Who Am I?

Honest reflections from a missionary kid

Who is an MK? I am a combination of two cultures. I am neither and I am both. I am the one who has travelled halfway around the world before I was four. And I am the one who has no home.

I am the brat who throws a temper tantrum and refuses to dress "native" for the American church.

I am the one who complains bitterly about eating oatmeal every day of my life. Yet I am the one who orders oatmeal at the restaurant "for old time's sake."

I am the one who chooses my college by where my friends are because nobody really understands an MK like another MK. I am the one who desperately worries about fitting in. And I am the one who wears my native wrap around the college dorm, not caring about what anyone else thinks.

I am the one churches make a saint of and the one other people pity and laugh at. I am the one who promises to write but never does because it's too difficult to deal with the reality of separation.

I am the one who knows and understands world missions, life and death, heaven and hell. I am the one who has seen God work miracles. I am the one who knows prayer works. Yet I am the one who sometimes finds it difficult to pray.

I am the one who has learned to live with a politically unstable government. And I am the one who waits impatiently by the phone for news that everything is safe.

I am the one who has spent only three months a year at home. Yet I know beyond question that my parents are the best in the world.

I am the one who speaks two languages but can't spell either.

I am the one who wears a thousand masks, one for each day and time. I am the one who has learned to be all I'm expected to be, but the one who's still not sure of who I really am.

I am the one who laughs and cries, sings and prays, gets angry and doubts, fears and questions, expects and receives, hopes and dreams. And I am the one who cares.

I am an MK and I am proud of it!

– Anonymous