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[31 Days] Day 20 Bug

It’s Day 20 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Today you can read the second part of a series done by Wera.

We have known each other for years through the TCK camps we attended together. But only recently we talked and found this strange desire of rest inside of us. Are we allowed to rest or do we seem to have this bug inside of us that just makes us move all the time?

I am very happy that Wera shares her thoughts here with us! Here’s Part 1, in case you missed it!

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Of course I know that part of that longing can never be satisfied by any earthly thing or person, and that there is a spiritual dimension to rest which is not dependent on life circumstances.

It is an intrinsic part of the human experience to carry a longing inside of us that we cannot quite define and that will never be fulfilled, but that nevertheless keeps driving us to look for something else in life – and I think TCKs feels this more acutely.

And yet my (albeit limited) experience of living in the same place for a bit longer has also taught me that there is a certain rest that comes with knowing your way around a place, knowing how people tick, and knowing who you are in relation to that particular place. And there is even more rest in deep friendships in which we are intimately known, and feel safe, understood and loved.

But it takes time for this kind of intimacy and trust to grow.

And yes, in the time that it takes to build strong relationships, routine also settles in and life can get dry and repetitive, and with that come the itchy feet.

And yet there is something very beautiful in connecting more deeply with a place and its people over a longer period of time, and although it sometimes sucks, it’s an experience that’s worth sticking around for.

I’ve noticed that for me, less adventure and less change often seem to bring more rest for my soul and personal growth of a different type – the type that strengthens my roots rather than my wings.

And the older I get, the more my soul seems to long for rest over adventure.

At the moment I oscillate between feeling thirsty for adventure and full of excitement and energy for all the things I could do with my life now that I’ve finished university, and between feeling overwhelmed at the vastness of options in front of me and apprehensive about a lack of stability in the next few years.

Most people at my stage in life have at least some basic variables in place (they tend to have some fairly set ideas about where to live, who with, and/or what they want to do), but I seem to lack any sort of parameters in my life.

And whilst part of me is excited and grateful to be so free and independent and not tied to any particular place, person or profession, part of me is also envious of friends who are already much more settled or heading in a clear direction in life.

I’m beginning to accept that my attitude towards moving has become more complex and somewhat paradoxical, and that it’s okay to be confused about what I want.

We’ll see which of these contrasting feelings and desires end up dominating my life.

But for now, I’m going to acknowledge, and welcome, the fact that alongside my continuous longing for change and adventure, a new longing for rest and stability has also crept up – and it seems to be growing.

How do you deal with your feeling of restlessness? Is the strange desire for rest familiar to you?

[31 Days] Day 19 Rest

It’s Day 19 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Today you can read the first part of a 2-day series done by Wera. She is German but grew up in Guinea-Bissau and likes to pretend that she’s British. She’s just graduated from Durham University with a BA in Arabic and politics, and is currently working as an aupair in Spain.

We have known each other for years through the TCK camps we attended together. But only recently we talked and found this strange desire of rest inside of us. I am very happy that she shares her thoughts here with us!

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Feeling restless is an intrinsic part of my identity.

As a TCK who has moved frequently, I’ve experienced and internalised a colourful (and sometimes confusing) mixture of cultures, habits, beliefs, traditions, languages and relationships.

Constant change and diversity seem to be of a somewhat addictive nature, and I have often noticed in myself a deep restlessness and a strong urge to move and experience something new that seems to kick in after around two years of staying in the same place.

By the time I was 12 I’d already moved about a dozen times, but then my family settled more permanently in Germany. After a couple of years it dawned on me that I would essentially have to stay in Germany for several more years until I finished high school.

Not only did that thought fill me with dread, but I couldn’t even truly conceive of it, having never lived anywhere for more than three years at the very most.

I promptly began to think about ‘escape routes’, and ended up going to England for an exchange year at the age of 15. What was meant to be just one year abroad to get some restlessness out of my system turned into a string of adventures in various countries.

