Sending a mission worker out into the mission field is rather like sending an army into battle. You don’t just stroll out and pick a fight. It pays to be well-prepared. Plans are laid. Training is given. Strategy is developed. Support is put into place. Scouting is done. Weapons are provided.
Yet we all know only too well that no matter how much preparation is done, there can always be a chink in the armour. Like King Harold’s woefully inadequate eye protection, or Achilles’ badly-designed army boots. One small weakness which can result in a devastating defeat.
For many mission workers, their Achilles’ heel is their children. Most of us go into the mission field prepared to make sacrifices for God. Few us of want to think of our children as those sacrifices. It’s all very well for us to risk everything for our beliefs, but to ask our children to risk everything requires a whole new level of faith, and many of us struggle to get there. I’ve known mission workers pack up and go home not because they couldn’t cope with getting malaria regularly, but because they couldn’t cope with their children getting it. It’s not uncommon for mission workers to return to their sending country because they can’t get the right education for their children in the mission field. Or because their kids are not adapting well to living abroad and want to go home.
I’m not criticising them for those choices. It’s right to look after the kids. At the other end of the spectrum we’ve all come across TCKs (Third Culture Kids) who’ve been completely messed up by being brought up abroad and struggling to fit in. Some have even lost their faith as a result. That’s a tragedy.
So whether we stay or go, we need to be aware of the potential impact of serving in world mission on the kids, and take steps to remedy it. Mission workers, agencies, churches and family all have a part to play in this. Here are five things that we can all do to make sure that TCKs are part of the army not part of the problem.
Pray – many of us forget to pray for the kids when we’re praying for the family. So it’s not surprising they can become the Achilles’ heel. Pray for their health, happiness, education, sense of identity, safety and most of all their own personal, genuine walk with God.
Be informed – read books like Families on the Move or keep in touch with websites like:
Find excellent resources from the TCK Forum. Ask sending agencies what they’re doing to support your mission workers’ kids, and keep the pressure on them to deliver.
Education – this is always an issue of great concern. Despite the British tendency to assume that education abroad is significantly inferior to ours, some countries have extremely high standards of education. There are also international schools in many cities, Christian boarding schools in many countries and even boarding schools in the UK willing to make very generous scholarships to TCKS. There are also a significant number of Christian and secular home-schooling programmes available. You can read more about this on the Oscar website.
Healthcare – nobody enjoys the thought of a child being sick. Good health insurance is vital, one which pays for medical evacuation to a first-world country if necessary. However TCKs may be no less safe in the field than they would be in the parents’ sending country, the risks may just be different.
Support – from simple things like remembering birthdays and Christmas to making sure that TCKs get an opportunity to connect with each other through events like reconnect or websites like those listed above, make sure the family knows what support is there for them. There are also plenty of TCK specialists around who can provide care or counselling if necessary. Contact us on info@syzygy.org.uk for further information.
TCKs don’t have to be sacrifices. With appropriate care and support, they can thrive and make the most of their international experience as global citizens.
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