Brave Son of Tibet: The Many Lives of Robert B. Ekvall
Ebook
For centuries, access to Tibet was difficult for geographical and political reasons until missionaries pried it open in the nineteenth century. Their reports provided glimpses of those living behind the towering mountains, hidden from the Western world.
One of those missionaries, Robert B. Ekvall (1898-1983), stands out as one of the most illustrious and overlooked alumni of Nyack College (now Alliance University) and Wheaton College. He joined the short list of those who contributed significantly to the evangelization of the Tibetan Buddhist nomads of Northeastern Tibet.
After serving two decades as a pioneer missionary-anthropologist on the Gansu-Tibetan border of western China, his career in missions suddenly ended. He was thrust into WWII as a captain in the US Army, a combatant, interpreter, military attache, diplomat, and chief interpreter at the Panmunjom Korea armistice talks in 1953.
In the late 1950s, he entered the academic world at the University of Washington, Seattle, before retiring in the 1970s. Adventure, bravery, intrigue, tragedy, and sorrow all describe facets of Ekvall's life. Few missionaries can boast of such a varied career.
“The hardships, challenges, and tragedies that Robert Ekvall experienced will inspire you to see how God does remarkable things through a person who is fully committed to God and is willing to take risks. Read this book to discover Ekvall’s courage, creativity, and resourcefulness and to see how God used Ekvall to accomplish God’s larger plan.”
—Mike Sohm, former director, Compassion and Mercy Associates
“It was a privilege for me to accompany David Jones into Tibet as he did the research for this book. Seeing the mountains and terrain of the countryside brought a greater admiration for this third culture kid, Robert Ekvall, who worked in this hostile environment. Jones has done a superb job in researching hard-to-find resources to now make this story available to the mission world.”
—Ron Brown, missions mobilizer
“Brave Son of Tibet reads like part missionary biography, part action-adventure novel. Nothing boring here. David Jones refreshingly shows us a real human behind the ministry hero. We’re reminded that all Christian lives include faith and doubt, devotion and detour, loss and pain, and yet hope. God’s ways—in us and through us—are mysterious, but he uses them for his good purposes.”
—Tim Crouch, vice president, Alliance Missions
“Brave Son of Tibet narrates the fascinating life of Robert Ekvall, an MK (child of missionaries) who became a successful missionary in China and Tibet. Ekvall went on to serve as an intelligence officer in the US Army and then as a university professor. David Jones has woven this MK’s diverse life into an engaging narrative, which reads like a novel.”
—David Andrianoff, retired missionary
“David Jones peels back the skin to expose a raw history hitherto untold in such an integrated fashion. Drawing from original writings, he pieces together an unforgettable depiction of life in far western China and Tibet from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The depiction of the intrepid—their lives, deaths, successes, and failures—are the stuff of which today’s superheroes only dare dream to equal.”
—Grace Jordan, retired school teacher
- Title: Brave Son of Tibet: The Many Lives of Robert B. Ekvall
- Authors: David Jones, Stanley John
- Publisher: Resource Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666769050, 9781666769043, 1666769045, 9781666769036, 1666769037, 1666769053
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666769050
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-04-25T01:07:26Z
David P. Jones, missionary, pastor, missions historian, and researcher/writer has published So Being Sent . . . They Went; Roots and Branches: A History of the C&MA Mission in Brazil; A. B. The Unlikely Founder of a Global Movement; Only Thibet; Cousins: Peacemakers on the Tibetan Border; and Pempa: In Search of Father. He and his wife Judy live in Newark, Delaware.