Seven years later, I’ve just moved for the eighth time since, this time to Spain, after having lived in the UK, France and Palestine. When people hear my life story they often ask me which country I’d like to settle in eventually. I never really get that question.

I just cannot imagine life without moving frequently, so I usually joke that even if I found paradise, I’d still get bored and restless and would want to move after 2-3 years.

However, as much as I struggle to imagine being settled or even living anywhere more long-term (which I’d define as 3+ years), I’ve recently discovered in myself a strange new desire quietly creeping up alongside the one for adventure and change – a desire for stability and rest.

I’ve just graduated from university and am currently working as an aupair in Spain for a few months; after that I hope to find a job teaching English in the Middle East for a couple of years before maybe doing an MA in goodness-knows-where. My parents and siblings are about to be scattered across three different continents.

So the next few years look unlikely to hold much constancy for me, and I’m surprised to now notice in myself not just excitement, but also exhaustion, at this thought.

After all my experience of moving, I know the joy of engaging with and learning from people with a different culture and worldview to mine – but I also know the frustration of not being able to fully express myself and being misunderstood because of language and cultural barriers.

I know the thrill that comes from exploring new places and experiencing a new way of life – but I also know what it feels like to be lonely and homesick.

And when I say ‘homesick’, what I mean is not a longing for a particular place or particular people, but for a particular feeling – one of rest, of belonging, of being seen and understood for who I really am, and accepted and loved as such.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

[31 Days] Day 18 Know

It’s Day 18 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Cruel killings in Syria and Iraq.
Suicide bombs in Afghanistan.
Corruption about minerals in Congo.
Civil War in Sudan.

Those are headlines in newspapers or TV stations.
News about some people in some countries.

But they’re not.

For us, they’re friends, beloved faces in familiar countries.
And these are not just headlines we can scroll past, these are terrible news from places we have grown to love and know all too well.

We know too much to not care.

We have seen too much to just close our eyes and ears.
News are painful to watch, they pierce through your soul and you can only cry out at the injustice taking place in countries you consider home.
And there’s always this fear that one day you’ll see a familiar face on the screen.

We know too much to just sit back and let things happen.
So we speak up, go behind the scenes to places and people hidden from the world’s eyes.
And so we cry out to the One who also knows and sees.
Who’s always seen.
And whose heart breaks as much as ours.

Here’s to all those speaking up so bravely and letting us know as well.
Just one brilliant example are Augustin Pictures. Go and check out their amazing work!

[Five Minute Friday] Long

It’s another Friday, so I am linking up with the writer community at Kate Motaung‘s place.

This post is part 17 of the series “31 Days in the Life of a TCK”.

Come join the whole conversation here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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“Africa? You’re going to Africa? This is so far away! It’s desert there, lots of dangerous animals, and only poor people!”

I remember my grandma saying things like that when we first told her we would be moving South. She came from a little village and hadn’t gone further than the European boarders, so she was terrified. Terrified to lose her children and grandchildren to heat, sickness, or lions.

She was terrified because she didn’t know. Africa was a long way for her.

But we went. All the long 8000 km to beautiful Uganda.

In these two years we had maybe 3 phone conversations (it was before the highspeed internet and smartphone age) with us walking around in the garden to get reception and screaming: “You there? Can you hear me? Merry Christmas, Grandma!” and the signal broke off.

Uganda is a long way.

Fortunately, we had a visitor one day who brought a video camera, so we shot a film for grandma, showing her everything in this new home of ours. The way we lived, the GREEN grass (Uganda is close to the equator and pretty green in rain season), the people we had come to love.

The next letter we got from her was very different. “Now I know where you are. Now I can be at peace. Africa is not as different as I thought.”

Suddenly, Uganda isn’t such a long way after all.

Long distances can become very small if we know how to bridge them well.

I am not saying the kilometers magically disappear.

And trust me, as soon as I hang up on a skype conversation I feel the distance more than ever before.

But thank God for so many ways to make the long distances come closer to us.

To allow the world to reach us where we are.

Having the world close to us can have its challenges as well – stay tuned for this part tomorrow!

