Editor’s note: This is the third in a series about life as a Seventh-day Adventist missionary child. Read Part 1 and Part 2.
Missionary kids pause when asked the simple question: “Where are you from?”
The reply could be: “Do you mean where do I live right now, where did I just come from, or where I was born?”
While you may not be able to name a place as home, you do have favorite sounds and even smells that denote “home.”
You may be a missionary kid if:
1. Rain on a tin roof is the best sound in the world.
2. You can listen to the approaching rain and know if you have enough time to make it to your friend's house before the horizontal deluge hits.
3. You may love travel and meeting people but you also need some peace and quiet.
Western city society can be so noisy in comparison to where you grew up, hours from any big city. As a result, you may find yourself in a big city and excited about the croak of a frog or chip of a cricket that no one else seems to hear.
4. Being woken up by roosters is an awesome way to wake up — provided they don't start crowing at 3 a.m., in which case you wish the restaurant was called "Kentucky Fried Rooster" so you could deliver a guilty sleep-interrupter for better purposes.
5. As an adult, you go on a mission trip to a random country and culture far removed from where you grew up.
You walk to the market and stand in the middle deeply inhaling because it stinks just right and you're at home.
Karen Taylor Glassford was born to U.S. missionary parents in Puerto Rico and grew up in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Honduras. As an adult she has lived in South Korea and Guatemala and gone on many short-term mission trips, most recently to Rwanda in May 2016. She currently works at Institute of World Mission at the General Conference.
Read also:
You May Be a Missionary Kid If … Food keeps you talking for hours
