Missionary Biography

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."

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.

Searching since boyhood for the way to God, Sundar Singh found truth in Jesus Christ. At sixteen, the former Sikh became a Christian sadhu, or holy man, and at great risk devoted his life to Christ. With bare feet and few possessions, Sundar crossed the precarious Himalayas between India and Tibet many times, sharing the gospel with Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs—even thieves. As he traveled, Sundar constantly read the Bible, prayed, and meditated, confident that God was always with him, even in the face of death.

Ever since he was a young boy dreaming of writing "God is Love" on the moon so that all the world's people could see it, Loren Cunningham has committed his life to reaching the whole world with the Good News of Jesus Christ, ministering in every nation on earth. Through his unswerving belief that nothing is impossible for God, Loren's vision of waves of young people became the reality of Youth With A Mission, unleashing young Christians in missionary service when that was unheard of.

Sound interesting? Listen to De Smet's Letters and Sketches, 1841-1842 and learn about the Catholic priest and missionary.

Prepare to be captivated by an extraordinary journey of faith, courage, and resilience in Out of Africa and Into the Corps: From Missionary to Mercenary, the riveting audiobook memoir by retired Marine Colonel Dan Hunter Wilson. Spanning continents and decades, this prequel to his four previously published works—Undaunted Gladiator, A 110 Percent Mentality, The Battle of Fallujah

The thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean were home to fierce warriors and cannibals who sacrificed their children to the many gods they worshiped. A few islands had been dramatically transformed by the gospel, but thousands more were waiting for someone to come and teach them about the one true God. John Williams dedicated his life to bringing the message of Christ's love and peace to these brutal islands.

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.

“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.

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.

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....

The untold story of William Haas, pioneering missionary to central Africa and founder of Baptist Mid-Missions. In the early 1900s, a question loomed large: who would take the gospel to central Africa, one of the world’s last regions untouched by missions. Few people dared to explore this rugged frontier let alone bring the gospel. Central Africa’s untamed wildlife and virulent diseases brought the very real potential of death to outsiders.

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.

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.

The winners of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting tell the astonishing story of Mary Clarke. At the age of 50, Clarke left her comfortable life in suburban Los Angeles to follow a spiritual calling to care for the prisoners in one of Mexico's most notorious jails. She actually moved into a cell to live among drug kingpins and petty thieves. She has led many of them through profound spiritual transformations in which they turned away from their lives of crime, and she has deeply touched the lives of all who have witnessed the depth of her compassion.

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.

Blessed Ramon Llull’s ultimate act of final perseverance was not one single decision made by grace, but the culmination of a life spent adhering to the will of God. The Memoirs of Blessed Ramon Llull is a thrilling narrative, reading almost like an action novel. In this autobiographical work, he humbly details his triumphs as well as his own weaknesses and disappointments. Due to rivalries between Catholic leaders, Bl. Ramon’s missionary zeal faced indifference from within the Church as well as resistance from without.

God miraculously guided James to a city in America where many other Bangladeshis had escaped. A city where he came to understand why the Lord had allowed him to be driven out. Coming out of a train station, he had a surprise encounter with a missionary from Guyana, Rev. Udit. Udit said to him, "You don't know me but I believe God may have chosen you to be a missionary among Muslims here in New York." It was a chance encounter according to a plan.

For most of his life, the comfort of the American suburbs was all Gret Glyer knew. It wasn’t until he abruptly quit his job and moved to Africa that he began questioning everything he had taken for granted. He soon learned that his private school upbringing stood in stark contrast to that of his new neighbors who lived on $1 per day. The shocking level of poverty he was exposed to inspired a brand-new model for charity that brings donors closer to the global poor.

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.