Another "Missionary Kid" Memoir

Regular readers of this blog may remember that I am doing some research involving memoirs of “missionary kids” (“MKs”), and that I have written about a couple of them here as well. Some of the 31 MK memoirs I have read for my research so far are very well written; others are not, probably because most of the writers are amateur rather than professional writers. (I should state, though, that I find them all interesting and to varying degrees compelling, both for my research and because as an MK myself, I am always making comparisons and connections to my own experiences, and among the experiences of the various MKs.) One of the better written MK memoirs I have read lately is “Mish Kid to Mystic: Memoirs of a Missionary Daughter” (self-published, 2011), by Mary Lou McNeill Jacoby, which, although Jacoby is not a professional writer, is engagingly written. Jacoby’s parents were missionaries in West Africa. Her stories of her childhood there are interesting, but what I found even more of interest were her stories of her life afterward, and how she has been influenced by her MK background throughout her life. Jacoby, now in her 80s, has led a full and fascinating life in which she has always been a seeker. Although continuing in the Christian tradition and as the wife of a minister, she has also investigated and learned from various religious and spiritual traditions and innovations. It seems that she has been fully and intensely involved in her spiritual life, her family, her work, her travels, and her life. I admire how attentively, thoughtfully, and joyfully she has lived her life, and enjoyed reading about it. I had a brief email correspondence with Mrs. Jacoby when I ordered the book, and both that correspondence and the book itself made me feel she is someone I can imagine as a role model, as well as someone I would enjoy sitting down with for a long conversation. The photographs and drawings, some done by her mother and some by the author herself, add to the interest of the book.