Rebecca Davis has changed that with her Hidden Heroes missionary biographies series from Christian Focus Publications, written for ages 6-12. Children will experience how God is working in some of the spiritually darkest, most remote, or most hidden areas of the world.
Each of the missionary stories for children follow the stories of the people in each area over a period of decades rather than exploring the biography of one individual missionary. I love the focus each book has on the movement of the Holy Spirit amongst the people God calls to Himself.
Missionary Biographies Kids Will Adore
Rebecca Davis has a gift for telling the stories of missionaries ministering to tribal people groups. Even more impressive, she is gifted at telling these stories for elementary-aged children in a way that honors the people being ministered to and celebrates the obedience of the missionaries.
She has done an amazing job of incorporating the stories of multiple missionaries and professionals who gave their lives’ best (and sometimes their lives) in service of Christ as they shared the Gospel with multiple unreached people groups. Mrs. Davis’ theme of “God at Work” is evident throughout the books.
One of the things I love about the Hidden Heroes missionary biographies series is that it covers the work of God over a period of many years in a specific area. These areas aren’t Western, and often fall within the “10/40 Window” of missions, where few missionaries venture, and those that do risk their lives. These are countries held in spiritual bondage, and the effect of the gospel on those who live there is clear. I love that the books cover the stories of a number of believers, telling of both their conversion, and their public witness for Christ.
With Two Hands: True Stories of God at work in Ethiopia (Hidden Heroes)
The Good News Must Go Out: True Stories of God at work in the Central African Republic (Hidden Heroes)Witness Men: True Stories of God at work in Papua, Indonesia (Hidden Heroes)Return of the White Book: True Stories of God at Work in Southeast Asia (Hidden Heroes)Lights in a Dark Place: True Stories of God at work in Colombia (Hidden Heroes)Living Water in the Desert: True Stories of God at work in Iran (Hidden Heroes)
Missionary Stories for Children
These missionary stories for kids are a great addition to your homeschool read-alouds, your evening devotions, or your bedtime readings.
The Hidden Heroes series is appropriate to be read aloud to ages 6-8 and for independent reading for 9-12 year olds. The sentence structure and voice are very appropriate for elementary students, and there are pen and ink drawings throughout each chapter to add interest.
Even so, the subject matter is interesting enough for a middle school child. My 10- and 12-year-old boys (at the time we read them) loved the stories in all of the Hidden Heroes books. My children and I really enjoyed reading the stories of tribal people impacted by missionaries sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Just a note: you may consider reading it with your younger children so that you can discuss some of the more sensitive topics. You will want to be aware that these missionary biographies discuss some darker spirituality, sometimes with animists, drug dealers, and cannibals. Mrs. Davis is never graphic and I believe she handles these issues with care. The missionaries must share the Gospel within the context of the culture they’re ministering to. This makes for some interesting Bible stories.
Each of the missionary biographies has a “Thinking Further” section in the back of the book which includes Bible verses and discussion questions about each chapter of the book. I highly recommend utilizing this resource as you read.
These missionary biographies for kids are exciting tales of God’s power and might over the forces of evil.
Rebecca Davis’ Hidden Heroes missionary biographies for kids do a wonderful job of narrating the way God moves through His people to save those who have never heard the gospel before.
I highly recommend both the Hidden Heroes missionary biographies for kids series. Let’s take a brief look at each book.
Missionary Biographies for Kids
Hidden Heroes #1: With Two Hands: True Stories of God at Work in Ethiopia
With Two Hands: True Stories of God at work in Ethiopia (Hidden Heroes)
With Two Hands loosely follows the work of Australian missionary Dick McLellan who began working with Sudan Interior Mission in Ethiopia during the late 1950s. He ministered there for 23 years before being forced out by the communist regime which seized the country. Mr. McLellan spent an additional 24 years working with Global Recordings Network.
During his service to the Lord, Dick McLellan and the people he discipled encountered remarkable circumstances and results which can only be explained by the providential hand of God. Rebecca Davis tells these stories in a moving narrative that leaves the reader in awe of how God arranged for those He called to come to Him in spite of their terrible spiritual bondage to tribal spirits and traditions. I love that she tells the stories of many of our Ethiopian brothers and sisters who came to Christ and ministered for him in spite of hostility and threats. The picture painted focuses not on the work of one man, but rather on the work of the Holy Spirit.
