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Missionary Memoirs

The Great Missionary Movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was one dimension of a world on the move. With advances in transportation and communication, millions of folks uprooted themselves and sought new lands and new opportunities. Cultures collided and interacted in unprecedented ways, sometimes benevolently and other times more tragically.

Joining this cavalcade of travelers, Christian missionaries ventured forth from Europe and North America into, what was for them, unknown lands. For the glory of God and the salvation of countless souls, these intrepid believers planted themselves in new soil, sharing the seeds of Good News to all who would listen. Their encounters with new peoples, new religions and new ways of doing things were to transform their host countries as well as themselves. Moreover, when the missionaries returned 鈥渉ome,鈥� they transformed their native countries.

Narratives of these extraordinary people are rich in accounts of this transformative process, often highly personal and told with fulsome detail and complex texture. They stand as vibrant spiritual testimonies as well as unique anthropological records. They are well worth preserving for future generations.

The Van Raalte Press鈥檚 Missionary Memoirs Series is dedicated to publishing these wonderful narratives. Drawing on diaries, memoirs, letters and other contemporary documents, the authors in this series bring to life particular times and places, stories that enliven all times and places.

Click through the titles below to read more about each book and find ordering information.

• Seeds of Hope, Hate, and Change: Missionary Witnesses to the Middle East in Transition (2020) by Donald A. Luidens
• Margaret's Mission to Arabia, Africa and India 1965鈥�2010 (2021) by Paul Heusinkveld with Margaret Doorenbos
• Faith, Hope, and Love: The Hakeem鈥檚 Journey (2022) by David G. Dickason
• A Place to Call Home: A Missionary Kid鈥檚 Tale (2022) by George C. Kraft II
• The Stories of Arthur King and Christine Iverson Bennett: Medical Missionaries in Mesopotamia, 1904鈥�1916 (2023) by Christine I. Bennett, Arthur King Bennett
• Tena Huizenga: Missionary to Nigeria, 1937鈥�54 (2023) by Shawn Brix (originally published in 1994)

A related Van Raalte Press publication:

• Aunt Tena 鈥� Called to Serve: Journals and Letters of Tena A. Huizenga, Missionary Nurse to Nigeria (2009) edited by Jacob E. Nyenhuis, Robert P. Swierenga, and Lauren M. Berka

Forthcoming

The joint mission of the Christian Reformed Church of North America and the Reformed Church in Japan was a remarkable post-War enterprise. Richard Sytsema was a participant in that experience and has recorded it in a comprehensive record, We Served Side by Side: The Cooperation of the Christian Reformed Japan Mission and the Reformed Church in Japan, 1951鈥�2016 (Van Raalte Press, 2025).

Gordon and Evon Laman served as missionaries in Japan for more than forty years. Their memoir, A Clear Vision: The Motivation for Gordon D. and Evon Laman to Serve as Missionaries to Japan, 1959鈥�2002 (Van Raalte Press, 2025), written by Gordon, is a revealing account of the reasons they (and so many others) became missionaries.