How did/do you experience distances in your life? Any funny stories to tell?

[31 Days] Day 16 Life

It’s Day 16 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Today I am very excited to have Katrin Dubach as a guest. We met while working for the European Youth Congress Mission-Net and got along right away (seems to be a TCK thing J). She writes beautiful poetry, and today she shares a bit of her story and a wonderful piece of her work on TCK life.

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I was excited to start my gap year and I knew it was time for my high school years to end. And yet I was scared and sad.

I was at the airport saying goodbye to them for the last time after our class trip and everyone was telling me that of course we’d see each other again and I didn’t have to cry.

I was really glad I cried, I wanted to cry because for me it was like saying, “I loved this time we had together and I’m going to miss it.”

I’ve said many goodbyes in my life.

I grew up in Mongolia as a missionary kid and went to an international school.

In international communities, saying goodbye is so much a part of our lives.

Relationships are never expected to last for forever, just for their season.

I went to boarding school in Singapore when I was 10 and then with 14 I said goodbye to Asia for good and moved to my passport country Switzerland, where I’ve been living for 5 years now.

At one point in those weeks of change from school to something new in my gap year, I stopped and prayed.

“God I don’t know if I can do this, I don’t know if I have the energy for this life. Saying goodbye so many times, finding new friends so many times, I don’t know if I can take the pain of losing more people close to me.”

God answered me by showing the beauty of this life I’m leading.

The beauty of cherishing the days we’ve been given and the people placed around us.

I came to a point where I knew for myself: I want to live this life fully, to let myself feel life because the joys of life are so worth it, and in God’s strength the pain is bearable.

The Constant

I’m ready to start this life adventure
To let people in,
To hurt, to bleed
Radiant faces of long-lost friends
Tears falling at every goodbye
Memories stored and saved on the way
A portable album of good and of bad
Laughter and hope, joyful tears
Blessings in an immeasurable dimension

Through the tossing and turning
Through up and through down
Next to new and old
Above fear and excitemen
You stand as constant
And it’s Your hand I’ll take,
For this life adventure

[31 Days] Day 15 Away

It’s Day 15 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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Do you have good friends?
The ones you can call in the middle of the night?
The ones you can walk over to for a spontaneous chat?
The ones you can be quiet around and still be understood?
The ones who make you laugh?
The ones who know things about you you’re not when aware of yourself because they grew up with you?
The ones who help you in the small and big crises life can bring?

I hope that we all have at least one friend like that.
You might be able to just walk over to your friend or call at no cost.

Well, TCK friendships are often a bit harder.
We travel a lot and friendships normally have an expiry date.
Far too soon you or the other person mögt away and friendship has to be redefined.

Quite often I discover a desire inside of me to be near my friends.
But where are they?
I don’t always have money to fly around the world and attend a friends wedding.
I first have to think about time difference before I call a friend to tell her good news. When I need a shoulder to lean on, a distant face on a computer screen just isn’t the real deal.

Friendships change so quickly.
As the quote says I sometimes feel like my part is ripped into pieces; everywhere I plant myself I leave a piece of my heart behind with beloved people.
And the more I move the more I yearn for these pieces far away.

But it works.
It’s still worth it planting myself in new places and discovering wonderful new friends. And the scarce time I get to spend with dear friends virtually is still a blessing.
Especially since we know that far away won’t last forever.
One day we will all be together and our hearts will be whole again.

How do you live friendships with people far away?

[31 Days] Day 14 Work

It’s Day 14 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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We finally found it.
The one we can blame everything on.
Our feeling lost in the world.
Our in between states.
Our pain of saying goodbye all the time.

It has different names but it is the one got us to move abroad and become world citizens.
The work of our parents.
It might be called church, the government, the military, or a Christian organization.

I have talked to quite a few TCKs and we seem to have an ambiguous relationship to our parents’ work.
Some are thankful because that’s what got them into this lifestyle in the first place.
But far more hate it.

