Transition

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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Great Expectations

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by Elizabeth

After nearly two years of living in Cambodia, our family visited the United States for the first time. I had grand plans for how I was going to spend my time in America. I would:

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Outlawed Grief, A Curse Disguised

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by Jonathan

[Note: For an expanded version of this article, click here. The expanded version appeared on A Life Overseas in December, 2013 and is geared more for a missions/TCK audience.]

Someone dies, or gets cancer, or gets cancer and then dies.  Someone else says something eminently useful like “All things work together for good” or “He’s in a better place” or “I have a time-share in Florida and the carpet’s getting replaced this week.”

Someone moves to a foreign field, and it’s hard, and it’s sad, and they have kids.  And the kids feel it too.  They’re sad.  They miss grandma, and McDonald’s, and green grass.  Someone tells them, “It’s for God,” or “It’ll be ok someday; you’ll look back on this as one of the best things that ever happened to you.” Maybe their parents tell them that.

And grief gets outlawed, and the curse descends.  And the child understands that some emotions are spiritual and some are outlawed.

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