He stepped off the plane with only a suitcase and a backpack.
Calvin Lewis, junior illustration major and co-president of MuKappa, landed at the Indianapolis airport after his first solo flight. Without much luggage or experience traveling, he set out to Taylor University to start his college education.
More than 100 students around campus are missionary kids or third culture kids. Coming to Taylor can give way to a variety of challenges as they grapple with the idea of home as part of them is left in their other world.
“My primary identity in terms of what people see or experience is not that I'm an MK (missionary kid), that is an undergirding reality that kind of affects the way I interact with different people,” junior Samuel Jones, a global studies major, said.
Jones said his identity was in Christ. As he wrestled with finding his home and people, what kept him afloat was his identity as a child of God. God led him to remember where he was from culturally and ethnically, as well as where he was from spiritually, which was intrinsically connected to where he found his worth.
Without understanding someone’s background, it can be easy to view a person through a singular lens. For Jones, Taylor was a place where he found an abundance of people who could relate to both sides: his Spanish and his American background.
“What I’ve seen for most MKs, there is one of two ways that you engage with the culture (at Taylor),” Nate Chu, the director of International Student Programs, said. “You can completely assimilate into (it)…or you can push it away so hard that you isolate yourself…And neither one of those is the right answer – really, it is ‘how do you integrate into this culture?’”
Taylor University seeks to do just that.
One way Taylor integrates people from all over the world into one family is through International Orientation. Students are brought to campus a week before the semester starts to settle in and learn about the culture they will experience at Taylor.
“There’s an entire world out there that we don’t open our eyes to see,” Lewis said. “We don’t realize how individual each culture is until we step out of our own, and that can be a very painful process when it first happens, but in the long run, it’s never not a good one.”
Every person is made intentionally and eternally by God. As Christians, we are called to engage in that mindset now.
The Bible points to characters who relate to Taylor’s definition of missionary kids (MKs) or third culture kids (TCKs). God prepared each individual for what he calls them to. MKs and TCKs have the opportunity to take those experiences and serve the community.
“Why wait until Heaven to start living that out, where we have an opportunity to do that now?” Chu said.
Whether home is found where the food is familiar, a fishing pond is nearby, others speak another language or with family, God is preparing each individual for something more complex than a human definition of home.
Taylor strives to be that hand to hold as MKs integrate into a new culture and as we all await our forever home.
“(God) uses whatever He gives you to serve his kingdom, and he invites you to take part,” Jones said. “God uses whatever we have, whatever experiences, whatever talents, all for His glory, and that's where we find the most joy; when we join him.”
