What does it mean to grow up “among worlds”?

In this episode of Missions Life, we talk with Ruth E. Van Reken, co-author of Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, about the unique joys, challenges, strengths, and hidden griefs that often shape the lives of missionary kids and other globally mobile children.

For many missionary families, cross-cultural life gives children incredible gifts: a broader worldview, cultural adaptability, deep empathy, and the ability to become bridge-builders between people and places. But repeated transitions, unresolved grief, identity questions, and the constant cycle of hellos and goodbyes can also leave lasting marks.

Ruth helps us understand how parents can better recognize the needs of their Third Culture Kids, walk with them through loss, help them build a healthy sense of identity and belonging, and prepare them for re-entry into their passport culture.

In This Episode, We Cover:

✅ What a Third Culture Kid is and why their experience is unique

✅ The advantages and hidden costs of growing up cross-culturally

✅ How repeated transitions can affect children long term

✅ Why unresolved grief is so common for TCKs and their parents

✅ Helping kids process goodbyes in healthy ways

✅ How to answer the question, “Where are you from?”

✅ The “migratory instinct” and the struggle to feel settled

✅ Uneven maturity in TCKs and what parents need to understand

✅ Common relational patterns caused by frequent moves

✅ Preparing children for reverse culture shock and re-entry

✅ How TCKs can become leaders, teachers, and bridge-builders

✅ Encouragement for missionary parents in hard seasons overseas

Whether you are raising missionary kids, preparing to move overseas, supporting a globally mobile family, or are an adult TCK yourself, this conversation offers wisdom, compassion, and practical help for navigating life across cultures.

Show notes and links: https://www.kylefarran.com/missionslife/36-third-culture-kids-ruth-e-van-reken

We want to hear from you!

Have a question, story, or idea for a future episode?

Send us a message at kfarran@abwe.org with the subject “Podcast” or connect with us on Instagram: @kyle.farran

Whether it’s a challenge you’re facing, a topic you’re curious about, or just a quick note to say hi—we’d love to hear it.

Your feedback and ideas help shape the future of Missions Life!

Contentment can feel almost impossible in a world that constantly trains us to compare, complain, and chase after the next thing. In this episode of Missions Life: Navigating Life, Leadership, and Ministry Abroad, we talk with Erik Raymond, pastor in Boston and author of Chasing Contentment, about what true Christian contentment looks like and how believers can learn to rest in God in both blessing and hardship.

Erik helps us think biblically about grumbling, complaining, envy, hardship, church community, and the deeper battle taking place in the heart. We also talk about the difference between Stoic self-reliance and Christian contentment, which is rooted in the strength, goodness, and sufficiency of God.

In This Episode, We Cover:

✅ Where the idea for Chasing Contentment came from

✅ Why contentment is more than simply “being okay” with hard circumstances

✅ How grumbling and complaining reveal what we believe about God

✅ Why discontentment often comes from believing false promises

✅ How trials can become tools God uses to train us in godliness

✅ Why both blessing and affliction can expose our hearts

✅ How the church can move beyond superficial gathering and stir one another toward contentment

✅ How compassion, rather than envy, helps us respond when unbelievers prosper

Key Themes:

Spiritual Resilience & Personal Growth in Missions
Contentment is not passive resignation. It is a learned strength that grows as we trust God in the middle of real hardship, unanswered questions, and daily pressures.

Leadership & Team Dynamics
Grumbling and comparison can quietly shape the culture of a team, church, or ministry. Learning contentment helps leaders model trust, gratitude, and spiritual maturity.

Cross-Cultural Ministry & Adaptation
Missionary life often exposes discontentment through transition, loss, unmet expectations, and comparison. This conversation offers practical encouragement for resting in God when life and ministry do not look the way we expected.

Missionary Family Life & Marriage
Contentment affects how we respond to our spouse, children, teammates, churches, and circumstances. It shapes the tone of the home and the health of our relationships.

Episode Encouragement:

Christian contentment is not found by pretending life is easy. It is learned by seeing God clearly, trusting His goodness, and resting in His care even when circumstances are painful or confusing.

Erik Raymond is the pastor of Redeemer Fellowship Church in Boston. He is also the author of a number of books, including Chasing Contentment.

We want to hear from you!

Have a question, story, or idea for a future episode?

Send us a message at kfarran@abwe.org with the subject “Podcast” or connect with us on Instagram: @kyle.farran

Whether it’s a challenge you’re facing, a topic you’re curious about, or just a quick note to say hi—we’d love to hear it.

Your feedback and ideas help shape the future of Missions Life!

In this reposted interview, Richard Blackaby talks with Kyle about Godly Grit and the kind of resilience needed for life, leadership, and ministry. We explore why spiritual strength matters, how grit is formed through challenges, and what it looks like to keep moving forward with faith and endurance.

Show Notes and Links:

https://www.kylefarran.com/missionslife/34-richard-blackaby-interviews-kyle-on-godly-grit

View Godly Grit on Amazon

The Richard Blackaby Leadership Podcast