Missionary Resources

Here's a list of mission organizations, books, articles, and blog posts I recommend to those interested in learning more about mission work and effectively making a difference overseas. I'll add to the list as I have time.

Articles and blog posts:

8 Reasons You Should Never Become a Missionary
Short Term Missions and a Church in Haiti
On Short Term Missions; Justifying the Truckload of Cash Spent
Rethinking the $3000 Missions Trip
Giving Money to Child Beggars: Don't Do It

Missionary blogs:

Livesay Haiti blog - A missionary family in Haiti.
John Mark and Sara Sheppard - Missionaries in Liberia
A Life Overseas - A wonderful website where people in all aspects of overseas work share posts about life and work overseas.

Mission organizations and ministries:

The Master's Missions
SIM International

New Hope Uganda
Orphan Relief and Rescue (Liberia)
Heartline Ministries - Haiti

Books:

Confessions of a Transformed Heart, by Nancy Sheppard

Missionary Nancy Sheppard chronicles her spiritual journey through the difficulties of missionary work in Liberia with her family. The Liberian civil war changes the course of their lives and Nancy struggles through the difficulties of refugee work, obeying God's Word, foster care, and women's ministries. Through her journey she sees how much God loves her and the deep joy and purpose in giving your life one hundred percent to God.

Tears of the Rain, by Ruth Ann Stelfox

Written in journal style, Ruth Ann Stelfox shares of her family's two years in Liberia from 2002-2004. She relates the heartbreaking accounts of dying war orphans, desperate refugees, and people affected by witchcraft and cannibalism.

"In the midst of this darkness, they found joy, love, lasting friendships, and hearts open to the light of God's love. They saw beauty in the scarred landscape around then, and the tears of Heaven in the torrential African rains. As they worked to help change the loves of those around them, their own lives were changed, and the miracles they witnessed increased their awe of the God they had gone to Africa to serve." (From Amazon).

The Stelfox family was involved with fostering Liberian orphans and assisted in the very first wave of international adoptions out of Liberia after the war.

Evidence Not Seen: A Woman's Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II, by Darlene Deibler Rose

This is the true story of a young American missionary woman's courage and triumph of faith in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and her four years in a notorious Japanese prison camp.

Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption, by Katie Davis

Katie Davis left over Christmas break of her senior year for a short mission trip to Uganda and her life was turned completely inside out. She found herself so moved by the people of Uganda and the needs she saw that she knew her calling was to return and care for them. Katie, a charismatic and articulate young woman, is in the process of adopting thirteen children in Uganda and has established a ministry, Amazima, that feeds and sends hundreds more to school while teaching them the Word of Jesus Christ.

Kisses from Katie invites readers on a journey of radical love down the red dirt roads of Uganda. You’ll laugh and cry with Katie as she follows Jesus into the impossible and finds joy and beauty beneath the dust. Katie and her children delight in saying yes to the people God places in front of them and challenge readers to do the same, changing the world one person at a time.