Beyond South Gate

by Caroll F. Rader

Which is worse, the attitude among Christians that missionaries are gold-plated saints who neither sweat, sleep nor stumble, or the one held by the rest of the populace that they’re bumbling misfits who can’t make it in the real world?

Ella Appenzeller is a real person who pioneered mission in Korea with her husband, Henry. They sailed in 1885, two of the first Protestant Christian representatives to that country.

Beyond South Gate is the intimate story of Ella’s journey from being a youngster boxed in by people’s expectations, through the social, political, and marital verities that honed and clarified her as a mature woman — a survivor.

The chronology and the characters of this book are fact. Ella’s actions and reactions are fictions. Korean scenery, customs, and culture are authentic because, like Ella, Korea was my home for more than two decades.

-Caroll F. Rader