by Tim Sisk

Some people get nailed with a reputation and no matter what the facts say, they are never really able to shed that dark shadow. I have a 94-year-old grandmother who suffered through the Great Depression and swears that Herbert Hoover and his party were the sole cause of that great disaster. To this day, she scoffs at the mere mention of the GOP and pays homage to Roosevelt and his Democrats. I make no claims at being an expert concerning the events surrounding the Great Depression, but I have a hunch that the cause of that turbulent time in our country’s history was not quite as simple as the fact of Hoover’s presidency, and I am positive that the problems we experience today prove that FDR’s “New Deal” and its creation of a society dependent on big government was not the long-term panacea. Yet, the reputation of Herbert Hoover suffers irreparable damage to this day.

Humans have the tendency to feast upon the negative like wild hyenas. We love to rivet our attention on the one missed pressure-packed free throw or the one rotten apple in the bushel of juicy, ripe, golden delicious apples. We also relish in hanging a load of guilt, like an albatross, around the neck of someone we feel is to blame. We are quick to allow a few mistakes and failures to color our view of the whole.

This article, therefore, is not part of a checkout line tabloid written to spot-light the dirt of a few MKs who have gone wrong or to critique the parenting skills of missionaries with prodigal sons or daughters. Instead I want us to pay tribute to the majority of MKs who were raised on the mission field and who continue to honor God with their lives. I want us to remember the missionary parents who, often under great stress and hardship, have trained their children well. I want us to focus on the 99 sheep who have not strayed and the shepherds who have led them.

A Tribute To Missionary Kids

BIMI and other mission boards are experiencing the wonderful phenome-non of what has sometimes been la-beled as the boomerang effect. Many MKs who grew up on the mission field and then came to the US to attend college are now making their way back across the ocean to their “roots.” While not all of them return to the country in which they grew up, the experience of having lived overseas, being exposed to a different culture and way of thinking, and having seen how God works and provides no matter where one is, is a priceless advantage. One missiologist suggests that being a former MK gives a missionary at least a five- to ten-year head start. As our mission celebrates its 35th anniversary, it is exciting to see the growing number of second- and third-generation missionaries following the footsteps of their godly parents and serving on foreign soil.

However, while we pay tribute to the MKs who return as second-generation missionaries, we must never leave the impression that those who do not return are in some way second-class citizens in God’s kingdom. God in His omnis-cience and sovereignty leads all of us in a variety of ways. I believe that if we properly understand the concept of the “body” as it is taught in Scripture, we must acknowledge that no member, no matter what his or her position, is any more or less important than another. Therefore, instead of suspiciously questioning why an MK does not return or is not in full-time ministry, let’s be thankful to God for the ways in which they are glorifying Him with their lives in their present locations.

A Tribute To Missionary Parents

James Dobson was right when he wrote “parenting isn’t for cowards.” That is true whether you are raising children in Hometown, USA, or Bogota, Colombia. As parents, we are often faced with the temptation of forsaking the important for the immediate. Missionary parents face the same frustrations. With the great burden that one senses living in a land with so little Christian witness, missionaries often struggle with the balance of ministry and family. We have all heard the horror stories of those who have failed. Yet surveys reveal that former MKs, as a whole, feel that living cross-culturally strengthened their family ties. Research also indicates that MKs are generally more intimately related to and dependent on the family than of children raised in the USA. As an MK and a missionary parent, I know firsthand that missionary parents are not perfect. Therefore, let’s com-passionately remember that they, like the rest of us, are striving valiantly to raise godly kids and, as a whole, are succeeding in doing just that.

A number of months ago while visiting a church in Iowa, I had the opportunity of touring the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. I had always associated Hoover with the Great Depression, but on that day I learned another intriguing fact of history. It was President Hoover who on March 3, 1931, signed a bill officially making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States of America. So next time you sing that anthem, rich with mean-ing and emotion, you might want to remember that in some way we have Hoover to thank for that. In the same vein, the next time we think about MKs and their parents, instead of allowing a smattering of strays and failures to darken our picture of the whole flock, let’s remember the vast majority who, despite their humanness, are bringing glory to God through their lives in a multitude of ways around this globe.

Tim Sisk was an MK in Japan. He and his wife, Donna, with their three children are now missionaries in Bolivia.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Douglas & Becky Sisson -  PHILIPPINES
Mrs Judith Skates -  ASSOCIATE - RUSSIA
Brett & Patricia Skillen -  MILITARY - GERMANY