Foth, Elizabeth (1884-1975)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1976 Feb 5 p. 10

Birth date: 1884 Aug 13

text of obituary:

ELIZABETH FOTH

Elizabeth Foth was born on Aug. 13, 1884 on a farm near Whitewater, Kan. to Henry and Maria (Graber) Foth. She died on Dec. 12, 1975 at the age of 91 at the Mennonite Brethren Home at Corn, Okla.

At the age of three and a half she stood at her dying father’s bedside and heard him say, “Lieschen (little Elizabeth), some day you will be a missionary.”

On June 23, 1901, she was baptized at the Gnadenberg Mennonite Church near Whitewater. Some years later she attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and then Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. She was ordained as a missionary in the Ebenezer Mennonite church near Gotebo, Okla. Appointed by the General Conference Board of Missions to go to India, along with Martha Burkhalter, she was told at the last minute that because of a government error her passport had not arrived. On Oct. 11, 1917 she stood on the pier and watched her friend go alone.

The disappointment was deep, but she took it as the Lord’s will, and the board appointed her to mission service in Altoona, Pa. in 1918. The work grew, many people were saved and a new church and workers’ home was built. But the Lord clearly showed that He had other plans for Elizabeth.

In 1923 she began an independent ministry in Brooklyn, N. Y., in one of the toughest gangster-ridden sections of the city, called the “Red Hook.” This ministry was to continue for 49 years until 1972 when, at the age of 88, she moved to the M. B. Home at Corn where her sister Marie was already in residence.

Two words characterized her life: faith and prayer. Her deep, abiding faith in God impelled her to go forward with unflagging zeal in the midst of dangers and difficulties that would have seemed insurmountable to others. At all hours of the night she fearlessly conducted the meetings of the Hoyt Street Rescue Mission and walked the dark streets to and from the subway. During the day she climbed flights of tenements steps to press home the claims of Christ. She also did visitation in one of the city’s large hospitals. Only God’s books can reveal how many thousands came to know Christ as Saviour during these years.

She spent many hours a day laboring in prayers. In a small loose-leaf notebook were written the names of scores of people who had requested prayer. Many have testified of God’s wonderful moving in their lives as a result of the prayers of this dedicated intercessor.