Books on Missionary Life

I spent 3 years of my childhood in Bolivia, South America, where my parents served as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Since I WAS a child, I of course look at it all from a child's perspectives. There were some totally awesome things about being a missionary kid, and some hard things as well.  That's true about most things in life -- there are great things and challenging things.

I've enjoyed reading many missionary books through the years.  During the last month, I've read three great missionary books.

The first is "Captured" by Carolyn Miller.  Carolyn and her husband and young daughter LuAnne(age 5, I believe) were captured by North Vietnamese forces at the end of the Vietnam War. They spent close to a year in captivity. It wasn't an incredible awful experience as they were quickly recognized as non combatants.  But still, captivity in the jungle as POW's with a small child was pretty rough.  It was interesting to me to read about the mixture of the mundane with the spiritual. The reality is that almost every life has plenty of mundane, irritating moments.  Miller and family had lots of battles with ants and wet beds and trying to cook food and trying to keep clean. One thing she specifically commented on was the joy of throwing away their clothing when they were released as their clothing was very worn.  But in the middle of their daily struggle for survival were many God moments, when the Lord guided them and encouraged their hearts, when He answered prayers. They were released eventually and reunited with their 3 older children, who had been in school in another place.

I read 2 other great books by Kim Abernethy, entitled "In This Place" and "In Every Place". These are  incredibly REAL missionary books about a missionary family serving in the 1990's and 2000's. I've read books where the missionaries seemed to be floating on a spiritual high where the struggles of daily life didn't seem to weigh them down at all.  Those never seemed very realistic to me.

Kim is incredibly open about her struggles.  She and her husband and (eventually) 3 children served as missionaries in Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Jamaica before returning to the United States to work in a college campus ministry.

They had not one, but TWO, traumatic evacuations during their missionary life.  The first was in Liberia, when a rebel army effectively chased them out of the country on short notice.  Following that, they went to Ivory Coast to minister to Liberian refugees.  Kim and her husband nearly had a nervous breakdown after less than a year of ministry, because the needs were so great and the living situation so difficult.  They had a 2 year stint in Jamaica where they were renewed, then moved to Ivory Coast. After a few years there, they were chased again by another uprising.  Seriously, dudes, that is RARE in missionary life nowadays.

I'm guessing Kim's books sound depressing, but they are not. She mixes humor into her prose, and she also has a great many POWERFUL spiritual insights.

I am not someone who likes traveling all over. I love my roots, I love my grocery stores. I love living in the same house for 10 years.  The missionary life does not appeal to me, though I hope that if we are ever called, we'll go with courage.

But regardless of our earthly journey, we can learn from those living in different circumstances.  These are inspiring books.