Missionary Biographies
The inspiring stories of those who have boldly followed Christ in spreading the good news throughout the world.
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Patrick was a teenager when Irish pirates kidnapped him from the western coast of England early in the morning. Patrick and his friends had gone to the beach to play before their families awoke to the business of the new day. It didn’t take much for the pirates to overpower the young lads and haul them off to uncertain futures. |
I cringe at the term missionary. When I was younger I pictured missionaries as large, wholesome families dressed like a blast from the past with awkward kids who had crazy experiences with witch doctors. And bad haircuts. And yet, here I am in Bangkok, living the life of what you could call a missionary. |
Molly and Abraham are not their real names. Their names have been changed to protect the work they are doing with Muslims in the Detroit area. But this work is not what they initially set out to do. And the journey to it has not been what they expected. In Abraham’s words, “I feel like now we’re in Plan B, but it was never Plan B for [God], you know? It was always Plan A. He always knew what was going to happen. We didn’t make a really bad decision.” |
Gary Cowman: Video Interview
Urbana.org had a video-chat with Gary Cowman in October of 2011 from Kenya where he serves as the Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Watch the video or read the transcipt of what Gary says about his experience responding to God’s call for his life and the role InterVarsity, Urbana, IFES and Wycliffe had in the process. Read more >>
Michelle Kao: Woke Up in a Slum
Today, I woke up in a slum in Bangkok and I thought, “What? How did I get here?” It’s not a new question; I’ve been asking it for the last four years. I’m an ordinary person. I’m a sensible person. ‘Slum-dweller’ was never one of my top childhood career choices and ‘missionary’ definitely sounded crazy. But somehow, I ended up here, a missionary living in a Bangkok slum. Read more >>
Mildred Cable: Beautiful Feet in the Gobi
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14) Read more >>
Samuel Mills: the Haystack Movement
On the North American continent, the beginnings of the church’s interest in global missions can be traced directly to student influence and, more precisely, to the impact of one student, Samuel Mills.
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Ruth Siemens: Tentmaking Pioneer
Ruth Siemens was one of the first contemporary pioneers to earn her own salary as a missionary through a “tentmaking” ministry, like Paul who supported himself by making and repairing tents (Acts 18:3, 20:34). She shares how she got started – and what happened.
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Carl Medearis: Following Christ as a Muslim
When a Muslim becomes a Christian, it is often an experience of severe familial and social dislocation. In a conservative Muslim country, it could also mean death. Carl Medearis has spent years leading Muslims to faith in Jesus without such dislocation, as he describes in this relationship with his bridge-building friend. Read more >>
Henry Martyn: Helping Muslims Find Jesus
Day by day, young Islamic scholar Muhammad Rahim visited Henry Martyn to hear how he answered the questions and arguments of Persia’s greatest theologians. Read more >>
Henry Martyn: How God Called a Brainy Student
Henry Martyn (1781 - 1812) was the most capable undergraduate at Cambridge University of his generation. To the surprise and consternation of many, Martyn, at 24 years of age, sailed to India to attempt to reach the peoples of that vast land for Christ. Read more >>
Steve Hawthorne: Tragic Consequences of Paternalism
“Ouch! I wish I could do that over again.” I was recounting the tragic consequence of one sincere attempt to be helpful but, in my ignorance of our new culture, I ended up doing more harm than good.
It was our first year in the rural Quechua community of Yawisla. Read more >>
Ernie Fowler: Live to Be Forgotten (part 2)
David Howard, Ernie Fowler’s biographer and close colleague, wondered why Ernie’s death (see part 1) went virtually unnoticed in the world of missions. Read more >>
Ernie Fowler: Live to Be Forgotten (part 1)
Who was Ernie Fowler — and what did he do that’s worth remembering? Read more >>
Jacob "Jake" DeShazer: Love Sowed in a Field of Hatred (part 2)
Jake Deshazer was a tortured prisoner in Japan who went home after the war with a deep conviction burning in this heart that God had called him to return to Japan as a missionary with a message of forgiveness. His story is continued from part 1. Read more >>
Jacob (Jake) DeShazer: Love Sowed in a Field of Hatred (part 1)
After the historic Doolittle Raid that bombed Japan in 1942, Jake DeShazer was captured, imprisoned as a POW, and tortured. His bitter hatred for his enemies grew until his captors unknowingly gave him a Bible — and God gave him a forgiving heart. Read more >>
Adoniram Judson: An unlikely hero
I have recently discovered a new and unlikely hero: Adoniram Judson. Here is what I think made him such a remarkable person. Read more >>
Steve Hawthorne: A medical missionary accepts his limitations
Sometimes I catch myself brooding on the suitability of my personality for missionary work. I am not particularly outgoing, spontaneous, amiable, or entertaining, and my kids tell me I’m too serious. Read more >>
Gladys Aylward: A Small Woman with a Big Heart and Great Faith (part 2)
Gladys Aylward was well-known and highly respected by the Chinese people. She safely led more than 100 orphans over dangerous mountains to escape invading Japanese soldiers. Her story is continued from part 1. Read more >>
Gladys Aylward: A Small Woman with a Big Heart and Great Faith (part 1)
The half-starved Chinese prisoners in Yangcheng were rioting. In the center was a man with a large bloody kitchen meat cleaver. All were shouting. Several men had already collapsed on the ground, mortally wounded. The warden called to A-Weh-Deh, “Go in and stop them!” The woman known to foreigners by her English name, Gladys Aylward, stood trembling at the entrance. “Why me?” she gasped. The warden challenged, “You tell us your God is all powerful. Is He or is He not?” Read more >>
Eric Liddell: Olympian and missionary (part 2)
When Eric Liddell ran the 440m in the 1924 Olympics, his time was a world record — and the first gold medal won by a Scotsman. Asked later about the secret of his success, Eric quipped, “I run the first 200 meters as hard as I can. Then, for the second 200 meters, with God’s help, I run harder.” His story is continued from part 1. Read more >>
Eric Liddell: Olympian and missionary (part 1)
“In many ways Liddell was the kind of person who, in my heart of hearts, I’d always dreamed of being… . Few lives have more to teach us about the virtue of honor,” said Sir David Puttnam, producer of Chariots of Fire.[i] Read more >>
Sunday Adelaja: Nigerian Missionary to the Ukraine – and the World! (part 2)
Facing great obstacles, Sunday Adelaja obeyed God’s call to start a church in Kiev that would send missionaries around the world. His story is continued from Part 1. Read more >>