Missionary Biography

Since its publication in 1932, Black Elk Speaks has moved countless readers to appreciate the American Indian world that it described. John Neihardt’s popular narrative addressed the youth and early adulthood of Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux religious elder. Michael F. Steltenkamp now provides the first full interpretive biography of Black Elk, distilling in one volume what is known of this American Indian wisdom keeper whose life has helped guide others. Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic shows that the holy-man was not the dispirited traditionalist commonly depicted in literature....

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.

In the early 20th century, a man in Pakistan happened to walk by a small Christian chapel. Inside the preacher was speaking about the love of God. The man, a physician, took the same route the next day and stopped to listen. This was the beginning of a decades long commitment by the doctor to bring more people to faith in Jesus. 

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.

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.

When she was a young girl, Jadie (and her missionary family) experienced a brutal attack while on the island of Palau in the South Pacific. That one hellish night left her physically, emotionally, and spiritually damaged. Jadie had the choice to live the life of a victim or to walk the hard road of healing that leads to wholeness in Christ. Though she faced physical injury, emotional scarring (including avoidance, memory loss, and regression), and spiritual attacks, Echoes of Darkness is a story of hope.

Moses never wanted to be a leader. Jonah ran away from his mission's call. And when Marcia Moston's husband came home with a call to foreign missions, she was sure God had the wrong number. His call conflicted with her own dreams, demanded credentials she didn't have, and required courage she couldn't seem to find. She promised to follow where God led, but she never thought the road would lead to a Mayan village on a Guatemalan mountainside.

As a poor Canadian farm boy, Jonathan Goforth had no idea that he would spend most of his life braving disaster, danger, and disease to share God's love with the people of China. But when God led him to do just that, nothing, not even the violent Boxer Rebellion, would stop Jonathan and his family from answering God's call. Making their home in China, the Goforths opened their doors to as many as five thousand visitors a month, all of whom heard the gospel message.

While studying to be a minister, John Flynn longed to apply his training to help people in practical ways. Soon he discovered that his mission field was inside his own country: the vast and dangerous outback, or Never Never, where life-and-death struggles were a constant reality.

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....

The stories in the chapters that follow aren't chronological. They're not a history of how I found myself living on the side of a mountain in Mexico, and I'm not sure that would interest anyone but my mother and her friends anyway. Instead, I've mined my journals for those moments when God used the very people I thought I was in Mexico to lead, to lead me instead. Time and again I've been led to trust God, with my little mustard seed of faith, to see how he not only shows up in our circumstance - but he shows off!

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.

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.

Stories of a Scrappy Missionary Kid invites you to join in on the adventures of Emmy Grace, who grew up as a third culture kid in Romania, became a travel nurse, and now continues to explore the world beyond her borders. She shares the humorous and heartwarming stories of faith, family, and friendships formed along the way. Emmy Grace retells her journey of growing from a shy child to a confident adult making friends, learning lots, and bringing hope to others on her many adventures and misadventures.

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.

As a National Merit Scholar majoring in physics and mathematics at Rice University, Henry Rambow thought he was a rational person. But primed by years of Sunday School and haunted by a promise made as a terrified child, he nevertheless fell head over heels into a fundamentalist brand of Christianity. Confessions of a Rogue Missionary is an account of his struggle - and eventual failure - to reconcile his faith with reason. At times dryly humorous and at times sober and contemplative, the story begins when Henry is "born again." 

For Charlynne Boddie, the missing words in her vocabulary are impossible and ordinary. Her life is an adventure, an adventure in God. No Appointments Necessary is an uplifting and engaging challenge to the ordinary and impossible, capturing snippets of real-life adventures that define the way Charlynne lives her life. There are no strangers in Charlynne’s world. With almost no arena off-limits, her amazing testimonies are each predicated on her vibrant responses to hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord.  

Clarence Larkin was born October 28, 1850, in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. He was converted to Christ at the age of 19. He was a mechanical engineer, teacher, and manufacturer by trade. In 1884, at the age of 34, he became an ordained Baptist minister.

Slowly the boat pushed us forward, away from certain shipwreck, and gained the upper hand in its struggle against the surging current. The victory did not spark spontaneous celebration; rather, we spent the next moments in a trembling recovery. Kent, an American, and Josephine, an Australian, journeyed to an unfamiliar continent and set out to live on a riverboat deep in the jungle. With their four young children and ministry team, they served on the Purus River in the Amazon, bringing education, health care, and the love of God to remote communities

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.