Who are your favorite missionaries, and why?

Hey Trent, I posted that question…
Sorry, I should have clarified. It can be any missionary. I have a passion for missions and I wanted to see what missionaries people look up too and why? What makes them a good missionary?
Sorry about that…

I don’t have a singe favorite missionary, but my favorite group of missionaries is the people who go to the often overlooked country of the United States of America. In our increasingly unchristian society there are astounding numbers of people who have no idea of the gospel or have a distorted view of it. A big thank-you for missionaries to America!

I really like Katie Davis too! Her book is one of my all time favorites!

I’d probably have to say Corrie Ten Boom and her sister are my favorites. Even though they weren’t sent by their church or some kind of organization to work, they were sent by God directly to go and shine in the concentration camp. Even after Corrie’s sister died, God gave Corrie the strength to keep on going, to keep on talking about Jesus. Even after she was freed she kept on following Jesus and created a rehabilitation ministry for concentration camp survivors and traveled all over the world, sharing her story. The Ten Boom sisters show me that no matter what you’re going through in life, God will always be there.

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”
~Corrie Ten Boom

A.W.Milne – “A century ago, a band of brave souls became known as one-way missionaries. They purchased single tickets to the mission field without the return half. And instead of suitcases, they packed their few earthly belongings into coffins. As they sailed out of port, they waved good-bye to everyone they loved, everything they knew. They knew they’d never return home. A. W. Milne was one of those missionaries. He set sail for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him. Milne did not fear for his life, because he had already died to himself. His coffin was packed. For thirty-five years, he lived among that tribe and loved them. When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of their village and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone:
When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness. ” (excerpt from All In by Mark Batterson)

Yes, I read Corrie Ten Boom’s book and it was compelling. They were very brave in the camp. And a fun fact: my old Sunday school teacher actually met her before she died.

“God’s Smuggler” is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read! It’s so cool to see how God works.

Has anyone here read Through Gates of Splendor? I don’t have time to get into much detail, but, basically, in Ecuador in 1956, five young men gave their lives in an attempt to reach the natives there with the Gospel. Although they didn’t live to see it, the work they began resulted in the salvation of many of those people. It’s a truly powerful, moving, and inspiring story, and I highly recommend reading the book if you get the chance.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
-Jim Elliot

I have read that book! It is great!

=) Have you seen the movie?

I think I’ve seen that movie before! I barely remember it, though, I saw it before the time I was actually interested in that sort of stuff. XD I’ll have to check out the book.

Cool! I can understand, that’s happened to me before. 🙂 It’s a good movie, though–it made me cry. 😮

Brother Andrew is awesome!

I’m glad I reminded you! 🙂

One of my favorite missionaries is Susan Hoover in Indonesia. When she preached at my summer camp and told us her story. When she was a kid, she was so shy she found it hard to talk to even her parents. All throughout her young life she struggled with self-hatred, And now she is reaching a generally Muslim country and telling them about Jesus! She is one of the most outgoing missionary I know (and I know a few) and her fearlessness is contagious! If you want to find out more, just Google Susan Joy Hoover and read about all her amazing experiences!!!!!!!

No worries! It’s a nobile question.

For me, my favorite missionaries are those who are not afraid to share the gospel. I really feel bad for the ones who socialize for 2 years before even considering the gospel. They’re missing so much of God’s blessings.

God bless you!
– Trent

No. What movie do you mean? I might have to check that out… 🙂

My thoughts exactly :). Jim Elliot is definitely my favorite missionary.

Katie Davis…I believe we passed through the town she works in last year when we went to Uganda. It would have been cool to have met her. And also, if you’re really serious about going to Uganda, my family leads in mission teams there every summer for two weeks. Maybe you can come with us some year. =)

Awesome! Yeah, I thought that other people might have him in mind as well.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
George Mueller’s life has encouraged me to persevere with learning, skills and work because even though we may not know straight away what God has planned for us, He can use every good thing we have learnt for His glory in serving and reaching people, wherever and whenever that is.
Other people who have motivated and blessed me are Don Richardson – author of Peace Child, an incredible account of faith, restoration and grace in West New Guinea amongst cannibalism and spiritualism;
Paul White, the “Jungle Doctor “;
Elizabeth Elliot.
Plus countless people whose stories I have read but can’t remember their names right now. I can also “ditto” those already mentioned.
It’s great reading everyone’s responses, and learning about some who I now want to find out more about! 🙂

And thanks for sending folks here to the UK too!

