Of all the biographies my parents read to us as kids, Nothing Daunted: The Story of Isobel Kuhn by Gloria Repp is probably the one I loved most, so I recently bought it for our own kids.

I think it resonated with me because Isobel grew up in a Canadian, Christian home much like mine, and yet she found herself miserable and despairing.

As a successful young, beautiful college student in Vancouver, British Columbia, Isobel had “everything going for her,” and still found herself unfulfilled and suicidal. By God’s grace, she begins searching for Him instead of taking her own life.

Finding salvation in Jesus Christ, she becomes burdened with a desire to share her hope with the Lisu peoples of Southwest China. However, the Lord takes 10 years to prepare her heart for mission work overseas by challenging her faithfulness in smaller things at home.

Each obstacle helps refine her character, and increases her faith and humble reliance on the Lord’s goodness, timing, and ways – a lesson that proves invaluable when she and her husband John are finally able to bring the Gospel to a people who have been scarred by Communism and the peril of war.

John and Isobel experience many adventures and challenges together as pioneers in their service to the Lord among the Lisu, and abundant blessing on their labors as they seek above all to put “God first.” Nothing Daunted is a story of what it means to find joy in the Lord’s faithfulness.

Recommended as a family read aloud, or for children age 10 +