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What are your favorite missionary stories?


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I found a big stack of the Christian Heroes Then and Now series at Salvation Army. My dh is reading them to the kids. They have read through like 3 so far and my dh and older two kids really enjoy them. The younger two listen because he reads to them in bed, but they aren't really for those ages.

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YWAM (Youth with a mission) publishing has some great stories about missions/missionaries, including Christian Heroes Then and Now (under Missionary Adventures on the menu to the left) https://www.ywampublishing.com/c-55-missions-for-kids.aspx

 

Missionary Stories with the Millers is very popular too and covers a lot of different countries too! http://www.milestonebooks.com/item/20-505/

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I'm looking for well-written Christian missionary stories (all sects, protestant, catholic, etc.) both for me to read to myself and also some that would be good to read aloud to my girls (8 and 9 yo). I thought it would be neat way for them to learn geography.

 

Any ideas?

 

ETA: So sorry, not meaning to offend those who kindly recommended titles in this thread that were series I listed in our "didn't care for list!

 

 

NOT personally fond of most of the Christian Heroes Then and Now biographies by the Benges (we did like the Gladys Alyward one) -- seemed formulaic with unrealistic characters. The Trailblazer series didn't click with us either for similar reasons. BUT, do check them out yourself, as others DO like these. The International Adventures YWAM biographies are definitely for older students (age 12+), and were real hit-and-miss for us.

 

I have seen missionary biographies from the Young Reader's Christian Library (Barbour publishing) receive postive reviews (no personal experience).

 

 

Specific missionary titles we liked:

 

- The Rat Catcher's Son (age 6+)

- Missionary Stories with the Millers (age 6+)

- And the Word Came With Power (age 6+)

- Trial and Triumph (age 7+) -- martyrs through the ages; short, 2-4 page bios

- the Sowers series of biographies (age 7+)

- It's A Jungle Out There (age 9+)

- Bruchko (age 11+)

- God's Smuggler (age 11+)

- The Hiding Place (age 11+)

- Tramp for the Lord (age 11+)

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I Heard Good News Today by Cornelia Lehn. It's a wonderful collection of short stories and is not denomination-specific. My children really enjoyed it, as did I.

 

 

I forgot that I own this book! DD loved the first couple of stories, not sure why we didn't finish it. I'll have to dust it off.

 

My absolute favorite missionary story is God's Smuggler. Older DD (9 yo) might be ready for it now. Whenever a missionary comes to speak at church she gets a sparkle in her eyes and is absolutely enraptured by the things they share. That's why I started this book hunt. :)

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Well, am I allowed to reccomend you avoid some? We are reading Missionary Stories with the Millers as part of school this year and I have a real love/hate relationship with it. I have to edit the wording A LOT. It's a horribly racist book. It perpetuates the dirty heathen saved by the brilliant western christian model. We're over halfway through it and I'm not sure if we'll finish it. BUT the kids really enjoy this one, so that is why we are still reading it.

 

The Hero Tales by the Jacksons wasn't particularly offensive, from my memory, but it was not a compelling read. I was dragging myself and the kids through it until we gave up on it (I gave it a real try - I think we did most of it).

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Well, am I allowed to reccomend you avoid some? We are reading Missionary Stories with the Millers as part of school this year and I have a real love/hate relationship with it. I have to edit the wording A LOT. It's a horribly racist book. It perpetuates the dirty heathen saved by the brilliant western christian model. We're over halfway through it and I'm not sure if we'll finish it. BUT the kids really enjoy this one, so that is why we are still reading it.

 

 

 

Thanks for the reminder of that! We read the Millers so long ago, I had forgotten I had to do the same thing...

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For you or older kids:

A Chance To Die by Elisabeth Elliot, about Amy Carmichael.

Through Gates of Splendor, also by Elisabeth Elliot, about her first husband, Jim Elliot.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is excellent!

God's Smuggler is very good read, exciting.

 

I find the writing in the YWAM series quite poor.

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The old Vision Books series had quite a few well-written missionary stories, many of which have been reprinted by Ignatius Press, including

 

Father Marquette and the Great Rivers

St Francis of the Seven Seas

St Ignatius and the Company of Jesus

St Isaac and the Indians

 

Also, Augustine Came to Kent (about the little Augustine, not the big one!) is very good.

 

Bonus points: the Fr Marquette and St Ignatius books were written by August Derleth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Derleth

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My favorite is Gladys Aylward's autobiography, The Little Woman. It's gripping, and it really tells you of her journey.

 

I have some issues with some of the stories in the Miller's book, too--but a couple are worth reading, for sure.

 

You might like some of the Voice of The Martyr's materials, and if those persecuted for their faith are of interest to you, there is a neat website where you can truly help. For example, you and your kids can compose a letter to a Christian in prison and print it out and send it. The site has phrases you click on to compose it in the person's own language.

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I just had to come back on and say that my son cheered this morning when I pulled out the Missionary Stories with the Millers book. He said:

 

"Yeah! The killing book! I love the killing stories!".

 

So there you go. A review by a 5 yo. He also followed it up with, "When I grow up I do not want to be a missionary because I don't want to be killed."

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I just had to come back on and say that my son cheered this morning when I pulled out the Missionary Stories with the Millers book. He said:

 

"Yeah! The killing book! I love the killing stories!".

 

So there you go. A review by a 5 yo. He also followed it up with, "When I grow up I do not want to be a missionary because I don't want to be killed."

 

 

:smilielol5:

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We've been enjoying the Voice of the Martyrs Bold Believers downloads found here: http://www.kidsofcourage.com/

 

We are reading through Missionary Stories with the Millers...we look the country up on a map after we read about it. We're also reading The Story of David Livingstone by Vautier Golding.

 

Notebooking Pages has some missionary notebook pages in their free downloads as well.

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I just had to come back on and say that my son cheered this morning when I pulled out the Missionary Stories with the Millers book. He said:

 

"Yeah! The killing book! I love the killing stories!".

 

So there you go. A review by a 5 yo. He also followed it up with, "When I grow up I do not want to be a missionary because I don't want to be killed."

 

When they were younger, my children mentioned that they noticed that missionaries were always very poor.

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We love the Torchlighter's videos from Voice of the Martyrs! Each video highlights a specific hero of the faith and there is a great free teacher's guide and student guide that goes with each video that you can download from the Torchlighter's site. We study one hero a month and do the corresponding activities. I could have never forseen what an impact these studies have had on my kids and me.

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The Jungle Doctor books by Paul White. They are set in the 40's in Tanzania. But the messages of Christian living are very good. I would assume that traditional life in the bush hasn't changed too much from that time but I might be wrong about that. There is a recent reprint of the books out. It is a series of 19 books but each book can be read as a standalone too.

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