In The Mind of Third Culture Kids...

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One of the youth groupers wrote a blog post that gives a snapshot into some of the inner turmoil of a TCK (Third Culture Kid):

Costa Ricans !!! yeah, lately i've been thinking if i'm really a Costa Rican, how do i look my culture ??? do i love it ???or  i just say..." well, what you gonna do ??" lately i've wonder if i really love my culture or my country ??.... i don't really know, i haven't been in a posicion where i have had to leave my country, and i really don't know how will i react when the moment happens, am i gonna cry ?? while i was abscent, i thought about all of this, and i started to compare the american culture, do i love it ?? and suddenly a big smile on my face !!!!!!!! when i just think about it.... i smile... its something i don't do with Costa Rica... but while i was gone i could marvel with God's creation, seing all the beautiful mountains in the morning, seeing a beautiful waterful, and just looking at all the flowers, the ones i've took pictures... and just looking at the beauty of nature makes me love my country.... But i know that somebody tells me right now, if i want to live in the USA... i would definetly answer YES !!! without thinking about it.... is this a person that appreciates her country ???

One of the things that characterizes a Third Culture Kid is the sense of not belonging. I grew up in Ecuador from 1st to 12th grade, a significantly crucial part of development as a human being. What does this mean to be from Chicago, but also from Ecuador? Confusion. Uncertainty. Where do I belong? What can I think of as 'home'? Is anybody like me? Can anyone relate?

Recently I was contacted by a former Youth Grouper, who was born as an MK in Costa Rica the late 60s. She shares,


 Probably the essence of [the youth group's] impact could be boiled down to me, a TCK (third culture kid), having a place where I belonged, a place where there were others like me. As a teenager to be among Americans in a Latin country is naturally bonding. Take it a step further and put God at the center of it, and you have ministry to a target group that often can struggle with identity (and feel like misfits). I’ve since discovered that while I neither have both feet fully in North American culture, nor totally in Costa Rican culture, I do have one foot planted in each, consequently making a great bridge between the two.

We're pumped at the opportunity to be the Youth Group Directors. What a golden opportunity we get to take advantage of--it's in our weakness that God shows Himself strong. It's in our insecurity that we can trust in Him, and not our friends, jobs, money, or neatly mapped schedules. Would you take a moment right now to pray for the students in the youth group? Just as there is such a great potential for students to turn to God, it's a volatile alternative if they shun Him at this point in life. Pray that He would draw their hearts and work powerfully in their lives. 

Blogpost taken from here.

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