Global Reunion 2024

I’ve been overwhelmed for so long that I was beginning to forget what it feels like to just be whelmed (if that’s even a thing). We have spent the last two months feverishly working to get things out of our house and finish renovations in order to prepare for an international move. We haven’t been living there during that time and have stayed in hotels and various spare rooms and basements in five different states all over the country. We’ve put 10,000 miles on our car since April. We’re tired. That’s why when our missionary friends suggested the Global Reunion conference in Oklahoma as a respite for our family, we politely declined the invitation. It sounded like more work.

Then just days later, other friends involved in hosting the conference also invited us. We again said no thank you. We were already spending way too much money, we were traveling with a small dog, and hadn’t we missed the registration deadline? Our family simply did not need any more stress. But our friends insisted, saying the fees were covered, we could bring our dog with proper documentation, and they would allow us to register late. It seemed a little wrong to divert from our packing and planning to go on what felt like a forced vacation, but we’ve been praying too much to ignore such a strong prompting, so we went.

The conference was graciously hosted on the Oklahoma Christian University campus, where we all stayed in the dorms and ate amazing food brought in from generous local churches. Everyone was divided into two groups: adults and kids. I use the latter term loosely since the age cutoff for the “kids” group was about twenty-five. Andy and Lauren and Ben were all a part of it together. If you’re wondering why I haven’t told you exactly what Global Reunion is about, it’s because at this point in my story, I still didn’t actually know. The first day revealed that what we had in common was a third culture, meaning basically that we have all lived a significant amount of time in a culture that is not our own. It was mostly missionaries but there were also military families and cross-cultural workers. The best way I’ve heard “third culture” described is this: the home country is yellow, the destination country is blue, and the result of living in both places turns a person green. He can never go back to being completely yellow and he will never become completely blue. He will always feel most at home with other green people. And we did. It was wonderful!

For five days we were able to forget the rigors of life and just be accepted and understood and loved. It was a safe and healing place where we were surrounded by likeminded people. We all saw someone we already knew and we all made new friends too—even Lauren, who is not technically a third culture person but has married into a family of them. The conference helped her understand us and embrace her new lifestyle. For that alone it was invaluable. We attended classes and activities that helped us make sense of the difficulties we face living a nonconventional life and pursuing nonconventional goals. It also encouraged us to continue living this life and pursuing these goals by reminding us we are not alone and that there is nothing we are better suited for than what we are doing. It was affirming and reassuring, a shot in the arm.

Saying it was refreshing to be among our people is an understatement. It was a balm to our souls. We needed it. We needed the listening ears, the shoulders to cry on, and the words of encouragement and counsel. We needed to be plugged into our network. It’s been far too long. If you are reading this, you are very probably part of our network on some level, and we’re considering ways to get you all together with us like we did in 2020 at our Donor Appreciation Dinner just before COVID shut the world down. If you don’t know what it feels like to get together with your people, I highly suggest you find out. It’s worth it. But you can’t get what I’m talking about without Jesus. It won’t be the same as what we just experienced. He has to be the center. He’s the refreshing.

Thank you on behalf of my family to those of you who convinced us to attend Global Reunion 2024, to those of you who paid for us, and to those of you who put up with our service dog in training. And thank you to all of you who have hosted us in your homes as we make this transition. We have had a rough few months and are still in the process of an overseas move, which is super stressful in and of itself but, thanks to some wonderfully green people, we feel less overwhelmed and closer to whelmed these days. God bless you, and we hope to see you next year!