News

Most people aren’t familiar with evangelical Christians and don’t understand why we are there. They will respond in time but the general first response is incomprehension and then indifference.

Andrew Visser

31

France

Having so many Aunts and Uncles! Not being able to spend special holidays with parents

Jill (Peters) Watkins

30

São Paulo, Brazil

Most US kids have no concept of what people in other countries live without. I have had the experience of visiting third-world countries and seeing poverty that most people couldn’t imagine.

Rachel Kerr

20

Bibles International

Eating blood pancakes, sausage and blood bread (yum - no kidding!);  thinking rutabaga is a good snack at school; taking baths with my friends (the Finnish Sauna!);  experiencing your friend’s fathers in their underwear (modesty not big in Finland);  picking blueberries in a forest nearby; cross-country skiing 6 months out of the year; taking a hand-pulled trolley over a raging Alaska river to walk through an old mining ghost town; visiting the most northern point in Europe, North Cape, in Norway; walking through the “Real Disney Cinderella Castle” Neuschwanstein in Germany; taking the stairs into the crown of the Statue of Liberty; ice-skating for miles on a mirror-frozen lake steps from my bedroom; hiking down to Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon; been to the top of the World Trade Center and UN Headquarters in NYC; the Sears Tower in Chicago; seen the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia; driving cross-country from NYC to Anchorage AK 4,500 miles (several times); been to the highest train station in Europe (Jungfraujoch (11,333ft); seen Mt. Rushmore, almost got killed in Moscow when a bomber threatened the restaurant by blowing up a suicide vest; you know—the “normal!”

Karin Ruhkala Sicoli

32

Finland

  1) Moving various times in your life to many different locations(we have moved 25 times at current count...)

  2) Knowing two different languages

  3) Being home schooled all the time

  4) Traveling- by CAR-to almost all of the states in the USA

Rebecca Smith

15

Londrina, Parana-Brazil

people that aren’t mk’s usually have a hard time learning another language, they don’t see how we can like guaraná(or other foods native to here-ya ever tried explaining feijoada or cueca-virada?)

Rachel Smith

16

Londrina, Brazil

They don’t get to serve in the church as much, I think.

Abigail M. Jewell

16

Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Having friends that hunted and ate rats together

Mark Seymour

53

Chad, Africa

Learning to write papers freshman year in college. That was a tough one to figure out.

Joshua Whitman

27

Italy

Seeing areas of the world outside the USA.  Things are so different once you get outside the states, most children have no idea what it is like.

Jon Price

31

USA (Indiana) ?

Being bicultural in language, customs; greater appreciation for American freedoms and way of life; deeper understanding of European mindset.

Daniel Ruhkala

31

Finland

Constantly mixing up languages in every day speech.

Clinton Ellis

17

Germany

I had a hard time understanding the fierce patriotism of Americans. Growing up as a teen in the Netherlands, I was Pro-Nixon (pretty hard to understand now!) and supported our troops in Vietnam. Boy, was that difficult for my classmates to understand. So I WAS (and still am) patriotic. However, growing up with a love for the Netherlands, it was hard for me to swallow the blind allegiance and fierce patriotism that Americans had. When I started watching TV in the US (after we were married), I was horrified to find that “World News Tonight” was not about world news, but about American Policy and how it occasionally affected the rest of the world. It is hard to cope with people, who think that the rest of the world doesn’t really matter, other than how it affects them.

David Boyd

49

The Netherlands

Having culture shock when coming “home”.  MKs often have serious cases of culture shock when coming back to the states.  I know culture shock is nothing new, you can get that just moving to another state in America, but there is a difference with MKs, for two main reasons.  We spent most of our childhood watching our parents trying to adapt to the culture on the field, and NOT be American.  When we come back to the states, we have to sort of reverse our thinking, now we have to be American.  The second reason is that people don’t really expect MKs to go through culture shock, they think that we are “coming home”; so many people are surprised when I tell them I went through culture shock coming to college in America.  I have noticed that these two things make culture shock for MKs different from culture shock for non-MKs.

