We’ve been working through a pile of Journey Forth books that was donated to us by some friends, choosing them as our morning reads. If you haven’t seen my article on reading to kids in the morning, check it out here!

I have to say from the outset that Guy Porfirio’s illustrations in this book are awesome. I’m not sure if they faux-woodcut (computerized) or real, but they’re beautiful, and the book’s worth enjoying just for them.

Like These Are My People (China) and Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World (Taiwan), Nix is another missionary-focused story from this publisher that takes its young readers to another corner of the world, this time to Jamaica. Eleven-year-old Nix lives a hard life is a poor and abusive home, and with threats that his mother will soon send him to “the Pit,” a terrible reform school in town. He’s seeking a way out, while at the same time beginning to show interest in the foreign missionaries who’ve got a church building in their town—a building he’s often thrown rocks at in the past.

This hungry, “one rude boy!” doesn’t think he’s clean enough or good enough to go to church, so he only listens from the outside and runs away whenever approached. When a teenager visiting from the States befriends him, though, he’s drawn even closer to the Lord (without the need to go to church, thank God), and sees his heart changed, if not his immediate circumstances.

A few things stood out to me about this book, some negative and some positive. On the negative side, the book’s recommended readership age is kids 7-9 years old, but I think the Jamaican vernacular would confuse most 3rd and 4th grade kids. It may be easy for an adult to eek out the meanings of “Me mus’ go a-pipe for water” and “It nice, don’ it?” but I can’t imagine my daughter sitting down with this thing and enjoying it as-is. It seems made for being read aloud by someone who can handle a Jamaican (or Gungan) accent. Jarjar Binks would be proud of how I handled myself.

On the positive side, I loved that this book is based on a true story and that we get “the rest of the story” at the end. It just begs for more anecdotes like this from missionaries to be turned into entertaining and education stories and novels for our kids to enjoy, whetting their appetites for travel and missions.

But again, back on the negative side, the truth of this account in fictional form suggests that the author might have more wisely changed some of the details for palatability. The scene where the American missionary man forcibly steps in to stop a mother from beating her child by grabbing her arms in public was shocking. Granted, it may have happened that way, but it shouldn’t have! Especially since the man’s wife was standing right there. I’m speaking from years of missionary experience here: a foreign man getting physical with a local woman during an altercation like this could have—no, will have drastic consequences against the Gospel in that village. He might have rescued the boy from physical harm in the moment, and it might have resulted in spiritual rescue for that boy later on, but I guarantee it damaged the effectiveness of ministry in that village for years to come.

That this scene was written in praise of the intervention really affects a child reader’s understanding of a missionary’s place and responsibility in the field. It’s the old colonial mentality, that a missionary can become the arbiter of peace and cultural behavior, though he or she is a guest and foreigner. Simply by virtue of being a Christian or an American, the missionary can have final say in how people within a foreign culture should act. No! Heavens no. This is not to suggest that starving a child or beating him until he bleeds are culturally appropriate behaviors in Jamaica and should be ignored—certainly not! But it does suggest that there are better ways to deal with the crimes, even in medias res, than having a white foreigner angrily stepping into a family dispute.

Yes, I’m reading into this way more deeply than a 7-9 year old normally would, but I literally had to stop reading and tell my kids how wrong this was, and so I figure I should do the same here. Propagating this “missionary = super hero” mindset or ignoring the “missionary = colonizer” undertones would be dangerous. I just wanted to point them out.

Back to the positives, though, I absolutely loved how the key ingredient to capturing Nix’s heart (apart from the Holy Spirit, of course) was the personal involvement and friendship of a visiting teenager near his age (16 vs. Nix’s 11). Instead of expecting Nix to go to church in order to learn more about Jesus, Kenny asks Nix to show him more of Jamaica, and from then on, they spend their days together. This personal relationship and personal interest totally apart from the need to go to church was what affected Nix the most, and he believed!

There by the river, while the warm breeze blew through the coconut trees, and the crayfish crawled over the rocks by his feet, Nix bowed his head and prayed.

“Dear God, me know me one rude boy. Me steal things, and me curse bad words. Me never listen to me mum. Me don’ know how you could love me. But me believe you. Me believe Jesus die on de cross to save me. God, me sorry; me so sorry. Please, forgive me. Please, save me. Me trust in you. Thank you.” (47)

This set a fire in my heart, to be honest! It shows the powerful effect that even a teenager on a short-term missions trip can have in the life of a child overseas, but it also communicates the importance of just being friendly to kids here at home! Why wait to get to the foreign country? Get to know your neighbors too! And who cares if they don’t want to go to church? Church is never going to save them anyways, only the love of Christ can do that, and how much better when it’s shown through the love of his followers!

I won’t let my negative reactions to some portions of this book taint my view of it. I liked it, and it now joins a growing list of my favorite missionary books for kids. I’m glad I could start my kids’ days with Nix, and we look forward to what’s next on the docket.

©2023 E.T.

Read More from JourneyForth Press:

• With Wings as Eagles by William Pinkston (1983)
• These Are My People by Mildred T. Howard (1984)
• Medallion by Dawn L. Watkins (1985)
• Derwood, Inc. by Jerri Massi (1986)
• A Dangerous Game by Jerri Massi (1986)
• Treasure in the Yukon by Jerri Massi (1986)
• With Daring Faith by Rebecca Henry Davis (1987)
• Courage by Darkness by Jerri Massi (1987)
• Some Summer! by Jean Vandervenne (1987)
• Llamas on the Loose by Jerri Massi (1988)
• The Runaway Princess by Milly Howard (1988)
• Abandoned by Jerri Massi (1989)
• A Question of Yams by Gloria Repp (1992)
• Brill of Exitorn by Peggy Downing (1994)
• Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World by Deb Brammer (1994)
• The Lost Prince by Peggy Downing (1995)
• Tales from Dust River Gulch by Tim Davis (1996)
• Camp Sierra Secret by Esther G. Wilkinson (1996)
• Chickadee Winter by Dawn L. Watkins (1999)
• Songbird by Nancy Lohr (2000)
• Nix by Penny McKnight (2006)
• Shield by Dawn Watkins (2008)