“Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!” — Psalm 90:1
Our team had a full day with the European missionary kids. The older kids (12-19) had a hike, devotional, polar plunge in the Adriatic, rock climbing, board games, and a night game of kick the can. For kids 11 and under, they went swimming, played tag, looked at tide pools, skipped rocks, did an obstacle course, watched a movie, and played video games. It was a full day that hopefully gave their parents essential rest.
Foreigners in this World
Children who grow up in the foreign mission field, as we’ve learned, never feel like they belong. They are too American in their respective countries of residence, and too foreign back in the states. Theirs is a culture they call “third culture,” since neither their first nor second cultures are places where they really feel like they belong. It’s an identity all its own. It is an experience most of us don’t understand, and why a retreat like this one is such a special time to connect with the only other kids like them.
I wonder, however, if this “third culture” reality could serve as an imperfect metaphor for the Christian life. Peter refers to Christians as “resident aliens and foreigners in this world,” (1 Peter 2:11) and indeed we feel that way awaiting Heaven. The pull of eternity and the allure of this world are always in tension, as we live in one world but for the other.
It is on trips like these, in a beautiful place amidst God’s people, that we are truly reminded that we Believers are sojourners who “desire a better country, that is a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).
The conference teachings this week for the grown-up missionaries are parallel to this “third culture.” They are all about Heaven. The Christian doesn’t fully belong here, but isn’t physically yet in Heaven. This polarized existence is in itself, a third culture.
But being around God’s people, in the beauty of His creation, also brings the comfort of knowing that one day we will be in paradise with Him, where we will belong forever.
Thank you for praying with us!
Kim