
Miriam Charter is a mission practitioner, speaker, and mobilizer based in Calgary. She spent ten years as an international worker in communist Europe working among women in the underground church, and several years in post-communist Russia learning Russian and doing research on post-communist societies. Her doctoral studies focused on theological education for the emerging church in post-communist societies.
Miriam has a pronounced calling to the nations. This calling was due in part to her multicultural, international background: born in China to missionary parents, raised in Canada, a French teacher by profession, an international worker in France, Central and Eastern Europe (primarily Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia), and several years in post- communist Russia. She has three primary passions: 1) those who, through no fault of their own, have never heard of Jesus, 2) those who suffer today because they are willing to be known as followers of Jesus, and 3) the next generation of international workers who will receive the baton passed to them and take the Good News to the nations. Nothing brings her greater delight than mentoring young adults and speaking into the life of anyone willing to explore God’s call to mission.
The story of her call to mission through the local church is a message she loves to share. Her strong belief in the model of 2 Timothy 2:2—one generation teaching the next generation, which in turn will teach others—is another of her stories, told in this book and whenever she speaks. Miriam’s academic and teaching career was divided between Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL) and Ambrose University and Seminary (Calgary, AB). She has a B.Ed. (French) from the University of Calgary, an M.Div. from Ambrose Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She continues to champion the local church, loving her involvements at Foothills Alliance Church with the Global Impact Team and teaching Alpha and ESL to newcomers to Canada in the Intercultural Ministries department.