TCK Voices: The Beauty of Dwelling with People for a Time

Today we have Kate with us! Welcome, Kate!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the different cultures you are part of?

My name is Kate, and I am a current college freshman in the US. I am studying Elementary Education, but I would really like to work with TCKs when I am older, Lord willing. The US is my passport country, but I spent a large portion of my childhood living overseas in Central Asia. Because of the cultural diversity in the villages I grew up in, I learned to love and value cultural differences among people. 

Around the age of 14, my family was forced to move back to the US due to external circumstances in the country we were serving in. The shock of transitioning from an ethnically diverse, culturally rich mountainous village to the concrete jungle of the Bible Belt was difficult for me. I struggled greatly, as many displaced TCKs do, with hating my passport country and idolizing the mission field. 

But the Lord has worked greatly in teaching my heart to examine the beautiful and hard things of each season of life; the United States (specifically, the Bible Belt) is not all evil. And the mission field, while exciting and life-giving, is far from being easy or perfect. So, while I identify with many cultures, I have long since learned that there will always be a yearning in me for something or someplace new. That desire is simply my desire for heaven on earth, a joyous reunion that we believers have to look forward to! 

If you could choose one place from your travels as a TCK to revisit, where would it be and why?

I would love to return to the mountains I grew up in, in Central Asia. These mountains were home to many different people groups, with their own mother tongues and traditions. I miss my mountains dearly, and I think the slow village life shaped me greatly throughout my childhood. I would love to visit again someday, eat all of my favorite ethnic foods, go on some hikes, and breathe in that fresh mountain air (that also kind of smells like cattle)!

What is something you learned from being a TCK?

It is hard to find an aspect of my life that is untouched by my being a TCK. I have learned resilience through being a TCK; it has shoved me into hard situations and forced me to stop, sit, and persist. 

As a kid, if something was hard, I would simply decide not to take part in it. If a friend was being difficult, or a task too hard, I thought it better to never experience the challenges and to simply miss out on the rewards. But as the Lord brought my family to the mission field and I found myself in situations that I couldn’t simply leave (like having to learn a new language, make cross-cultural friendships, or be forced to return back to my passport country), I have been taught that the most beautiful things are the things that are pursued. 

Cultural differences are uncomfortable, but they are beautiful. Friends can be hard to understand, but they are also encouraging. Resilience is something I attribute entirely to God’s work in me through the challenges of moving (more specifically, the challenge of moving back to the US again). 

How has being a TCK influenced your friendships and relationships?

Being a TCK has given me a longing for deep connection and roots – the word “home” has never been defined by a place for me, but it most certainly has been defined by people. So, in my relationships, I am restless. I am restless to have deep connections with people I’ve just met; I hate dancing around real conversation with small talk. I want to hear what makes people who they are, what their relationship with God looks like, and how their personality is affected by the cultures around them. 

Of course, it is completely unacceptable for a teenage girl to walk right up to a stranger and ask questions like that, especially in a stand-offish, Westernized culture. But, because of the strong connections I made with other TCKs overseas, I connect deeply with others, and I say goodbye often. Goodbyes are something many TCKs have to face repeatedly, but God has shown me the beauty in fully investing in people even if there is a certain ending approaching. 

There is beauty in dwelling with people for a time and truly sharing life with them, which is something many TCKs might shy away from for fear of an eventual goodbye. My encouragement to someone who may be struggling with that is this: goodbyes, especially for people who have tasted life in many places, are simply an expression of how impactful the relationship was while it lasted. And I think that is beautiful.

How has being a TCK influenced your faith? 

The most impactful thing I have come to learn through being a TCK is the character of God. I came to know God’s steadfastness while my life changed around me. I came to know His creativity as I witnessed life unlike anything I had ever experienced back in the US. Over time, I am coming to understand His sovereignty as I have questioned His decisions. God’s faithfulness in attending to my every need, even as I have traveled from continent to continent, has allowed my heart to intimately long for the time when I will see His face. 

TCKs, we walk through this life without any seeming “constant factors.” Places come and go, people come and go, but we have one true common leader through it all, and that is our Creator. It was difficult for me as a kid to not view myself as the constant factor; after all, couldn’t I credit myself as the one person who had always been there for me? But the truth is, even I am not there for myself. In fact, most of the time, it is my own heart that wants to pursue the world and run after things for selfish gain. But through gentle patience, God has shown me that there is nothing I can do without His strength and without His guidance.

Is there a way our readers can find out more about you and/or connect with you?

They can find me on Instagram @kattrogerss!

Could you share a short prayer for our readers to end with?

Lord, thank You for Your goodness. We cry out to You today knowing that Your ways, not our own, are entirely perfect. We ask that You give us Your peace to rest in and Your wisdom to walk in. Thank You for the gift of being a TCK and for the hearts behind the TCKs for Christ ministry. Help us love You more, and teach us to walk in Your ways. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thank you so much for sharing with us, Kate!