helping women connect with their world
Serving in a culture other than our own seems to bring out the worst in us at times. The question of whether God can still use us with all our flaws and foibles can flood our minds in times like these.
Mike Constantine shares God’s Flawed Friends to encourage you where you are today. [Read more…]
One of the most frequent questions we are asked when we are overseas is, “Where is your home?” I don’t know about you, but for us that was a difficult question to answer.
We would think, “Should we answer with where we were born, or where we have family, or where we last lived?” As Christians, we often think, “Our home is in heaven.” But that isn’t a very satisfying answer to acquaintances who would just like a starting point for conversation.
Happy 2003! The beginning of a new year is a good time to take a look at the condition of our marriage and family relationships. As we all know, living cross-culturally does add stresses to the marriage relationship and to rearing children. But it can also afford opportunities we would never have in our home culture.
We did a survey of our members a few months ago to help our organization create an evaluation tool for field directors and families living cross culturally. We want to share some of the insights we gained through the survey.
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. . .
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.
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.
