Family

There’s a bit of a light debate in cross-cultural missions regarding the status of young children growing up on the field. We all want to consider the whole family “missionaries”. But of course children are where their parents are because of a family choice. And they would have had varying degrees of input into that choice (depending on age and so on).

Many children grow up and choose to go into cross-cultural missionary work themselves. Others go on to serve the Lord in other ways. Sadly, some reject the faith.

The other day Shari and I were going through some boxes of old textbooks and notebooks, mostly from school. And I was reminded of two things.

First, there were some major challenges for our kids in school. I’m not talking about being cross-cultural, or learning a second language, or the work load (although that last one was a killer at times!). And in the case of our children, Mexican schools were the only schools they knew – they hadn’t been old enough to attend school in Canada.

The challenges I’m talking about are simply the challenges of going to a “secular” school. A school that sometimes promotes anti-Christian views.

“Oh, you have no idea what it’s like now, for my kids”, you may say, if you have young kids in elementary school now. Well, I’m a little more removed from that phase of childhood now, but I do know some of what’s going on. And your point is well taken – things have progressed significantly, and generally in the wrong direction. I would venture the opinion that school is a lot more harmful for children now than it was.

But much of what is so common now was already in the schools back then, in Mexico as well as in other countries.

So I’m proud of my kids for going through what they did. They faced a lot of challenges in elementary school.

Second, I am thankful for children who were (and are still!) involved in service to the Lord. Yes, they often helped with events and served in the local church. But they also reached out on their own, using their creativity and energy to share Christ in their own way. And without going into personal details, there were things in the boxes of books and paper that reminded me of that too.

So I’m thankful for my children, and proud of them. For what they did back then, and what they’re doing now. Way to go!