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Missionary Stories From Around the World
Have you ever wanted to travel the world? Perhaps you’d like to visit far away countries and discover all about the people who live there? What if instead, you’d like to have adventures closer to home? Well this book is for you! Meet some very adventurous missionaries and learn about the countries they worked in. Find out what it’s like to be in the middle of the Mau Mau rebellion in Africa or how orphanages in India present difficulties you would never imagine. Find out how difficult it can be talking to people about Jesus in London or how looking after children in China is completely different, and exhausting! Gladys Aylward, Jim Elliot, Amy Carmichael, William Carey, Lottie Moon, and others all knew what it was like to work in a foreign country. Charles Spurgeon and Chief White Feather were missionaries in their native lands – but they had troubles too. Here is danger, adventure and excitement – all through working for God. Here are stories about people from the beginning of modern–day missions up to the present day. It’s all part of being in the Christian family – a family that is spreading round the whole world at an amazing rate. At the end of the book are some check–up questions to help you remember the stories.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 20, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 24, 2024
I love stories about missionaries around the world, because I grew up as a missionary kid on the mission field. These stories really hit home for me, because I have had similar things happen in my own life. Just like these stories, I've also seen God's hand at work to protect and provide for my family. Just like these missionaries, I've also known the exquisite joy of seeing souls reborn in Christ and the absolute transformation of their lives in a new Christian community.
My favorite missionary has always been David Brainard and I was glad to see that he is included in this book. However, each chapter is so short that they can't really do justice to the full biography of each missionary. These are more like little introductions to the most famous quotes or most notable achievements of each person. But you would have to pick up a full biography to really understand all that God did through these people and their ministries.
The writing is very simple for children, and it glosses over some of the more violent or disturbing aspects of missionary life. Many of these missionaries were martyred, tortured, imprisoned, and had other horrible things happen to them. I think the book does a good job of telling the facts, but at an appropriate level for children. Most of the time, the writing just states that the person was killed, but doesn't go into detail. Even so, it's very emotional and intense to read about, so it might not be right for young or sensitive children. Reading this as an adult, I ended up crying through most of the book, because most of the stories are very tragic - full of hope and grace and God's power, but also tragic and full of sorrow.
I took off one star because some of the writing isn't very well constructed. The sentence structure is awkward in places, and there are a few typos. It needed a better editor.
My favorite missionary has always been David Brainard and I was glad to see that he is included in this book. However, each chapter is so short that they can't really do justice to the full biography of each missionary. These are more like little introductions to the most famous quotes or most notable achievements of each person. But you would have to pick up a full biography to really understand all that God did through these people and their ministries.
The writing is very simple for children, and it glosses over some of the more violent or disturbing aspects of missionary life. Many of these missionaries were martyred, tortured, imprisoned, and had other horrible things happen to them. I think the book does a good job of telling the facts, but at an appropriate level for children. Most of the time, the writing just states that the person was killed, but doesn't go into detail. Even so, it's very emotional and intense to read about, so it might not be right for young or sensitive children. Reading this as an adult, I ended up crying through most of the book, because most of the stories are very tragic - full of hope and grace and God's power, but also tragic and full of sorrow.
I took off one star because some of the writing isn't very well constructed. The sentence structure is awkward in places, and there are a few typos. It needed a better editor.
November 9, 2022
The first half of this book was well known missionaries from the past, and then it went into tribal stories in Africa and ended with stories of Native Americans. The tribal and native people were described in demeaning ways at times. The first half of the book was much better than the second. I liked giving my kids an overview of famous missionaries, since each chapter was a different missionary. We can then dig deeper and read biographies of the ones that interested them the most.
June 13, 2025
Good selection for the most part but really dry!
October 13, 2013
So much potential. Poor execution. I planned to read the whole thing aloud with my son, but I'm giving up. I will have to try Dave and Neta Jackson's books instead.
April 15, 2017
This book contains brief chapters on about 30 different individuals from almost every continent on the globe, some of whom are well known, some of whom are little-known. Not all of them are missionaries. One is a woman who prayed for missionaries. I appreciated showing that that too is a part of missions. The chapters tend to be a combination of a brief overview and a detailed account of one or two events from their life. All in all, I liked that approach for a book that gives brief accounts. You're not going to get to know much about any one person, but you may find enough to be encouraged by their testimony and to want to get to know them better.
A few of the people were so unknown and the story so incredible, that I wondered if they were legitimate. No sources were listed so it was hard to verify but unfortunately Christians have been guilty of embellishing if not inventing stories. God does enough amazing things that we do not need to add to His wonders by our own imaginations, which I suspect is what some of these chapters were guilty of. Not that the author knowingly made up stories, but that she may not have vetted her stories appropriately.
