Seed Sowers: Review

My husband is a pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. A. B. Simpson did not set out to found a denomination, but rather a movement of God’s people to pray for, financially support, and send out missionaries to further the gospel all around the world. Now, more than 125 years later, our denomination still views its primary purpose as spreading the gospel around the world by equipping its members within our nation at the same time as equipping our international workers abroad. My girls have grown up within this culture and deeply love our times with international workers and hearing about God’s work around the world. 

We also love to teach them about those who have gone before us in this endeavor. Seed Sowers: Gospel Planting Adventures by Gwen Toliver ($13.95) from Seed Sowers is a beautifully written book. It is also available as a hardback ($30.95) and in an Kindle format ($3.99) which we reviewed. Each section focuses on a different missionary who is now retired and some of their adventures focusing around their work with translating the Scriptures into the heart language of the nations. I love Gwen’s perspective as a current translator with Wycliffe. It is clear she has a true passion and love for seeing the Scriptures written in the heart-language (the language they most relate to) of groups all over the world.

We have loved reading this together, especially on Wednesday evenings. Children are welcome in our mid-week service and stay in during my husband’s Bible study. During the prayer time I take any children there to a small room just off the sanctuary to pray with them. If there is time after our prayer time I will have been reading to them from Seed Sowers. This is often just our three girls, but they love it and beg for more! They are disappointed when the adults are finished with their prayer time because it means I’m done reading.

Her writing drew my girls in and captivated their attention from the first sentence. I have aimed to read aloud more to the girls and this has been a perfect place to start. I have had to, “Read just one more Mommy!” more than once as my eager little sweethearts soak in the spiritual heritage of those who have gone before us. Rose has tried to sneak off with my Kindle to read ahead and Beth has been playing missionary as she pretends. Anything which brings excitement to my girls makes me happy. When it causes them to grow more deeply in their understanding of God and His work, it thrills me.

I love that these captivating stories were written after the author was able to interview many retired missionaries. They are first-hand accounts and this is invaluable. So many books of missionaries are written from research. This is not necessarily bad, but using primary source material for historically accurate books is vital. As I read I watch as my girls are transported to jungles, islands, and other far-away places. I typically allow them to draw while I read. More often than not they are listening spellbound as the crayons and pencils lay unused on the table and eager faces lean in waiting to hear what comes next.

My favorite response from my girls came from Beth as we prepare for our recent conferences where two married international workers shared about their work in Russia. When I was telling the girls about the services we would be attending each night Beth twirled around the room and said, “I’m just so excited! It will be just like our missionary stories!” To hear my six-year-old proclaim her excitement over hearing about God’s work in other lands brought tears to my eyes and joy to my soul.

I can only hope there is a sequel to this book. I know there are so many more stories of God’s faithfulness as many before us made so many sacrifices to bring God’s Word to then nations.