With Two Hands missionary biographies for kids coordinates well with studies involving:
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Africa / Ethiopia
- The 20th Century / Modern Era
- Dick McClellan
- Missionary Stories for Children
- Tribal Religions
- Communism
Hidden Heroes #2: The Good News Must Go Out: True Stories of God at Work in the Central African Republic
From the Christian Focus Publications page:
“From one old woman’s prayer a young girl was brought to faith, a missionary was sent to Africa and then a church was born from among the people of Central Africa.
Missionaries from the West came with the message of Jesus Christ – but it was the men and women saved from cannibalism, the young boys who herded goats and who carted water who really brought the Good News even farther to more and more villages and homesteads in Africa … and the Good News must go out.”
The Good News Must Go Out missionary biographies for kids coordinates well with studies involving:
- Africa
- Early 1900s
- Missionary Stories for Children
- Margaret Nicoll Laird
- Cannibalism
Hidden Heroes #3: Witness Men: True Stories of God at Work in Papua, Indonesia
Witness Men: True Stories of God at work in Papua, Indonesia (Hidden Heroes)
Christian Focus Publications provided me with a copy of Witness Men: True Stories of God at Work in Papua, Indonesia by Rebecca Davis in return for my honest opinion.
It’s not often that my kids cheer multiple times during the reading of a book. They laugh, they frown, but rarely do I see them clap, whoop, or shout “Go God!” while we’re reading. Yet Rebecca Davis’ new middle grade book Witness Men: True Stories of God at Work in Papua, Indonesia was just such a book. I wholeheartedly shared their enthusiasm for the story of how God moved through Papua, Indonesia. The tale of how the Gospel of the Good News of Jesus Christ swept that country is inspiring, humbling and–well, it’s worth whooping about.
The tribal people of Papua, Indonesia (previously called Dutch New Guinea, West Irian, Irian Jaya, and West Papua) were animists, violent warriors, and cannibals. Their contact with the outside world was limited in some areas to other Indonesian islands and, in the depths of the islands, the people had been isolated for centuries.
Mrs. Davis begins her story in 1938 with the Western world’s discovery of tens of thousands of tribal Papuans and ends with the Kimyal people finally receiving copies of the New Testament in their own language in early 2010. Throughout the book there are stories of individual Papuans, tribes and missionaries. It is amazing to see the transformation of entire tribes as the grace of God is understood and received.
The title Witness Men refers to the newly Christian Papuan men who took up the cross of Christ and began to spread the Gospel to other tribes. The dark in Papua was so dark and the light of the Gospel so bright that Witness Men becomes an epic tale of good vs. evil, dark vs. light, and demons vs. the Creator of the Universe.
Witness Men missionary biographies for kids coordinates well with studies involving:
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Indonesia
- Missionary Stories for Children
- 1938-2010
- Bible distribution
- Native missionaries
Hidden Heroes #4: Return of the White Book: True Stories of God at Work in Southeast Asia
Return of the White Book: True Stories of God at Work in Southeast Asia (Hidden Heroes)
Christian Focus Publications gave me a copy of Return of the White Book: True Stories of God at Work in Southeast Asia by Rebecca Davis in return for my honest review.
Return of the White Book tells the stories of tribal people groups in the hill country of Burma during the 1800s. Oppressed by the Burmans and living in constant fear of the nats — evil spirits who served the head evil spirit Mukawli, the hill people of Burma waited for the return of the lost White Book from the true God Yuwah. They believed Yuwah had departed from them after the first man and woman had eaten of fruit forbidden by Yuwah. Mukawli tempted the first couple until they finally ate of the forbidden fruit, falling from Yuwah’s grace and becoming slaves to the nats.
Early missionaries to Southeast Asia found people living in abject fear — yet open to the truth of the one, true God Yahweh, living with the knowledge of God written on their hearts. Presented with fair skinned men and women carrying books about a true God written on white pages, the tribes of Burma came to Christ one by one. Through 17 chapters (143 pages), children will hear the stories of lives radically changed by the gospel of God. These are true stories of real people freed from the bondage of sin and spiritual slavery.
Rebecca Davis does not focus on the lives of the men and women who traveled into the hill country of Burma to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Rather, she focuses on the lives and communities changed by the gospel. We see the fruit of salvation in the lives of native peoples who take up their crosses for Jesus and share the Lord with the tribes around them, often at great personal and physical risk. The results of conversion are touching and radical.
