THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE
By Elizabeth Braund
The Shallowford Trust. 156 pages.
Available via 020 7228 0433
What a remarkable woman Elizabeth Braund was! This is the story, in her own words, of the gradual development during the 1960s of Providence House, an outreach to the children and young people of Battersea and Clapham in south London.
Miss Braund, a formidable lady who edited The Evangelical Magazine, was a woman of great courage and faith who stepped well outside her comfort zone with the compassion of her Lord towards people whom the middle-class suburban churches were unable or unwilling to reach.
Taking the gospel
She was well ahead of her time in realising that Christians need to take the gospel to the people who need it, rather than expecting them to come to us. With a group of faith-filled friends from Westminster Chapel, she befriended the community around an old, almost derelict chapel and with great imagination used all sorts of means to share the good news with them.
The book has been republished since her death in 2013; the fact that Miss Braund wrote during the 1980s means that in a few places some references (for instance to Steptoe & Son, or Joyce Grenfell) feel a little dated. But apart from that and a few small typos that should have been corrected before publication, I warmly commend it and hope it will find a wide readership. Perhaps some readers will be inspired to follow in Miss Braund’s footsteps and find today’s equivalent ways of reaching out to people whose lives are currently completely untouched by God’s grace.
