The Greatest Gift Ever Given

Aboard a passenger train enroute from Los Angeles to Chicago, a Christian movie actress named Mary meets an elderly woman and openly shares the struggles of her career and young faith. To her surprise, the lady next to her is 85-year-old Lettie Cowman, the author of the most beloved devotional of all time, Streams in the Desert. As the two women converse, Lettie reflects on the experiences and heartbreak that inspired her to write her famous book. As a girl growing up in small-town Iowa, Lettie falls in love with Charles Cowman, a telegraph operator at the Western Union office. A job promotion prompts them to move to a mining town in Colorado after marriage. However, Lettie soon becomes deathly ill, leading Charles to make a vow of service to the Lord that will change both of their lives forever.

After Lettie arrives in Chicago from a cross-country train ride, a local newspaper reporter asks to interview her to talk about her beloved devotional, Streams in the Desert, and her lifelong devotion to missions. As Lettie shares about her missionary work in the Orient with her husband Charles, Lettie reflects on how their big goals to reach every person in Japan are interrupted when Charles becomes ill and the two are forced to return home. During the decline of her husband’s health, Lettie begins writing a journal as the Lord gives her and Charles encouragement from the Bible and the library of books they had collected through their work. Little did they know that the journal would become the most beloved Christian devotional of all time, and their missionary work would continue to this day in over fifty countries on six continents.