Return of the White Book missionary biographies for kids coordinates well with studies involving:
-
Southeast Asia
- The 19th Century
- Adoniram Judson
- Missionary Stories for Children
- Tribal Religions
- Native Missionaries
Hidden Heroes #5: Lights in a Dark Place: True Stories of God at Work in Colombia
Lights in a Dark Place: True Stories of God at work in Colombia (Hidden Heroes)
Christian Focus 4 Kids provided me with a copy of Lights in A Dark Place in return for my honest review.
The stories in Lights in a Dark Place involve the extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit in each situation. There are dreams and God “speaks” to believers in different circumstances. That seems (to me) to be a fairly common in testimonies of how God moves in foreign missions in difficult areas. God is indeed powerful, and He impacts lives directly. That’s evident in these narratives.
The missionary stories told span from 1935 to today. Children will learn about how God has moved to rescue the people of Colombia from the spiritual oppression of idolatry and the false gospel of Roman Catholicism, the guerilla warfare resulting from the twisted ideals of Communism, and the heartbreaking brutality of the drug trade.
In that way, the missionary stories of Lights in a Dark Place are a little different than the rest of the series. The people of modern-era Colombia were not isolated tribesmen, living without any contact with the outside world. They were tribal and village dwellers, living on the brink of modern-day civilization. The spiritual oppression in the area is evident in the stories told in this book, as it is in all of the Hidden Heroes books. I appreciate that, as the dynamic of good versus evil is very clear. The impact of the true gospel of Jesus Christ in the lives of those He calls is immediate and clear. I think it’s excellent for kids to be able to read about how Jesus changes the hearts of His own, and to be able to see how that heart change impacts an entire culture.
Lights in a Dark Place missionary biographies for kids coordinates well with studies involving:
-
Colombia / South America
- The 20th Century / Modern Era
- Russell Stendal
- Missionary Stories for Children
- Catholicism / Tribal Religions
- Communism
Hidden Heroes #6: Living Water in the Desert: True Stories of God at Work in Iran
Living Water in the Desert: True Stories of God at work in Iran (Hidden Heroes)
I want to thank Christian Focus 4 Kids for providing me with a copy of Living Water in the Desert in return for my honest review, and with a copy for the giveaway.
Living Water in the Desert: True Stories of God at Work in Iran tells conversion stories of a number of Iranians, beginning in 1811 and ending in the present day. In 1811, Iran was Persia, and Henry Martyn was briefly a missionary to the Muslim land. Iran has long been hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the “Living Water” Christ offers was slow to take root, but has quenched the eternal thirst of many. The book ends with the account of Saeed Abedini, and accounts of the number of Iranians currently coming to Christ every month.
Living Water in the Desert couldn’t come at a better time, in my opinion. As Muslims increasingly leave their home territory for new lands, our children need to understand the difference between Islam and Christianity. They need to see the difference between the beliefs and practices of the two religions, and to understand clearly that we do not serve the same God (for Christians serve the triune God–the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, while Muslims serve Allah, and see Jesus as a lesser human prophet than Mohommed).
Children need to understand why we share the gospel–the good news of Jesus Christ–even when it may bring danger to our lives. We need to teach our children that even martyrdom is not to be feared. Rebecca Davis shows all of this through winsome stories of Iranian believers, called by Jesus as His own, often in visions and dreams.
Living Water in the Desert: True Stories of God in Iran missionary biographies for kids coordinates well with studies involving:
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Iran
- The 19th Century
- The 20th and 21st Centuries / Modern Era
- Missionary Stories for Children
- Islam
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Christian Biographies for Kids | Christian History for Kids | Theology for Kids
Christian History Matters for Our Kids.
History matters. Now, more than ever, we see how important it is for our children to know and understand history and the Bible.
Here’s why:
- God is the sovereign ruler of all things. It’s important for our kids to see his hand in the history of nations and in the lives of both peasants and kings.
- Christian history is the story of our family history. Our kids get to see how people who love Jesus follow him.
- Understanding history can help our kids learn historic and biblical theology. They learn what the Bible says and what that means for us. They also see when the study of Scripture has taken important turns that have changed the Church.
- Reading Christian biographies and history can be a wonderful way for kids to think outside their own time and culture. God’s Church spans centuries and includes people from every nation.
- Christian biographies help kids consider their own faith, walk with Jesus, and the impact their witness may one day have on others–and on history.
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