Missions Unmasked: What I Never Knew About Missionary Life

Mosley, pastor of an international church in Nakuru, Kenya, skillfully and compassionately debunks myths about the missionary life. Raised in a traditional Evangelical church in a rural American community, he remembers the first visiting missionary he met, a red-haired woman who told of remote jungle adventures. It was the start of his “crush” on missions, he says. Over the years, he came to learn that missionaries are not “super-saints” but just regular believers trying to live out their calling in spite of loneliness, culture shock, and frequent emotional crises. Presenting the work as a confession of sorts, Mosley creates a consciously Rumsfeldian setup, classifying his musings under three headings: what he thought he knew, what he knew he didn’t know, and what he didn’t know he didn’t know. Anecdotes from acquaintances as well as from his own experience enliven his carefully nuanced opinions. He laments that churches generally fail to offer missionaries adequate support, either financial or moral. By revealing the “life lived on the ground, among the people,” this concise, well-structured book encourages Christians to rethink stereotypes and develop true compassion for international missionaries. (BookLife)