Customer Reviews

Jonathan Goforth (Men of Faith)

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This book tells the story of Jonathan Goforth, missionary to China.

Jonathan adopted the dress and style of the Chinese people in order to relate. His devotion to God and to the Chinese people is a challenge to anyone wishing to impact others with the love of Christ.

I'd say that Jonathan Goforth is someone worth learning about. His desire to reach the lost in China is inspiring. One striking moment to me was when his wife was afraid of going into a certain area with the children because of various illnesses they might catch. Jonathan essentially told her that he was convinced it was God's will, and the safest place to be was where He wanted them to be.

However, I don't care for this particular biography. It's written by his wife, who knew him better than anyone else, but she's not a particularly skilled writer. One annoying thing is that she couldn't decide how to refer to herself. Sometimes she'd speak in the first person with "I" and "me," and other times in the third person using "Goforth's wife" or something smiliar. Often she'd switch back and forth between the two within the same "scene." It was a bit confusing and very distracting, and something an editor should have fixed. There were no other glaring problems, but the writing was only fair. It'd be nice to hear the story of Jonathan Goforth told by a skilled writer.

I'd recommend a biography on Jonathan Goforth, and if you can't find another one, get this one. But, if you see a well-rated biography of Goforth from another source, then I'd give it a try instead. That's what I plan to do.