Leona Spryncl Choy '47 wrote her autobiography when she was nearly 80. She thought it might be her last.

“Little did I know that I would write and publish a dozen more books,” explains Leona, now 93, a grandmother to 10 and great-grandmother to 13.

As an undergraduate at Wheaton, Leona made two choices that proved to be pivotal: she took the only writing course on offer and sat beside a Chinese student named Ted Choy ’47 in her anthropology class. 

After graduation, Leona and Ted married and planned to serve as missionaries in China. Prevented by Communists from entering the mainland, they served instead in Hong Kong (still a British colony), where Ted pastored a Chinese church while Leona taught child evangelism courses and gave birth to three of their four sons. 

Upon returning to the states, Leona and Ted sought to reach Chinese students through campus ministry. In 1963, the couple co-founded Ambassadors for Christ, Inc., a parachurch organization that today has more than 70 Chinese staff in 48 universities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. After her husband’s retirement, the couple entered China at last, making numerous trips to minister to the underground church.

Since Ted’s death in 1992, Leona has devoted herself to writing. Along with one of her sons, she founded Golden Morning Publishing and produced her own daily radio program for five years on the Christian station which they also founded. With 45 books in print, Leona now blogs and coaches aspiring writers.

“Because I am well into my final decade, I feel great joy if my books are read by people whom I hope to reach at their point of need,” Leona explains. “As long as I remain surrendered to his Lordship and obedient to doors he opens and content with those he closes, I make myself restfully available ‘For Christ and His Kingdom.’”