Biography
Marilee Pierce Dunker is an award-winning author, speaker and the Ambassador Emeritus for World Vision, one of the two international ministries her father, Dr. Bob Pierce, founded. He also founded Samaritan’s Purse in 1970.
EARLY YEARS
Growing up Marilee loved to sing, and she frequently sang on her father’s national CBS radio broadcast. She also loved visiting the sets of her father’s groundbreaking Christian movies and she dreamed of having a career in the theater. Then just as her acting career was taking off God spoke to her heart, saying, “If you want to be an actress, I will bless you. But if you give me your talent, I will use you.”
Since serving the Lord was always her greatest desire, she gave up her life’s dream to discover her life’s purpose.
AUTHOR
In 1978, after her father passed away, Marilee wrote her first book, Man of Vision, Woman of Prayer, now sold as Man of Vision. She wrote about the struggles, challenges and heartbreaks her family faced because of her father’s long absences and the many attacks of the Enemy on her parents’ marriage, particularly after her older sister, Sharon, took her life. Her transparency won the book an Angel Award in 1981 for best biography.
She went on to write several other books, including Walkers Point, a Christian novel that earned her a 3-book deal with Bethany House. But before the second book was done, an unexpected thing happened...
World Vision
During her nineteen years as a writer and speaker with World Vision, she traveled to over 40 countries to see the amazing work WV does among the poorest of the poor and she witnessed first-hand the kind of suffering that inspired her father to pray his famous prayer.
“Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”
Remarkably, she also met people who had worked with her dad, and they told her amazing stories she had never heard.
Once again she felt the Holy Spirit nudge her...
...to write another book about her father, focusing on how God transformed a 12-year-old street preacher into the greatest missionary statesman of his generation.
It took over fifteen years of research and editing, but Marilee has finally finished her sixth book, THE AUDACITY OF FAITH, subtitling it “The stories my father never told me”.
Family
Marilee and her husband of fifty years, Bob Dunker, were on staff with Dr. Jack Hayford at the Church on the Way as pastors over the Single Adult ministries between 1975 and 1979.
They also had their two daughters, Michelle and Stacey, while serving at the church. “We called them “The Littlest Singles!” Marilee remembers fondly. Bob went on to work in Christian radio and Marilee had her own daily talk show on KDAR in Ventura in 1996.
The Dunkers then moved to the San Francisco Bay area where Bob managed KFAX, and Marilee began a women’s Bible study for her neighbors in Danville that grew to nearly 150 women!
Sharing the Gospel and encouraging people to step out in audacious faith has always been Marilee’s heart, whether she is speaking to churches, women’s or youth groups or writing books that illustrate the power of God in our lives!
Marilee's Travels with World Vision
