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Learning About Cultures: Beginning with the “Third Culture”
According to Interaction International Third Culture Kids are the fastest growing People Group in the world today. Let’s name a few ATCK’s, Adult Third Curlture Kids, who have changed or impacted our world. The most famous is Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, who lived his early years in Indonesia and high school years in Hawaii. Kim Jong Un– The leader of North Korea was educated at an International School of Bern, Switzerland until he was 15 years old. Christiane Amanpour,Chief International Correspondent for CNN, was born in England but the family moved to Tehran but at age 11 she returned to England to attend boarding school. Katharine Gunbecame…
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Exploring Grief
“Good grief,” is more than just a quote by Charlie Brown. Grief is real and it is no respecter of persons. Grieving is done by all but it is not done well by all. It comes to everyone sooner or later. For decades many children have fallen through the cracks of their parents' grief. We grieve many things from small losses like the ice cream falling off the end of our cone to huge losses like the death of loved ones. Yet every loss no matter how small carries with it a need to grieve. What are you teaching your children to help them with their daily small losses? What are…
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What Do You Really Believe?
Dealing With Difficult Classroom Situations With words we say what we think we believe but our actions reveal what we really believe. When our oldest was three and our youngest 10 months old we went to a Christar training conference. The children were separated by age. That evening we discovered our oldest suddenly had an imaginary friend. While playing, children often imagine their dolls or stuffed animals are interacting with them. Why is this need for community so fundamentally a part of us that even small children, when they feel alone, are compelled to imagine a friend? Could it be a homing device to bring us to God? The number…
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Preparing Their Hearts for the Changes to Come
We went to Japan as missionaries with a three year old and a one year old. After living there for two and half years we needed to raise more support. We put our stuff in storage, packed our suitcases, and said our goodbyes to a home our girls had come to love. As we pulled out of the driveway, our youngest tearfully said, “But now we don’t have a home.” Before we could respond, our 5 year old put her arm around her sister and said, “Don’t you know this is not our real home? Heaven is!” “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have…
