MK forum

Thank you for this,Raz.

Thank you, Raz and shadowspring.
It hurts to read and ponder these things.
It hurts to know there are still hidden things in our family.
Yes, Mahalko, it must be hard.
It helps so much to know that we are not alone, humanly speaking.
Faith. Mercy. Love. Or spiritually either......
wherever we happen to be on the journey......

I think this is a very good thread. I am learning a lot of how MKs feel and thought about their time in a foreign country, being away from their parents, etc. I would suggest that someone collect all these stories and publish them into a book called something like: Refections of MKs. Both positive and negative aspects could be included. It would make a good read for any missionary parent or aspiring missionary to read. Probably be a big help to all.

Better title: THROWING UP AND TURNING PURPLE AND OTHER UNHEALTHY HOBBIES

Just kidding. But it needs something more dramatic.
Pay OT to come back and do the title.

My opinion is that strategically planned mission organizations are a work of the flesh and in most cases, families in missions are unhealthy for children, so the thought of making a manual for such families is repulsive to me.

Missionary organizations are stones for the altar of God purposely crafted by the will and purpose of men, not uncut stones that God provides. The purpose of the distinction is that all of our acts of service to God need to be be God provided, Spirit led. The modern missionary movement is anything but.

My in-laws were recruited in fundamentalist seminary (a form of Christianity I find deeply flawed) appealing to their pride on one side, pushing on the other side by shame of not being committed enough, and using emotionally manipulative tactics of the (unnecessary) deaths of Jim Eliot, et. al.

His widow has made quite an industry out of that bit of foolishness. I am looking at her title now: The Savage, My Kinsman. Sounds to me on par with The Nigger, My Brother or The Faggot, My Cousin. She shows her sense of superiority to and subsequent dehumanizing of indigenous peoples in her title. My in-laws likewise had the same 'great white bwana' attitude. Same attitude as is chronicled in Bill Gothard's Pineapple Story.

I shudder to think anyone would be wanting to make a guide for missionary parents, because that means they still think missionary parents are a good idea, that just need a little tweaking. I strongly disagree.

What would be healthy? Empty nesters or single people going to actually LIVE the rest of their lives because they LOVE those people. I have seen it happen, but unfortunately it is rare. i support such people financially when I find them.

There are a few families whose obvious love for the people they supposedly serve is genuine and lifelong, like the NTMers who wrote Spirit of the Rainforest. But in the huge majority I've met, a career in missions involves lots of transfers so that the only lasting relationships developed are missionary to missionary. You could do that for a lot less heartache and money in your home country.

Gotta run.

mosquito bite, I like how you think.

ShadowSpring2 - if ever you feel your husband would talk to another MK I would be glad to do that.