“Where is home?”- A guest article written by Ruth

“Where is home?”- A guest article written by Ruth 

On the first day of term two, we had Multicultural Day. We had students walk into Chapel with the flags from their passport country and the national anthem of the country was played. (We heard the same tune for South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia). The student who had been at the school the longest from each country was the flag holder and country representative. There were around 30 different countries represented.

The talk for that assembly was on the topic of home and “Where is home?” A story was shared by one of our school’s alumni from South Korea. She said that at school, she always felt American, and yet now that she is in America studying at university, she feels so Korean. She doesn’t really fully fit in either place.

The poem “Colors” by Whitni Thomas explains so well that feeling of not fitting in, being yellow in a blue country and blue in a yellow country. But something that I have only recently realized is that sometimes missionary kids don’t only have two countries they call home, they can have three. For my students, this school is their home. But then for three months a year they go to the country their parents are serving in and that is home as well. And these countries are different from their passport country which they go to every few years for home assignment and then often permanently for university.

We call it passport countries because students may have been born there, but it is not their home. A student may have been born in America but their parents are serving in Burundi and they come here. They have an American passport, but America is not their home - their home is here and Burundi. But at some point, America will become their home.

This constant state of change can be exhausting. It is only when you work with people from other countries that you realise how different cultures are and it often comes out in the small things. I asked my Algebra 2 class when they wanted to write their test and they got confused because to them, the teacher writes/sets the test - the students take the test. Another interesting example of cultural difference happened with my grade 7s this week. I asked them if they would want to try exercise 4 and 5 and immediately realised I sounded just like my mother who used to ask us if we wanted to make her a cup of tea when what she meant was - please make me a cup of tea. I asked my students if their parents did the same and those from the UK said they did; those from America and South Korea said their parents would just directly tell them to make tea.

My passport country is England but I never call it home. My sister asked me where I call home and it depends on where I am. If I am in Kenya and I’m going back to SA, I will say I am going home. If I’m in SA and going back to Kenya I will say I’m going home. I said the same about Tanzania and Ethiopia. I have more than one home in many senses yet I also have no home. How much more this is true for the missionary kids.

Psalm 90:1 says, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” The words dwelling place are sometimes translated as refuge or home. We may have snippets of home or no permanent home here on earth, but God is our dwelling place, He is our home. And He is never changing, constant, a rock, eternal.