The writing style was a bit disjointed. I think she was trying to say so much in so little space that she would move from one thing to the other without any transition. So there often was not a clear progression of thought from paragraph to paragraph which made for a bumpy ride.
A few specific notes:
The chapter on Lottie Moon spoke of her rebellious nature and her breaking rules (preaching when the mission board told her not to) in a positive light. There are certainly times to break rules but I felt the topic was not handled well.
Another chapter has the sentence "Evan Roberts did not preach but simply watched in wonder as the Holy Spirit led the meetings." The impression given was that this was more spiritual than preaching. The implication was that we let the Holy Spirit lead by doing nothing.
I thought the account of William Carey was perhaps overly critical, especially compared with the lack of criticism in all the other chapters. I think there may be reason to believe he did not treat his wife as he should have, but I'm not sure if it was as bad as she made it seem. I certainly don't think he deserves to be thought of worse than all the other people in the book.
There was one chapter on a native pastor in Africa that tells the story about a lion crashing their service and the pastor going up to the lion and shouting "The God of Daniel is with us!" and then a lightning bolt coming out of nowhere and striking the lion dead. The author closes the chapter with the verse about having power to tread on serpents and nothing can hurt us. Whatever you think of the veracity of the story, it is certainly true that many Christians have been eaten by lions and to imply that God has given his people blanket protection from lions is falsehood.
Another chapter talking about how a group of people waited a long time to have someone bring them the gospel says "Perhaps God wanted to answer their prayer long before. Perhaps he called some man or woman to go to preach to these people? Perhaps that man or woman refused?" Statements like these call into question the sovereignty and power of God and put the lost at the mercy of the obedience of Christians, whom we all know are never perfectly obedient. This can also lead to false guilt, fearing that we may have missed God's call and people are perishing in sin while God stands helplessly by, waiting on us to do our part.
On a positive note, I appreciated how the chapter on Spurgeon was handled and the sympathy and thoughtfulness she showed in describing the burdens of Spurgeon and pastors in general: "Never forget that people in ministry are only human with all the emotions and feelings everyone else has. Therefore, if we talk about them or hurt them in some way, they feel pain just as we would."
A few of the people were so unknown and the story so incredible, that I wondered if they were legitimate. No sources were listed so it was hard to verify but unfortunately Christians have been guilty of embellishing if not inventing stories. God does enough amazing things that we do not need to add to His wonders by our own imaginations, which I suspect is what some of these chapters were guilty of. Not that the author knowingly made up stories, but that she may not have vetted her stories appropriately.
The writing style was a bit disjointed. I think she was trying to say so much in so little space that she would move from one thing to the other without any transition. So there often was not a clear progression of thought from paragraph to paragraph which made for a bumpy ride.
A few specific notes:
The chapter on Lottie Moon spoke of her rebellious nature and her breaking rules (preaching when the mission board told her not to) in a positive light. There are certainly times to break rules but I felt the topic was not handled well.
Another chapter has the sentence "Evan Roberts did not preach but simply watched in wonder as the Holy Spirit led the meetings." The impression given was that this was more spiritual than preaching. The implication was that we let the Holy Spirit lead by doing nothing.
I thought the account of William Carey was perhaps overly critical, especially compared with the lack of criticism in all the other chapters. I think there may be reason to believe he did not treat his wife as he should have, but I'm not sure if it was as bad as she made it seem. I certainly don't think he deserves to be thought of worse than all the other people in the book.
There was one chapter on a native pastor in Africa that tells the story about a lion crashing their service and the pastor going up to the lion and shouting "The God of Daniel is with us!" and then a lightning bolt coming out of nowhere and striking the lion dead. The author closes the chapter with the verse about having power to tread on serpents and nothing can hurt us. Whatever you think of the veracity of the story, it is certainly true that many Christians have been eaten by lions and to imply that God has given his people blanket protection from lions is falsehood.
Another chapter talking about how a group of people waited a long time to have someone bring them the gospel says "Perhaps God wanted to answer their prayer long before. Perhaps he called some man or woman to go to preach to these people? Perhaps that man or woman refused?" Statements like these call into question the sovereignty and power of God and put the lost at the mercy of the obedience of Christians, whom we all know are never perfectly obedient. This can also lead to false guilt, fearing that we may have missed God's call and people are perishing in sin while God stands helplessly by, waiting on us to do our part.
On a positive note, I appreciated how the chapter on Spurgeon was handled and the sympathy and thoughtfulness she showed in describing the burdens of Spurgeon and pastors in general: "Never forget that people in ministry are only human with all the emotions and feelings everyone else has. Therefore, if we talk about them or hurt them in some way, they feel pain just as we would."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews