Mission Memoirs

The stench of decay pierced the air aboard the boxcar of trapped Jews. "Why me?" 15-year-old Max asked himself, as a convoy rumbled from the Warsaw Ghetto to Majdanek death camp in May 1943. The Nazis had destroyed the Glauben family's business, upended their rights, and ultimately decimated their neighborhood. The deluge of questions would only intensify after the Nazis murdered Max's mother, father, and brother. Max channeled grit and determination to outlast six horrific concentration camps in his quest to survive.

This is the incredible true story of a brave military unit in Vietnam that risked everything to rescue an outnumbered troop under heavy fire-and the 39-year odyssey to recognize their bravery.

The Fourth Horseman tells the startling story of that mission, led by a brilliant but conflicted surgeon who became one of Germany's most daring spies and saboteurs during World War I - and who not only pioneered bio-warfare in his native land but also lead a last-ditch German effort to goad Mexico into invading the United States. It is a story of mysterious missions, divided loyalties, and a new and terrible kind of warfare.

Since 1997 Maggie Gobran and her organization, Stephen's Children, have been changing lives in Cairo's notorious zabala, or garbage slums. Her innovative, transformational work has garnered worldwide fame and multiple Nobel Prize nominations, but her full story has remained untold—until now. Best-selling authors Martin Makary and Ellen Vaughn chronicle Mama Maggie's surprising pilgrimage from privileged child to stylish businesswoman to college professor pondering God's call to change.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the vast expanse of the Soviet Union became accessible to the outside world. Suddenly, the Church of the Nazarene was confronted with exciting and challenging opportunities for ministry and missions. Among those spearheading this pioneering missionary work were Franklin Cook and Carla Sunberg, the authors of Pulling Back the Curtain on the Former Soviet Union.

In this debut history from one of America's most influential political journalists, Bret Baier casts the three days between Dwight Eisenhower's prophetic "farewell address" on the evening of January 17, 1961, and his successor John F. Kennedy's inauguration on the afternoon of January 20 as the final mission of one of modern America's greatest leaders.

Operation Babylift: Mission Accomplished tells the inspiring story of two survivors and the relationship they forged from the tragic events of April 4, 1975. During the final days before the fall of Saigon, Gerald Ford initiated Operation Babylift. This humanitarian mission was a mass evacuation of orphans from South Vietnam. Approximately 3,000 children were evacuated during this mission. In a horrible twist of fate, the inaugural flight ended in tragedy as the Galaxy C5A experienced a rapid decompression and crash landed in the rice fields just outside of Tan Son Nhut airport.

Stacey Dash didn't have the ideal American childhood. Growing up in the South Bronx, her friends were the hustlers, hookers, and gang members who struggled in the face of futility, who sold drugs instead of living on food stamps, who settled matters with fists, knives, and guns because it seemed their only option, who stood tall against broken dreams. Dash's rough upbringing shaped the rest of her life - her relationships, her politics, even her faith.

The winners of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting tell the astonishing story of Mary Clarke. At the age of 50, Clarke left her comfortable life in suburban Los Angeles to follow a spiritual calling to care for the prisoners in one of Mexico's most notorious jails. She actually moved into a cell to live among drug kingpins and petty thieves. She has led many of them through profound spiritual transformations in which they turned away from their lives of crime, and she has deeply touched the lives of all who have witnessed the depth of her compassion.

One of the first Methodist bishops in America, English-born Francis Asbury devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback to preach and teach to those living on the vastly isolated American frontier. Alone in a new country, with no home of his own, Asbury rode over 300,000 miles—across rivers and through rocky, overgrown roads—shining God’s light on the fledgling colonies.

An Improbable Friendship is the dual biography of Israeli Ruth Dayan, now 98, who was Moshe Dayan's wife for 37 years, and Palestinian journalist Raymonda Tawil, Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law, now 74. It reveals for the first time the two women's surprising and secret 40-year friendship and delivers the story of their extraordinary and turbulent lives growing up in a war-torn country.

Stolen valor occurs when a person lies about receiving military decorations that he or she has in fact never earned. It has become a major societal problem that has been discussed numerous times in the news and, most recently, by the US Supreme Court. According to The New York Times, the Department of Veterans Affairs paid disability benefits to more than six hundred people falsely claiming to have been POWs in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.

"It took months of God waking me up in the middle of the night before I realized I was the one He was calling to leave my comfortable American life and move to Haiti." Miracle on Voodoo Mountain is the inspirational memoir of an accomplished and driven 24-year-old who quit her job, sold everything, and moved to Haiti, by herself - all without a clear plan of action. Megan Boudreaux had visited Haiti on a few humanitarian trips but each trip multiplied the sense that someone needed to address the devastation.

In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Korean escapees to safety. The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo—to instead live boldly by his principles.

This is the dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist Dr. Ronald Mallett, who recently discovered the basic equations for a working time machine that he believes can be used as a transport vehicle to the past. Combining elements of Rocket Boys and Elegant Universe, Time Traveler follows Mallett's discovery of Einstein's work on space-time, his study of Godel's work on a solution of Einstein's equation that might allow for time travel.

In late 1940 a group of five young Australian soldiers set out on a secret mission: one of the Second World War’s most daring operations and the first for Britain’s legendary Special Operations Executive. Leading a small force of Ethiopian freedom fighters on an epic trek across the harsh African bush from the Sudan, the small incursion force entered Italian-occupied Ethiopia and began waging a guerilla war against the 250,000-strong Italian army. One of these men, Ken Burke, was Duncan McNab's uncle.

Practically everyone in the western world has heard of the man called St. Patrick. But hardly anyone knows anything about him. About the only two things that more people "know" about Patrick is that he was Irish and Roman Catholic. In truth, he was neither. He was British, and he belonged to the autonomous Celtic church. Although Patrick is the most famous person of his age, the real man has been buried in a cloud of myths

Dive into the captivating journey of American preacher Johnnie Washington with "Meet Johnnie Washington: The Apostle’s Mission To Sanctify America" by Mack C. Mason, narrated by Ron Garner. Experience the remarkable transformation of Johnnie Washington from a notable gospel singer to a dynamic preacher, whose fiery sermons drew thousands to his tent revivals and megachurch, the Tabernacle of Prayer For All People in Jamaica, NY.

Katherine’s story begins with tragedies, but God touched her heart at a crusade and led her to Uganda as a missionary to the children. Leaving her prestigious job and home, she went to a land of mud huts and polluted water. In the midst of sickness and poverty, she loved and cared for the orphans of the war-torn country as she faced witch doctors and Muslim agitators. Katherine shares her life story to help us know we can all make a difference - if only we let God....

The Faith-Promoting Series began in 1879 with the publication of this book, My First Mission. At that time George Q. Cannon, who was a member of the First Presidency, desired to produce a series of books that would both teach faith and other important gospel principles as well as be entertaining enough that youth would be willing to read them. The results were some of the most important and widest read books in the early-LDS cannon.