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Archives for 2002

Thanksgiving is for Everyone

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Thursday, November 28, is American Thanksgiving. As we near the end of 2002 we have much to be thankful for. We encourage you to take some special time in the next week to thank God for all He has done this last year. . .

  • for His direction, guidance and wisdom in so many situations we faced.
  • for our necessary provision and those unexpected blessings throughout the year.
  • for His grace and mercy when we failed to act according to His will.
  • for His love reflected in the faces of our loved ones. for the quiet reassurance He planted in our hearts when we needed it most.
  • for the comfort He gave when we lost a loved one. for peace that passes all understanding.
  • for abilities we didn’t even know we had that began to grow this year.

These are just to get you started with your own list. Take some time with each member of your family to let them know how much they mean to you. When we live and work closely together all the time we can forget the benefits of a sincere thank you. Be sure to let those you work with and those who work for you know you thank God for them. A word of thanks can be the encouragement they need to carry on in the face of difficulties.

Adult TCKs

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I have been thinking about the long term effects of raising our children cross culturally. When they spend more than half their growing up years outside our home culture, they are called “third culture kids (TCKs)”. They blend both good and bad from the cultures they have lived in and come up with a third culture that is their own.

In 1991, Kathlene wrote an article for PW about growing up in France and how that experience molded her life. Iain, an adult PW son, recently wrote about his experiences in West Papua and where he is today. Then I read an article by Matthew Link in Budget Travel, November, 2002, about his “homes.” Like children everywhere they each had a mixture of good and bad experiences growing up. Like all teenagers they had to deal with their identity. But because of their TCK background, they came to some different conclusions than their peers in their home culture.

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Betrayal

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Living and working cross culturally can bring out the best or the beast in us. Our topic for this month was about dealing with difficult co-workers. The topic is so broad that we are going to only touch on one aspect, betrayal. We first published this article in 1993, written by Mike Constantine.

Of the many trials and struggles that every worker faces, none brings more pain and perplexity than betrayal. There’s no better way to describe its effects than to look at David’s experience as it is recorded for us in the Book of Psalms:

“If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God…My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.” Psalms 55: 12-14, 20, 21 NIV.

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Alphabet Soup

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If you’ve ever made alphabet soup, you know how the letters get all mixed up and topsy-turvy as they float in the bowl. That’s how the language appears to the newcomer to Russia. Every sign is a code to be deciphered and the spoken word sounds as confusing as you imagine it would!

Here we were, just a couple of country folks living in a city of six million people, facing crowds, and waiting in lines that would lead to China if stretched out. We had been in the city one week and needed to face our first subway expedition to find some stores for food. We lived at the end of one line, so getting downtown was simple; just hop on the down escalator and get on the train. We carried a little cheat sheet that would help us recognize the subway stop to get back home. Things were going great on our maiden voyage of food gathering. Our bags bulged with the “catch of the day,” and it was time to go home. We headed for our subway station to reverse our course. To our dismay, the down escalators had been reversed. Everyone was coming up!

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The Lie

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This month’s Peter’s Wife is going to be a bit different than others. Although this doesn’t directly relate to living in a foreign culture, I believe there are some readers who are kept from doing their best work because they have been fettered by a lie. Or maybe you have a friend or family member who needs to hear how I was set free.

For several years my husband has been teaching about the importance of knowing the truth and being set free from the power of lies. About a year and a half ago one of our sons learned how recognizing the lies he was believing and replacing them with the truth could stop panic attacks. I had listened to all of this and thought a lot about it, but couldn’t see any lies I was believing.

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