I know that this is rather philosophical, but I think it is one of the biggest things about being an adult MK that non-MKs do not usually experience.

Anna Beth Wivell

25

Australia

My roommates live about an hour and half away from the college that we go to, and I hear often, I really miss being home, or, I can’t wait to go back home for Christmas. These things are hard to hear when your family lives in a different country all together. Making it even hard to even call sometimes. It is wonderful knowing a different language, some people think it is cool, I think its pretty normal and cool at the same time!

Sarah Darling

25

Venezuela

I’m stared at all the time because I am blond.

Hannah Stilwell

16

Peru

We get gifts from supporting churches.

Holly Syroteuk

20

Canada

One of the things that I got experience was riots and attempts to overthrow the government.  When those things happen usually the government will establish Marshall law. 

Daniel Darling

26

Venezuela

-such distant separation from parents during adult years (I see my parents about once every two years.)

Lisa (Brammer) Bolton

27

Taiwan/New Zealand

They have no idea what it is like to be fitted into a mold by people in churches and then made fun of because you fit that mold.

Leah Ronk

20

Brazil

I think it taught me many leadership qualities, made me more independent and confident. I am grateful for knowing two languages well.

Michelle (Stinedurf) Williams

36

Puerto Rico

Immersion into other cultures (if involved in overseas missions) and exposure to the spiritual warfare.

Philip Harris

37

C.A.R.

Learning English & Portuguese at the same time so, no hardship when returning as a missionary.  Traveling - some young people have never been out of state.

Joy Spieth

62

Brazil

Working skills, shopping difficulties, new language

Christopher Armstrong

14

Russia/Siberia

Learning a new language

Corey Armstrong

12

Russia/Siberia

They don't know what it means to be torn between two countries, loving both at the same time, but not quite fitting in to either one of them.

Mark Swedberg

43

Brazil

Fun-side: The enjoyment of different foods (mainly fruits).  Seeing the world.  Having friends of all cultures and colors.  The memories of my friend and I saving our money, sending it with our dad’s to pick up one ½ gallon of real milk and a macaroon from the capital.  We’d enjoy this novelty about 2 times a year. 

Victoria Lynn (Elmer) Meerman

31

C.A.R.

1.  Personal knowledge/experience of more than one culture.

2. Training in ministry at an early age.

3.  The feeling that you don't exactly belong to either country

Darlene (Reiner) Smith

54

Brazil

yeah... all of those... experiencing other cultures allows you to have a greater appreciation for people and their quirks... aside from that appreciation, I think the exposure to other cultures helps you to weed out what is truly important--what is the essence of being a Christian, of the church, etc. Sometimes people get stuck on their likes and dislikes (Sunday school, Wednesday night prayer meetings, etc.), when those are extra-biblical things that (while being good) are not essential to Christianity. You find yourself more open to trying new things, because the individual is at the heart of what you are trying to do, rather than the methods or traditions that you have grown accustomed to. Many mks that I have talked to over the years have expressed similar things.

Daniel Boyd

26

The Netherlands

Becoming fluent in a foreign language, learning another culture, getting a sense of the problems in the rest of the world and how the US is seen by developing countries.

Bill Griffin Jr.

58

Brazil

Attending a boarding school for MKs from an early age on and not growing up living with your parents everyday.

Being able to swim in the Amazon River everyday.

Tim Lankford

38

Manaus, Brazil

Friends have money to spend and many times we had to say no we can not get that or go to that event.

James Giegerich

13

No. America

Same as James

Karis Giegerich

15

No. America

Some kids don’t understand when my parents say that buying a certain item is not a wise purchase.

David Giegerich

8

No. America

Not having my parents’ continuity in days of adaptation (H.S. to College)

Sam McMillen

58

C.A.R.

The bond experienced with fellow MKs.  This bond is threatening to non-MKs, and they usually respond by calling us "cliquish" or "snobbish."