Grief and Loss

3 Ways to Care for the Heart of Your Third Culture Kid {A Life Overseas}

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Jesus loves Third Culture Kids. He knows their needs and he hears their hearts’ cries. He can tell the difference between normal teen angst and deep emotional pain. He feels their searching and longing for home, and he cares. Jesus knows the right thing to say at the right time, all the time. As parents, youth workers, family, and friends, we’re not always so, um, Christ-like.

Yet, in spite of our weaknesses, we have the great honor and privilege of parenting and loving TCKs. So may we, with great tenderness and sensitivity, care for the hearts of the kids we’ve taken with us.

Read the rest of Jonathan’s post on A Life Overseas.

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When Friends Do the Next Right Thing {A Life Overseas}

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Today I’m talking about the very painful topic of goodbyes over at A Life Overseas. This is the intro, and you can finish the post here.

~Elizabeth

What do we do when the people we love do the next right thing? What if that next right thing leads them away from us?

When we say yes to God, we must often say no to the places we already know. And when God leads us overseas, we enter a communal life that is punctuated by goodbyes. Just like an airport, the missionary community endures constant arrivals and departures. But God is the travel agent here, and He hardly ever places anyone on the same itinerary. Perhaps we knew this uncomfortable truth before we said yes; perhaps we didn’t. Either way, though, we must now live with the consequences of our obedience.

And I, for one, sometimes grow weary of it.

                                                                               Read the rest of the post here.

On Your High School Graduation: A Letter to My Third Culture Kids

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by Elizabeth

I’ve been watching parents in the international community say goodbye to their graduating seniors for a while now. I’ve been watching the seniors themselves say goodbye to their friends – fellow third culture kids like themselves.

Watching these parental goodbyes feels like a knife in my chest. I have to stop myself from thinking about it just so I can breathe again. Because I know that will be me, someday, saying goodbye to you.

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God Can Heal Our Broken Potatoes [Hearts]

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One of the people we’ve met since moving here is a young man who grew up in Cambodia but who is originally from Australia. (That makes him what we call an “adult TCK.”) After finishing university in Australia, he worked with TCKs (Third Culture Kids) in Phnom Penh for two years.

On his blog wheresthescript.com he writes about (among other things) TCK issues. In addition to the post below, I hope you will also read his post 15 Years Ago which details his TCK experience and is a beautiful portrait of a parent’s love.

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Don’t Be Afraid of Me, Please (and other lessons from the Valley)

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by Jonathan

Recently, a friend asked me to write more on the topic of grief, and since this particular topic is so much fun, I did.  I took a stroll back down into my own valley of grief and asked some questions:  What was helpful during my mother’s terminal illness?  What wasn’t?  What were great things kind people said to me after my dad passed away?  What things could have been (and should have been) left unsaid?

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