Another quote by Jim Elliot that is perhaps my favorite quote ever:

“I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you Lord Jesus.”

This one was awesome too:
God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him” ― Jim Elliot

I have “My Heart in His Hands” that tells their story. Need to read it! Missionary stories are so inspiring. 🙂

I love the apostle Paul and Corrie ten Boom too, yet in some respects, I think Betsy was more of a hero than her.

Those are awesome quotes! I’m looking forward to meeting him in heaven one day. 🙂

Favorite missionary? Hudson Taylor is one of my all-time favorite missionaries. Why? He had a love for God and love for the people he was trying to reach, and he went out in faith–depending on God–in order that many the Chinese might be saved. And there are today, by the way, (and I know it’s not all just thanks to one man) more born-again believers in China than anywhere else in the world (from what I hear) which is pretty amazing.

It took me quite a while after reading The Hiding Place before I realized that, but I agree
But both of their lives are inspiring

Hmmm…

Paul
Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom
Hudson Taylor
Brother Andrew
Brother K. P.

I recently read a book on Hudson Taylor, and I really admire him now. Mostly, what stands out for me, is how he trusted God to provide his every need. He never asked for money, and God always gave him more than enough, usually at the last moment.
I think this is really biblical, and I am feeling called to live this way. Isn’t that how the early church operated? I admire Brother Andrew and Brother K. P. (no, they weren’t actually brothers to each other) for the same reasons.

“And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics” Luke 9:3

I like those! should add them to my quote book…

Well, here’s one of my favorites:

For school this year I read a book about an Indian (a man from India) named Sundar Singh. He was born into a Sikh (an Indian religion) family and hated Christianity during his early years. He converted to Christianity after seeing a vision of Jesus Christ just before when he planned on committing suicide. He then was forced to leave his family who hated him for converting to Christianity. He decided that he needed to spread the good news of his new religion, but he disliked the way that the English would try to force their own western style of the Christian religion on the Indians, and he believed that the Indians should practice Christianity in a way that reflected their own culture. Sundar thought that it would be a good idea to travel and preach as a sadhu, which was an Indian holy man, who was easily recognizable by their orange robes. Most sadhus were Buddhist, but Sundar was a Christian sadhu. Wherever he traveled, he was respected as a sadhu, but was usually rejected when the people of whatever town he was in discovered that he was a Christian. Anyway, to make a looooong story short, Sundar always felt called over the Himalaya Mountains into Tibet, and he eventually gave in to the call, and trekked through the frigid mountain passes on his bare feet and and preached to the Tibetans. He overcame torture and a life sentence, plus being robbed and threatened, being chased by a wild yak (very dangerous) and almost drowning in a freezing mountain river. He also went on public preaching tours all over India, several European countries, and even America and Australia. He was renowned as a great teacher and his fame passed ahead of him everywhere he went. During his tours, he missed going to Tibet, and one time, after returning home to India, he left on a trip over the Himalayas into Tibet, but was never seen again. He died following he calling, but no one knows how, because no one traveled with him as he journeyed over the mountains. I encourage you to look up his story somewhere.

Very interesting…Dean Kershner was at my church once too! I’ve only met him once, but he seems like a really neat guy who is passionate about missions.

Jim Elliot was definitely a rebelutionary!

Bro. Sam Davis is a missionary to Mexico. He has a 50,000 bounty on his head by the Mexican government and drug-dealers. Hence, he lives a life of complete and absolute faith on God. In one instance, he was working on his car. God told him to go town..NOW. He went. While he was there he got a call from his neighbor asking if he was okay…because his house was surrounded by black SUV’s with tinted windows and they were there to kill him and burn his house. But he knows God’s not done with him and he has no fear of the Mexican government/drug gangs that want to kill him. He’s made a huge impact on my life! God tells him, he obeys. Pretty awesome if you ask me. 🙂

I didn’t know that. I just knew he died in prayer and the people buried his heart but sent his body back to England. I did a paper on Victoria Falls and its discoverer, and I still didn’t know that!

I just finished reading a book on David Livingstone. Perfect timing!

I’m writing a research paper on Hudson Taylor right now! He was pretty awesome.

