Children of missionaries who grow up outside of their parents’ passport country (also called MK or TCK) have lived very unique lifestyles away from friends and extended families in their serving countries.
Moving back and forth from their passport country to their serving country makes for some very unique cultural adjustments, identity complexes, and feeling misunderstood. Some have even referred to these kids as “invisible immigrants” because even though they look and speak like the people in their passport country, they often think differently due to all their broad experiences.
My daughter told me recently that when other heard she was an MK, many straight away assumed that it must have always been so hard for her, which she said wasn’t actually the case. While there were some hard things about it, the good outweighed the hard, and so for her there were many rewarding things things about growing up in a different culture.
Although each of my kids grew up experiencing the same things together in their serving country, the impact that these experiences had on each of them differed depending on their age, their gender, and their personality.
Thoughts from MK’s
To get a better understanding of the impact of missions on MK’s, I decided to survey a group of kids – all different ages, genders, and living situations. I asked them all the same three questions. Here are their answers.
What is the weirdest food you’ve eaten?
- Rat, which was surprisingly tasty. Grubs were the worst tasting and the worst texture.
- Dutch raw herring
- Possum poop, scalloped potatoes
- Termites
- Ferns
- Dog
- Caterpillar
- Well… I once ate a piece of tune that fell onto a concrete table
What is your favourite thing about being an MK?
- Living a different life than most. Having unique experiences and relationships
- Experiencing different worlds and cultures
- Making friends with people of all ages and all nationalities from such a young age. Doing life with them and it being so normal to interact with people of all ages and backgrounds
- My MK friends who get me, and I get them
- Bonding with people who experience what you experience
- Growing up with almost exclusively Christian friends. It has allowed me to be mostly influenced in good ways rather than in negative ways
- Teaches us how to trust God and strengthens our faith
- Being in the jungle making forts and having adventures
- I love getting to be a part of different cultures and knowing people in different parts of the world. I feel privileged to have loved and been loved by people in many different places.
- Travelling on small planes, helicopters, and boats
- Seeing the miracle of God changing peoples’ lives from a young age
- Adapting to the ways of life of people who live in the jungle
- Learning the language while walking on trails
What is the worst thing about being an MK?
- I don’t get to see my friends very often
- Sitting cross-legged for four hours during a local church meeting
- When it is time to leave your whole world behind and start a new one with nothing in common with anyone else
- Not having a proper church to attend or not having easy access to American products.
- Not knowing exactly where I belong. Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong anywhere
- Having to accept the hard things that come with this type of life
- Isolation
- Feeling misunderstood
- Seeing naked people
- Finding it hard to connect with people in Australia
- Feeling out of place
- Goodbyes
- You can’t always relate to the friends you have in the tribe, nor the friends you have in Australia
