Missionary Biography

In Double Crossed, historian Matthew Avery Sutton tells the extraordinary story of the entwined roles of spy-craft and faith in a world at war. Missionaries, priests, and rabbis, acutely aware of how their actions seemingly conflicted with their spiritual calling, carried out covert operations, bombings, and assassinations within the centers of global religious power, including Mecca, the Vatican, and Palestine.

Taking listeners from Michigan to Iran and from Ankara, Turkey, to Paris, France, My Name Is Mahtob depicts the profound resilience of a wounded soul healed by faith in God's goodness and in his care and love. And Mahmoody reveals the secret of how she liberated herself from a life of fear, learning to forgive the father who had shattered her life and discovering the joy and peace that comes from doing so.

Steve Saint was five years old when his father, missionary pilot Nate Saint, was speared to death by a primitive Ecuadorian tribe. In adulthood Steve, having left Ecuador for a successful business career in the United States, never imagined making the jungle his home again. But when that same tribe asks him to help them, Steve, his wife, and their teenage children move back to the jungle.

Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth. Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities. It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion.

Over 1600 years ago, God raised up a man named Patrick to take the Gospel of Christ to the people of Ireland. Seldom in church history has any missionary been blessed with a more fruitful ministry. The preaching of Patrick was used by God to transform many of the Irish people from idol-worshiping pagans into servants of the one true God of Scripture.

This book was written and compiled by Hudson Taylor’s son, Frederick Taylor, along with his wife Geraldine. They gathered never-before-published letters from Hudson and his wife Maria, as well as several accounts and testimonies from other witnesses to their lives. These are some of the most powerful writings in modern church history, and show the inner life of one of the greatest missionaries since the apostles.

A Nobel Peace Prize recipient beatified by the Catholic Church in 2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was celebrated by heads of state and adored by millions for her work on behalf of the poor. In his measured critique, Hitchens asks only that Mother Teresa's reputation be judged by her actions - not the other way around. With characteristic élan and rhetorical dexterity, Hitchens eviscerates the fawning cult of Teresa, recasting the Albanian missionary as a spurious, despotic, and megalomaniacal operative.

Many people will remember Eric Liddell as the Olympic gold medalist from the Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. Famously, Liddell would not run on Sunday because of his strict observance of the Christian Sabbath, and so he did not compete in his signature event, the 100 meters, at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He was the greatest sprinter in the world at the time, and his choice not to run was ridiculed by the British Olympic committee, his fellow athletes, and most of the world press.

With no mission board to support or guide her, and less than 10 dollars in her pocket, Gladys Aylward left her home in England to answer God's call to take the message of the gospel to China. With the Sino-Japanese War waging around her, she struggled to bring the basics of life and the fullness of God to orphaned children. Time after time, God triumphed over impossible situations, and drew people to himself. Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman tells the story of one woman's determination to serve God at any cost.

Adoniram Judson, a figure of intimidating success and legacy, receives a worthy telling of his story in this memoir by J. Clement. Clement describes Judson’s thirst for theological knowledge, his understanding and acceptance of salvation, and his journey into and on the mission field. It is detailed how he listened to the Holy Spirit’s call for him to heed the Great Commission and how, despite all legal and practical obstacles, he secured his way into the field as the first American foreign missionary.

A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture - and a whole new way of thinking - turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true.

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.

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) is one of the most widely known Christians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. After the death of her husband, Jim, and four other missionaries at the hands of Waorani tribesmen in Ecuador, Elliot famously returned to live among the same people who had killed her husband. Her legacy, however, extends far beyond these events. In the years that followed, Elliot became a prolific writer and speaker, touching the lives of countless people around the world. Author Lucy S. R. Austen takes listeners on an in-depth journey through the life of Elisabeth Elliot.

In Another Man's War, follow Sam Childer's remarkable transformation from violent thug to a man of faith, and his ongoing battle to save children in one of the world's most lawless areas.

There is no greater story in the history of humanity than that of the undying love between the Lord Jesus and His people. The most famous story in eternity will always be how the Son of God came and died a horrible death on the cross for our sins. However, there have been countless thousands of men and women who have reciprocated that love, and have walked to certain death in order to tell the lost about the lover of their souls. They faced raining clouds of arrows and spears, shipwrecks, starvation and hunger, dark jungles and slavery, and more than could ever be listed here.

Jim and Pete turned to see the Auca men, their deadly spears raised, running toward Nate, Ed, and Roger. Jim stood in the river, his hand on his pistol. Should he defend himself? He already knew the answer. Each man had promised the others that he would not save himself by killing those they had sought out in Jesus' name. Jim Elliot and his coworkers surrendered their lives in Ecuador's jungle, trusting that their sacrifice would not be in vain. Decades later, this event has challenged countless Christians to live with one great purpose: to bring the gospel to those who have never heard.

Being a missionary in Ivory Coast, West Africa, is not only about dangers, hard work, and culture shock, interspersed with moments of high joy and deep sorrow. It is life found in the small and daily things, the quotidian experience that renders familiar a vastly different way of life, a life at the edge of the village. This book collects Lisa Leidenfrost's sketches of missionary life, compiled from letters sent home from Ivory Coast to her church in the United Sates.

"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.

Practically everyone in the western world has heard of the man called St. Patrick. But hardly anyone knows anything about him. About the only two things that more people "know" about Patrick is that he was Irish and Roman Catholic. In truth, he was neither. He was British, and he belonged to the autonomous Celtic church. Although Patrick is the most famous person of his age, the real man has been buried in a cloud of myths

This is the story of the making of a missionary to America. Dr. Tesfai Tesema was born in Ethiopia, grew up as an agnostic, became a Christian in Saudi Arabia, started a church planting movement in Sudan, and became a missionary in San Jose, California.