DONATE NOW

One Challenge
  • HOME
    • What’s the Latest OC News?
    • Featured Video
    • US Mobilization Center
    • Global Partners
    • Prayer Priorities
  • ABOUT
    • Who is OC?
    • OC Global Alliance Overview
    • Resources
    • Statement of Faith and Guiding Principles
    • Board of Directors
    • OC Research website
    • What’s New on OneChallenge.org
  • VIDEO
  • GO
    • Mobilization blog
    • Where Do People Serve?
    • Entrance Steps
      • Initial Contact form
    • Field Experience Internships
    • Ministry Opportunities
      • Long-Term Missions
      • Short-term Missions
    • Ministry Fields
    • Honest Answers about Missions
    • OC Global Alliance Overview
    • Sports Ambassadors
    • Journey with TCKs
  • GIVE
    • Give Now
    • How Can I Give?
    • Account Login
    • Recurring Giving
    • Giving Appreciated Assets
      • Gift Planning
      • Giving Appreciated Assets (stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, real estate)
      • Donor Advised Funds
    • Leave a Legacy – Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
    • Planned Giving Online Tools
    • “Faith Promise” Giving
  • PRAY
    • How Can I Pray?
    • Daily Prayer Points
    • From the Pastor’s Pen
  • CONTACT
    • How Do I Contact You?
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Vimeo Videos
    • Privacy Policy
  • HOME
    • What’s the Latest OC News?
    • Featured Video
    • US Mobilization Center
    • Global Partners
    • Prayer Priorities
  • ABOUT
    • Who is OC?
    • OC Global Alliance Overview
    • Resources
    • Statement of Faith and Guiding Principles
    • Board of Directors
    • OC Research website
    • What’s New on OneChallenge.org
  • VIDEO
  • GO
    • Mobilization blog
    • Where Do People Serve?
    • Entrance Steps
      • Initial Contact form
    • Field Experience Internships
    • Ministry Opportunities
      • Long-Term Missions
      • Short-term Missions
    • Ministry Fields
    • Honest Answers about Missions
    • OC Global Alliance Overview
    • Sports Ambassadors
    • Journey with TCKs
  • GIVE
    • Give Now
    • How Can I Give?
    • Account Login
    • Recurring Giving
    • Giving Appreciated Assets
      • Gift Planning
      • Giving Appreciated Assets (stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, real estate)
      • Donor Advised Funds
    • Leave a Legacy – Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
    • Planned Giving Online Tools
    • “Faith Promise” Giving
  • PRAY
    • How Can I Pray?
    • Daily Prayer Points
    • From the Pastor’s Pen
  • CONTACT
    • How Do I Contact You?
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Vimeo Videos
    • Privacy Policy

Where is Home for a TCK?

passport pages

Where is home for a TCK? This question puzzles most mission workers’ kids (MK) and third-culture kids (TCK). Their lives have been defined by going back and forth between fields of service and the birthplace of their parents. “Where is home?” may be common question for all people. However, before and during “home” assignment or furlough, MKs/TCKs may see a difference between their “home” and their parents’ “home.”

globeOften “home” is rooted in where kids spend their developmental years. When adults talk about “going home” from the field to their home country, the kids talk about “going home” when they are preparing to return to the field. It is not uncommon for MKs/TCKs to tell their parents as they prepare for “home” assignment, “For you it’s going home, but for me it’s leaving home.”

After many moves and transitions, MKs/TCKs can relate “home” to people rather than a place. Making the old adage “home is where the heart is” true for these kids. The places where they grew up will always hold a special place in their hearts. Often when they have opportunity to return to the field for a visit, even after many years, it can feel like going home. Some return as adults to live in the places where they grew up, but in most cases they learn to feel “at home” in their parents’ home country or other countries around the world.

passport pages

Some years ago a sixth grader at Faith Academy in the Philippines, a school for children of mission workers, had a very insightful and positive understanding of this phenomenon when she wrote the following poem:

World Child #

Where is home?
Where do I belong?
Why, the world is mine. I’m a child of the King.
No walls, no boundaries to forever fence me in,
Many colors, many cultures,
Faces that turn into friends.
It’s tough to say goodbye,
Leaving part of me behind.
But it’s good to have known and loved these special friends I’ll have forever.
And I’ll add even more in every new home.
Whirlo, furlough; miles racing by.
Home again? Strange places, new faces.
Smiling, smiling, answering questions,
“Cute accent!” “My, how you’ve grown!”
New experiences to grow with. It’s all worth it.
Real riches are mine that money can’t buy.
Friends from many nations, new languages to use.
Different rules I must learn.
New problems I must face.
The world is real to me. I’m a WORLD CHILD.
(# Naomi Podmore, re-printed from Scamps, Scholars and Saints, edited by Roger and Jill Dyer.)

Our REAL Home

There is another, deeper aspect to this subject when we stop to consider where our real Home is, something that would be helpful for all MKs/TCKs to have deeply implanted in their heart. I was reminded of this one time in the Philippines when I had to re-apply for a “temporary resident” visa in order to stay in the country. I realized that we are all “temporary residents” in this world. Our citizenship is actually in heaven! We are all on temporary visas in this world! I used to teach our young MKs-to-be that our real home is in the Lord Jesus. We are at home wherever in the world we might be when He is in our hearts.

See other resources about MKs/TCKs:

  • OC MKs Answer FAQs (video)
  • Far-flung flock comes together at PEP
  • Surprises, laughter and learning — teaching in the Philippines

Read other articles from Diane:


dianemorrisDiane Morris served with One Challenge as an elementary school teacher and counselor for 28 years at Faith Academy in the Philippines. Then she served OC families (training, caregiving, and traveling to the fields) from the US Mobilization Center in Colorado Springs for 23 years (1991-2014). Now retired, she continues to volunteer at OC.

  •    Upsides and Downsides – a TCK Profile
  •    “Who Am I?”
  •    “Hidden People Group”… TCKs

For more, see Journey with TCKs.

MK TCK

Related Articles

  • TCK transition
    Ten Tips for Transitioning TCKs
  • signs of the world
    TCKs as “Hidden Immigrants”

Leave your comment Cancel Reply

(will not be shared)

Latest News

  • Bought at a Price to Glorify God
  • This New Year: Get in SYNC with the Leader of God’s Campaign
  • Sharing Food and Loving Hope at Christmas
  • Prayer Focus … OC New Year 2021
  • When Giving Gets Creative

Categories

  • Featured
  • Global Partners
  • Honest Answers
  • News
  • Prayer Priorities
  • Spiritual Formation
  • Stories From The Field
  • US Mobilization Center

OC, One Challenge, is a global Christian mission organization. We work together with local churches and leaders to bring God’s transformation to people in communities and nations.

Ministries include Missions Mobilization, Church Planting & Growth, Education, Holistic Ministry, Leadership Development, Member Care, Partnering & Bridge Building, Research, Sports Ministries, as well as Business for Transformation.

One Challenge
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • VIDEO
  • GO
  • GIVE
  • PRAY
  • STORIES
  • CONTACT

Copyright ©2021 FourTen Creative. All Rights Reserved

Privacy Policy