Changes in my accent and vocabulary have been a big part of my expat experience. There is an emotional toll that comes with having an accent that doesn’t match your passport. But it is a choice, and what I gain is worth the cost.
I struggle to tell you what I actually do in an interesting way. The highlights of my work are people and I don’t feel comfortable sharing stories that don’t belong to me alone. But I love what I do, and I want to share it with you.
My church expects to lose 30% of the total congregation every year. Last year the youth group lost 50% of our regulars. Cleaning out phone contacts I removed 39 people without deleting recent graduates – from a phone only 9 months old.
One class chose a unit on death/grief, and I was invited to speak to them! I am in no way an expert on death, but I have experience walking with TCKs through grief experiences. Loss is a constant, an ongoing part of international life.
EPIC was a 2.5 day conference – that’s 50 hours to cram in 5 worship sessions, 3 talks and a LOT of activities. There were 100 participants. I led a worship band of boys – they live in four cities, and come from the US, UK, New Zealand, and Korea.
After my unexpected extra day in Phnom Penh, I flew out on Tuesday afternoon. I knew my fight was really two flights with a short transit stop, but hadn’t clued in that the transit stop was in ANOTHER COUNTRY until I got my boarding pass – from Phnom Penh to Vientiane. We flew to Wattay…
I left the Beijing Youth Conference early in order to fly to Thailand to help with a conference there. There were about 150 people there, a third of whom were the kids of adults attending the retreat. (The participants were members of an organisation doing mission and humanitarian work in South East Asia). Christina and…
