This is 7 months overdue…. I apologize…
My parents have been on staff with Cru for over 30 years and the ministry of Cru has become an influencer in my life that many could only hope for. For those who don’t know, Cru is a global missions organizations with over 25,000 full time missionary staff. With that many missionaries, you can be sure there is no shortage of missionary kids. “Staff kids” is what we are all called. Some of us, like myself, were born into the title and others join us at some point in their life. Regardless, once a staff kid, always a staff kid.
My staff kid timeline is a little different than most. When I was 10 months old my family and I moved to China. This began a back and forth between living in China and good old Athens Georgia that totaled in about 7 years of my life being spent in Chengdu, China, a city of about 14 million.
For some, the life of a staff kid is one that they would quickly give up. Growing up in a Christian community is a blessing but can also leave some feeling forced into something they don’t yet call their own. You can only piggyback of your parents religion for so long before you have to decide if you want your own relationship with the Lord or not. The pressures of being a child of two missionaries are real. So many of my friends have expressed feeling the pressures of religion rather than the freedom of relationship and community with the Lord. Along with that, our parents work can be draining, finding supporters can be exhausting, watching our friends do things we will never be able to afford can quickly grow resentment. I remember so many times asking my parents why they couldn’t just have a normal job. Why can’t we just live in America? Why don’t we get to go on cool vacations?
Looking back on it I can see how narrow of a scope I really had. Granted, I was only 7 years old but even today I still have the same questions from time to time. Had my parents not been on staff, so many of my most treasured friendship would not exist. Many of my best memories would have never happened. Eating pig brain in the Chinese market, getting kicked out of temples in Thailand, catching minnows in the pond that was probably poisonous because water safety doesn’t exist in Asia, eating a whole pineapple like it’s an apple because it’s past curfew in South Africa and you can’t find other food (or food that won’t give you splinters in your mouth), getting the cops called on you because you climbed an Albanian monument (sorry Jojo), or even sitting in my kitchen eating waffles with three other staff kids who happen to be three of my best friends. I could go on and on but you get the point. All of these I owe to being a staff kid.
Though I’m thankful for the exciting and weird things that being a staff kid has allowed me to experience, I am most grateful for how it has shaped me. It has given me a heart for adventure. It has put missions in my blood. It has grown my relationship with the Lord and my understanding of grace and faith and love more than anything. It has given me a community like no other. The men and women of Cru have loved me, molded me, encouraged me, and been the tangible role models that every child needs. The friends I have made through Cru are the friends I want my future kids to grow up and call Aunt and Uncle. They love me more than I could dream and I can say with confidence that I do not deserve any of them.
To my staff kids (and actual staff) reading this : you mean more to me than you know. I love you.
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Also::: Thank you thank you thank you. I simply do not have words to express my gratitude and excitement. Because of a faithful God and you faithful servants of the Lord I have already raised about 40% of my $15,800 goal. Again, THANK YOU! My launch date is now only 68 days away and I still need $10,000 to reach my final goal due in January. Thank you for your prayer, your encouragement, and for being some of the most wonderful gifts in my life.
so much love,
L
