Finding Community in Transition: Part 3

So, what can we do? 

By Bekah Leary

So, now that we’ve talked about reasons that we may be hesitant to form relationships with people around us, what can we do instead? 

Be empathetic; be open to new ideas and perspectives. Be willing to have your mind changed or broadened. A good passage for me to remember when I am interacting with people who have drastically different viewpoints or belief systems than me is this: 

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:19-20

Finding Community in Transition: Part 2

What keeps us from finding community/forming relationships? 

By Bekah Leary

In my last post, I talked about the importance of Christian community, which is something that I think most of us can agree on. But usually, in a transition, we enter a new place where we don’t have a lot of community automatically. And when we are in the midst of a transition, it can be hard to seek out community. Whether we are in the “chaos” stage of transition, still learning our way around, or just emotionally and mentally exhausted, we don’t always want to get to know the people around us or have them know us.

Finding Community in Transition: Part 1

Why We Need Community

By Bekah Leary

I love talking about community. I love it because it reflects so much of God’s heart and character. God is a Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is a relationship, three in one. 

Since we are people made in God’s image, we are meant to live in community with other people; we see this in the early church, in God’s plan for marriage, and in Paul’s need for community. Even Jesus surrounded himself with people. God did not intend for us to live life on our own-we need other believers around us for several reasons. Being a follower of Jesus is a battle and we need others to:

From Tokyo to Budapest: A Calling & Promise

By Josephine Loh

The young teenage girl growing up in Tokyo never would have thought she’d come to live and work anywhere in Europe, let alone Budapest, Hungary. Goodness, she barely survived moving to the US for college. So what brought her halfway across the world? Well, it’s simple: the call to discipleship. 

I remember growing up in Tokyo and all the joys of living in a city filled with kind people, phenomenal cuisine, and familiar sights. There are so many things I love about that country and despite holding a Singaporean passport I still call Japan home. My parents are missionaries, I grew up around other missionary families and attended a Christian school. Early on I learned about how Jesus spent His life on earth discipling others and teaching them what it meant to follow and love Him. I think I knew what that looked like seeing as I was exposed to ministry from a young age. Christ left His disciples, and all believers with a call to continue the work He had already started. However, I don’t think I fully understood how much deeper this calling was in shaping who I was, and how much I could apply it into my own life and get involved with discipleship myself. 

Control: Remembering that God is God and We are Not

By Bekah Leary

My desire for control and the franticness I feel when I lack it became pronounced when I moved to Budapest last Fall. One of my responses to this transition has been to try to control as much as I can around me; whether that be the messiness of my apartment, being super punctual, and sometimes, trying to control the people around me like my teammates and friends. You can imagine how that goes… I don’t like to acknowledge how much I don’t like not feeling in control, but I come face to face with it when life don’t go my way.

I am the kind of person that likes structure; I like it when everything fits into neat little boxes. I like to be in control. Being in control of my life makes me feel secure and comfortable. It makes me feel like I am the authority of my life. But most of the time, the second we start to feel like we’re in control something comes along that changes our plan and messes that up. And I think I know why. Because if life worked in perfectly, calculated ways that we could have full control over, then we would try to make life work without God.

A New Tradition

This past weekend MK2MK hosted its first college retreat. We had 24 college students either fly or drive to Florida for a weekend of fun, community, and learning how to be a TCK (Third Culture Kid) in college.

I’m Fine…

By Jessi B.

Jessi is an MK who has lived all over. She hopes to one day become a counselor for MK’s but right now she is living in Tennessee with her family. She joined the MK2MK team this summer to lead Xtrack.

Growing up I prided myself in being what I thought was a “good” missionary kid: obedient, respectful and above all, honest. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized I had lied almost every day of my life to my family, friends, and even myself with two simple words: “I’m fine.”