Missionary Stories for Preschoolers: 6 Heroes Your Little One Will Love

Missionary stories are some of the best stories you can tell a preschooler. They are true. They are full of adventure. And they point little hearts toward the God who loves every person on earth. A three-year-old does not need a theology lecture. A three-year-old needs a story about a man who dressed in funny clothes because he loved his friends, or a woman who held a scared little girl and said, “You are safe now.” These six stories are exactly that: true accounts of real missionaries told in words your little one can picture, hold, and carry.

How to Use These Stories

• Read one story at a time. Preschoolers do best with short sessions. Pick one hero, read the story, pray the prayer, and stop. Come back tomorrow for the next one.
• Use your voice. Whisper the quiet parts. Make your voice big for the brave parts. Preschoolers listen with their whole bodies.
• Let them color. Print a page from our Christian coloring pages or missions coloring pages and let little hands stay busy while you read.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Preschoolers love hearing the same story again. That is not a problem. That is how truth sinks deep.

Hudson Taylor: The Man Who Dressed Like His Friends

A long time ago, a man named Hudson Taylor got on a big boat and sailed all the way to China. China was very far away. The people there ate rice with chopsticks. They wore long silk clothes. They spoke a language that sounded like music.

Hudson wanted to tell the people in China that God loved them. But the people looked at him and saw a stranger. He wore strange clothes. He ate strange food. He looked different from everyone they knew.

So Hudson did something surprising. He put on Chinese clothes. He learned to eat with chopsticks. He learned to speak their language. He even changed his hair to look like theirs. Now when the people looked at him, they did not see a stranger. They saw a friend. And from a friend, they were willing to hear about Jesus.

Hudson stayed in China for fifty-one years. That is a very, very long time. He stayed because he loved the people, and he wanted them to know that God loved them too.

Pray together: “God, help us be good friends to everyone, even people who look different from us or talk different from us. You love them, and we want to love them too. Amen.”

Amy Carmichael: The Woman Who Rescued Children

When Amy was a little girl in Ireland, she had brown eyes. She wanted blue eyes. She prayed and asked God for blue eyes. But God said no.

Years later, Amy Carmichael sailed to India. India was hot and sunny. The flowers smelled sweet. The food was spicy. And Amy found something that made her heart hurt: some children were not safe. Some children needed to be rescued.

Amy opened her arms and said, “Come to me. You are safe now.” She held the children. She fed them. She sang to them. She told them about Jesus, who loves every child everywhere.

Her brown eyes helped her blend in. God knew what she needed before she did.

Amy stayed in India for fifty-five years. She never went home. She was “Amma” to hundreds of children. Amma means “Mama.” She loved them like her very own.

Pray together: “God, thank you for keeping children safe. Please help the children who are scared right now. Send someone to hold them and tell them you love them. Amen.”

George Muller: The Man Who Prayed for Breakfast

George Muller lived in a big house in England with lots and lots of children. These children had no mommies or daddies. George took care of them. He fed them. He gave them warm beds. He told them about God.

One morning, there was no food. The shelves were empty. The cupboards were empty. The children sat at the table with empty plates.

George bowed his head and said, “Thank you, God, for what you are going to give us to eat.”

Then someone knocked on the door. A baker stood outside with armloads of fresh bread. He could not sleep the night before, he said, so he baked bread for the children. Then a milk cart broke down right outside the house, and the milkman gave them all the milk.

God sent breakfast. He always sent breakfast. Every single time.

George took care of more than ten thousand children, and he never ran out of food. Not once. Because he prayed, and God always answered.

Pray together: “God, thank you for our food. Thank you that you hear us when we pray. Please give food to children who are hungry today. Amen.”

Gladys Aylward: The Woman Who Led Children Over the Mountain

Gladys Aylward wanted to go to China, but everyone told her no. They said she was too small. They said she was not smart enough. Gladys went anyway. She got on a train and traveled for days and days and days, all the way across the world, until she reached a little village in the mountains of China.

Gladys told stories. The people in the village loved her stories. She told them stories about Jesus, and they listened.

Then a war came. Bombs fell. Soldiers marched. It was not safe. And there were children, nearly a hundred children, who needed to get to safety on the other side of the mountains.

Gladys said, “Follow me.” She led the children up the mountain. They walked and walked. Their feet were tired. Their tummies were empty. But Gladys kept walking, and the children followed.

They made it. Every single child made it over the mountain to safety. Because one small woman was brave enough to say, “Follow me.”

Pray together: “God, when we are scared, help us be brave like Gladys. Thank you that you are with us even when things are hard. Amen.”

Corrie ten Boom: The Woman with the Secret Room

Corrie ten Boom lived in a tall, thin house in Holland. Her family made watches. Tick, tick, tick went the clocks on every wall.

A terrible thing happened. Mean soldiers were hurting people. They were taking families away from their homes. Corrie’s family said, “We will help.” They built a secret room behind a wall in their house. It was tiny, just big enough for a few people to hide. When the soldiers came, the people would slip behind the wall and stay very, very quiet.

Corrie’s family saved many, many people in that secret room.

One day, the soldiers found out. They took Corrie away to a very bad place. It was cold. It was dark. It was scary. But even there, Corrie prayed. Even there, she told people about Jesus. Even there, she was not alone, because God was with her.

When Corrie was free again, she traveled all over the world and told everyone the same thing: “There is no place so dark that God’s love cannot find you.”

Pray together: “God, thank you that you are with us everywhere, even in the dark. Help us be brave and kind, like Corrie. Amen.”

David Livingstone: The Explorer Who Loved Africa

David Livingstone loved to explore. He walked across Africa, through tall grass and thick forests and wide, wide rivers. He saw lions. He saw elephants. He saw waterfalls so big and loud that the mist touched the sky.

But David did not go to Africa just to explore. He went because he loved the people there. He walked with them. He ate with them. He learned their names and their languages. He called them his friends.

David saw something that made him very sad. Some people were being taken away from their families and treated very badly. David said, “This is wrong.” He told the whole world about it. He asked people to help. And because he spoke up, things began to change.

David walked thousands and thousands of miles across Africa. His feet were tired. His body was tired. But he kept walking. He kept loving. He kept telling people about the God who made every person and loves every person.

Pray together: “God, help us love people the way David did. Help us be brave enough to say ‘that is wrong’ when we see someone being hurt. Amen.”

Keep Going

These six stories are just the beginning. When your little one is ready for more, explore the full versions of each hero’s story:

• Hudson Taylor: 51 Years in China
• Amy Carmichael: 55 Years in India
• George Muller: The Man Who Fed 10,000 Orphans
• Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman Who Wouldn’t Give Up
• Corrie ten Boom: Faith in the Darkest Place
• David Livingstone: Explorer, Missionary, Liberator

Browse all our heroes at the missionary heroes index, print a missions coloring page to color together, or read What Is a Missionary? with your older kids.

Every time you read one of these stories aloud, you are planting a seed. Your preschooler may not remember every name or every detail. But they will remember that God loves people everywhere, that ordinary people can do brave things, and that someone in their family cared enough to sit down, open a book, and tell them the truth. That is more than enough.