They feel trapped in a system identity and feel like they don’t even exist outside the missions/military/foreigner bubble.

They start hating their parents and their work.
And maybe also the one who they make responsible for it, like other people or God.
Yup, there are downsides to this life and things to consider for everyone involved.

What were/are your experiences with your parents’ work?

[31 Days] Day 13 Fear

It’s Day 13 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! We are slowly moving deeper in the topic and looking into some issues TCKs might struggle with.
Today another TCK friend Daniel Vedder is sharing his thoughts. Daniel grew up in Congo DR, Zambia and Germany. After finishing his schooling in Germany, he is currently doing a gap year back at his old school in Zambia.
You can find more info on the series here. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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Fear.

Everybody knows what it is, everybody has encountered it at some point.

There are many different types of fear.

Fear of snakes, fear of the dark, fear of death.

And then there is the fear of the unknown.

I think this is one particular fear that most TCKs can relate to.

I remember it only too well myself, returning to my passport country of Germany three years ago, after a childhood spent almost exclusively in Africa.

I vividly recall stepping out of the airport and seeing the lights of the city of Frankfurt light up the night sky.

And suddenly I felt fear – fear of what lay ahead, of the society that I would have to adapt to, but most of all simply a fear of the great unknown surrounding me.

And then again some weeks later, on the first day of school.

After my small mission school of 100 pupils I was terrified as I walked into the new school, a huge maze of corridors and classrooms filled with a jostling throng of over a thousand students.

These fears are only too common.

New, unknown situations can be frightening – and as TCKs, we experience them all the time.

But there is comfort.

I remember that morning, on the first day of school, I stumbled upon the following verses in my devotions:

“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you: ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off’; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

(Isaiah 41:8-10, ESV)

Did/do you experience fear of the unknown ahead of you?

How did/do you deal with it?

[31 Days] Day 12 Adjust

It’s Day 12 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here.

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I knew this day had to come eventually, but I still wasn’t ready for it.
No matter how much you prepare, it still hits you out of the blue.
Culture shock.

The first months in South Africa were full of adventures.
Every day I met new people, enjoyed driving on the left side, all the delicious food, or having late night conversations with my housemates.
We had made us a home in this little wooden house, and all being away from loved ones around the globe we had become a family.

And then they all left.
Some went back home ay the end of their terms, other were reassigned to another base. Within two weeks our little community changed and I was by myself.
And hit by a wave of culture shock, homesickness, and anger.
Out of a sudden I resented everything.

photo credit: Ruth van Reken

In the transition process there are several stages and we need to go through all of them. There’s no recipe how long it will take, but we sure can’t skip one stage.
There is a time of excitement, newness, enjoyment.
But after an initial honeymoon phase we hit the rock bottom of reality and suddenly feel overwhelmed by culture, people, everything.
It’s definitely the toughest phase, and yet we need to live through it to get to re-adjustment and realizing that there’s life there after all.

The key word is transition PROCESS, and as hard as living through it often is we hopefully will experience the depth that comes with it.

How did you live through transition – what was particularly hard and what helped you?

[31 Days] Day 11 Wake

It’s Day 11 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here.

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Nights at the beginning of rain season were the best.
I lay awake breathing quietly.
Waiting.
Listening to the soothing sound of crickets in the dark.
Sometimes a gecko would come along,too.
And then it came.
There it was.
Soft and quiet at first.
The first rain after many months of drought, empty water tanks and yellow grass.
That sound of rain drops on the iron sheet roof was like music in my ears.
And even as the rain got stronger and was beating hard I felt safe and cozy.

I still enjoy the sound of rain.
Even though my roof now is made of bricks and doesn’t make the drops resound like drums.
But I also wake sometimes and remember friends in Uganda who live in huts with straw roofs and for whom every rain could entail the danger that their house might be washed away.

I still wrap my blankets closer around me and lay awake at night.

Rain is still nightly music to my ears and a reminder that the Lord takes care of us after dry reasons with his perfect rain of blessings.

Any other African TCKs around who share this experience?