Yes He is! It’s one thing to read about people that have government groups trying to kill them, but it’s another thing to listen to them telling you that face to face! Life changing.

It’s in Scotland. I know most you guys are in the states but if you’re ever over it’s well worth visiting Glasgow for Livingstone and Dundee if you are interested in Mary Slessor (there’s some big anniversary coming up about her I think).

My favorite missionary of all time is… JESUS!
I don’t think I have to explain why… Lol 😉

I loved Bruchko! Twas’ a fantastic book. Glad I am not the only one who has read it. I also like Peace Child (don’t remember the authors name). 😉

Peace Child does have some pretty violent and gruesome parts in it. It is definitely not a book for all ages, but if you think you can handle it than I would highly recommend it. I have read God’s Smuggler! It is another one of my favorites. 🙂

Um…let’s see if I can pick just one…no.
Stanley Dale (read Lords of the Earth; also read the author’s autobiography, Peace Child) — maybe my favorite. He was a little Aussie kid with a neglecting father and daydreaming mother who, upon reading “If” by Rudyard Kipling (my favorite poem), became tough physically (served as a commando in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in WWII) and spiritually tough…when turned down by every missionary board, he went without one because he had the One he needed. He eventually went to a religiously fanatical tribe in PNG, trusted everything to God by not caring for what anyone thought, and being shot to death with his missionary co-worker by the tribe after making a handful of converts. Like the Jim Elliot et al. crew in Ecuador, Dale’s death (and his friend’s) helped bring the entire tribe to Christ. Also, I met his oldest son, Wesley Dale, in Timika, PNG. The fact that Stan Dale’s son (I don’t know about his other children) was still in PNG after his father’s death after all those years (Wesley was really old for a missionary) testifies to the power of Christ: nothing can turn away His ambassadors.
Bruchko (aka Bruce Olsen, read Bruchko, formerly For This Cross I’ll Kill You) — Bruchko began as the son of a Methodist family who were Methodist, not Christian. He knew biblical Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and also Sanskrit, but once he truly knew God, he chaffed at the fake religiosity of his church. At the age of nineteen (ish), he flew to Venezuela or Cambodia (not sure which) knowing no Spanish at all. Like Dale, all of the missionary boards wanted him to go back, get a missionary education, and come back later; he just walking into the jungle, almost died a bunch of times, and is still there to this day. He is now an expert on the local tribes, defending their land rights, and managed one of the hardest things for missionaries to do: give the locals the Gospel without the culture of the missionary. Read the book; you won’t regret it.
George Muller–this guy got some two million pounds (the uninflated hundred-year-ago version) over his life by praying, not asking people. He had built six mansion-orphanages by his death and brought countless British orphans to Christ. I read the Christian Heroes Then & Now book on him; it was good, but I need to find a more in-depth one.
David Wilkerson (read The Cross and the Switchblade)–Wilkerson was a Pennsylvanian pastor who felt he should go to NYC in 1958. He eventually became the Muller of NYC, bringing numerous gangs to Christ (not like let’s-hang-out-and-be-a-gang, but like they-killed-our-friend-so-let’s-kill-them kind of gang). He dealt with the worst teenage gangs imaginable, all without a backing organization–only with Christ. He died in 2011.
Nate Saint et al. (there’s a book or two about this one; also read anything Elizebeth Elliot)–I say “Nate Saint et al.” instead of “Jim Elliot et al.” to highlight the fact that there were five guys then, but it seems everyone only remember Jim because of his wife’s writings (which, to be fair, are amazing). Also, I want to be a missionary pilot, and Nate was the pilot of the group and flew a really cool cloth yellow Piper Cruiser. The full list was Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian. They died bringing the Gospel to the Aucas, a very, very violent Ecuadorian tribe, and their deaths paved the way for their wives to convert the tribe.
It’s a bit long…sorry. However, I must add one more group: all of the unknown-to-the-world-but-written-in-the-book-of-the-Lamb missionaries, not only the ones who left their country, but everyone who followed Christ and it cost them something (which is redundant; if following Christ doesn’t cost anything, then are you really following Christ?). Not every Christian has a book, nor has braved stone-tipped arrows, but every Christian has earned his crown. I can’t wait for the day that we’ll celebrate all of them!
P.S. Thanks for reading to this point. It’s a word or two.