Missionary Biography

Riley Unlikely is the inspiring story of Riley Banks, who first traveled to Kenya at age 13, and has been back every year since, bringing backpacks of school supplies and hygiene kits for young girls, developing relationships and friendships, and is currently, as a young millennial, raising money to build a complete learning complex in Kibwezi, Kenya for those who have nothing.

“Reema Goode” and her family are Christians working in a closed Middle Eastern country where all of these things are true. Yet they are also firsthand witnesses of a whole new trend that is taking shape in missions to Muslims. Despite all obstacles, God is opening miraculous doors in the Islamic world, where an unprecedented number of Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus. Reema takes us deep inside her Arab neighborhood to show how God is opening doors in just one of many Islamic communities.

Termites for dinner. Bombs in the backyard. A nation torn by decades of war, still on the brink. Can one life really make a difference here? Born without her left hip and leg, Michele Perry is no stranger to seeming impossibilities. So when she arrived in war-torn southern Sudan, with little more than faith in God's promises, she did what everyone told her was crazy: she opened a home for orphaned children in guerilla warfare territory.

"Victoria" grew up in Pakistan as a Christian. As a minority in a Muslim country, she was called "paleed", "despicable", by the other children. Twice she almost died for her faith. But this is not a story of anger and hate, but love and forgiveness. How could a person who experienced persecution come to forgive and love her persecutors? God is able to use the most unpretentious, unassuming human being to make his love known. "Victoria" is proof of that. There is a Study Guide for The Despicable Missionary, a six session guide focused on forgiving when forgiveness is hard.

Aussi improbable que cela puisse paraître, Gladys était certaine que Dieu l’appelait en Chine en tant que missionnaire. Et voilà qu’à l’âge de vingt-sept ans, elle venait d’être renvoyée de l’école de formation à la mission pour avoir échoué au cours d’étude de la Bible!

Discover how all things are possible with God! Sharing the gospel with those from different cultures and belief systems can sometimes seem futile, especially when it comes to reaching Muslims. The gap between Christianity and Islam is vast, and bridging cross-cultural values can seem impossible.

How do you regreen millions of hectares of land without planting a single tree? The remarkable discovery story of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is told in Tony Rinaudo’s new autobiography, The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis, published in 2022 by ISCAST–Christians in Science and Technology. This audiobook offers tangible hope for climate change through a powerful story of God’s grace and guidance. In a seemingly hopeless crisis, this is the good-news story that will move hearts and hands to care more for God’s creation.

In early November 1834, an aristocratic young couple from Savannah and South Carolina sailed from New York and began a seventeen-year odyssey in West Africa. Leighton and Jane Wilson sailed along what was for them an exotic coastline, visited cities and villages, and sometimes ventured up great rivers and followed ancient paths.

Gagan Gurung never expected he would become a Christian, let alone a missionary and never would have believed he would become a missionary to America. His family was from Nepal, but they lived in a difficult time in Bhutan. His father had taken the family to Bhutan to find work. Eventually, oppression by the government forced the Nepalese workers to leave.

Barbara Kreiger's intriguing narrative presents the account of Clorinda Minor, a charismatic American Christian woman whose belief in the second coming prompted her to leave a comfortable life in Philadelphia in 1851 and take up agriculture in Palestine.

One of the first Methodist bishops in America, English-born Francis Asbury devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback to preach and teach to those living on the vastly isolated American frontier. Alone in a new country, with no home of his own, Asbury rode over 300,000 miles—across rivers and through rocky, overgrown roads—shining God’s light on the fledgling colonies.

In this deeply personal account of her first year as a missionary, Elisabeth Elliot shares what it was like to work in the jungles of Ecuador with a small group of women, bringing the Word of God to the indigenous tribe that martyred her husband. With fascinating detail, she captures the stark realities of life among these complex people and reflects upon the "strange ashes" that can result when an act of obedience is passed through the fires of God's perfect--yet mysterious--will.

At age twenty Rowland Bingham committed himself to serving not only in Africa, known as the white man's grave, but in Africa's Sudan interior, where few missionaries had ventured and those who did soon died of disease or retreated in defeat. Experienced missionaries told Rowland that his dream was impossible. But when he found himself the sole surviving member of the fledgling Sudan Interior Mission, he didn't give up—neither did God.

Ten-year-old Lottie Moon had seen too much bitterness and gossip among churchgoers to want anything to do with religion or God. In fact, if there was a single way to waste a life, Lottie told herself, being a missionary was it. In a twist that only God could orchestrate, this spirited young girl who grew up to become the most educated woman in the American South would ultimately find her calling as a missionary to China.

Katherine’s story begins with tragedies, but God touched her heart at a crusade and led her to Uganda as a missionary to the children. Leaving her prestigious job and home, she went to a land of mud huts and polluted water. In the midst of sickness and poverty, she loved and cared for the orphans of the war-torn country as she faced witch doctors and Muslim agitators. Katherine shares her life story to help us know we can all make a difference - if only we let God....

A chilling behind-bars encounter with a killer unfolds. Step into the heart-wrenching world of his victim’s grieving mother. Can the unforgivable be forgiven? As Tammy Horvath grapples with the weight of depression following her profound loss, she discovers that no amount of exercise or travel can completely mend her shattered soul. The quest for genuine healing takes a courageous turn as she confronts the murderer, unraveling the haunting mysteries behind Luke’s tragic death.

David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and one of the greatest European explorers who ever lived. He fought all his life against slavery, and is remembered as a national hero for opening up the interior of the so-called "Dark Continent"; his expeditions had a tremendous influence on the colonization of Africa and the relation between Europeans and Africans. The son of a Christian missionary himself, Livingstone felt a spiritual calling to reach people in the interior of Africa in order to find new commercial routes and thus free the Africans from the plague of slavery.

The name Eric Liddell is a familiar one to many, having gained much fame through the film Chariots of Fire. A Christian athlete and missionary, his passion for his Saviour could be seen throughout his life. From university days to internment at Weihsien POW Camp, John Keddie’s biography brings together a specialist understanding of both Liddell’s faith and sporting achievements to provide an engaging account of this normal man’s extraordinary life.

Hearing God's call to serve as a missionary in the French-speaking world, Joe Portale responded with excitement, boldness, and humility. His lifelong dreams were being fulfilled, and the land God had promised was within reach. But the journey was not easy. From spiritual forces in France to the perilous Sahara desert to war and poverty in Southeast Asia, Joe and his ministry team persevered through many challenges. Their successes and failures provide a roadmap for all who would respond to God's call, an instructive account of pursuing one's life vocation and ministry.

Saint? Missionary? Scientist? Explorer? The titles given to David Livingstone since his death are varied enough to seem dubious—and with good reason. In view of the confessions in his own journals, saint is out of the question. Even missionary is tenuous, considering he made only one convert. And despite his fame as a scientist and explorer, Livingstone left his most indelible mark on Africa in an arena few have previously examined: slavery. His impact on abolishing what he called “this awful slave-trade” has been shockingly overlooked as the centerpiece of his African mission. Until now.