel, that they would want them…were we not becoming more of a stumbling block than a help to the people?”
“Hard questions were the pathway to well-tested faith…great mysteries can lead to great certainties–not certainties of outcomes, but certainties about the character of God…If you have come up against life and are looking for a way through, if you are looking for a story that reveals a path of faith in the midst of paradox and mystery…read on in earnest.” A Leopard Tamed “is a reminder that no story is ever truly complete…at any moment more of the story may be revealed…a perceived ending might yet be changed.”
May 22, 2023
"Try, if you can, to fathom Him, to draw His picture with clear, solid lines, to pin Him down. Just when you think you have God in focus, He moves, and the picture blurs." Page 11
"The many problems of translation exploded my theories of Bible translating, and precluded the possibility of producing an exact and therefore inerrant--as Evangelicals used the term--translation of the Scriptures." Page 95
"John 3:16, supposedly the simple Gospel. But what had she heard? I thought of the words--the way in which she probably had understood them.
God . . . the one who kills her children. . . loved all the people so much . . . how could that be true, He kills people . . . that He gave His one only son . . . but she had given Him five children already . . . so that the person who believes Him will not die . . . but how could this be, even the white man dies . . . but will live with life which does not end . . . who wants to keep on living when life is so hard?" Page 127-128
And yet, and yet, God did open the understanding of some to the truth. He did bring some to Himself. Some, who taught others, who despite the challenges endured in faith...
"Would the Lord spurn forever and never be favorable? Had His steadfast love forever ceased? Were His promises at an end for all time? Had the Lord forgotten to be gracious? I was glad the psalmist could ask God those questions, because I was asking them too. They came because I had believed God to do something and He had not done it. I did not know why. I only knew one thing: that my feet were on a Rock, and the Rock never moved." pate 204-205
"Now as I left, I knew for myself, at least, that God meant what He had said: that I was to know, to believe, to understand that God is God, and leave His defense of up to Him." page 206
"The many problems of translation exploded my theories of Bible translating, and precluded the possibility of producing an exact and therefore inerrant--as Evangelicals used the term--translation of the Scriptures." Page 95
"John 3:16, supposedly the simple Gospel. But what had she heard? I thought of the words--the way in which she probably had understood them.
God . . . the one who kills her children. . . loved all the people so much . . . how could that be true, He kills people . . . that He gave His one only son . . . but she had given Him five children already . . . so that the person who believes Him will not die . . . but how could this be, even the white man dies . . . but will live with life which does not end . . . who wants to keep on living when life is so hard?" Page 127-128
And yet, and yet, God did open the understanding of some to the truth. He did bring some to Himself. Some, who taught others, who despite the challenges endured in faith...
"Would the Lord spurn forever and never be favorable? Had His steadfast love forever ceased? Were His promises at an end for all time? Had the Lord forgotten to be gracious? I was glad the psalmist could ask God those questions, because I was asking them too. They came because I had believed God to do something and He had not done it. I did not know why. I only knew one thing: that my feet were on a Rock, and the Rock never moved." pate 204-205
"Now as I left, I knew for myself, at least, that God meant what He had said: that I was to know, to believe, to understand that God is God, and leave His defense of up to Him." page 206
July 5, 2025
I’ll be honest, when I picked this up, I was hoping the thing that “readers weren’t ready for in 1957” was an interracial romance. Instead I found a compelling story of a woman reporting on a dear friend, her experiences trying to understand the Nuer people, and asking a question even more scandalous than an interracial marriage would have been- what if missionary work as done in 1930s was in fact actively hindering the gospel?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews