From the director of Team Expansion’s Third Culture Kid Ministry
A few weeks ago, I was walking through town to teach our friend’s daughter piano and saw a newer couple from our church here. I had seen them before, but not had a chance to talk with them much. The wife patiently navigated my imperfect Spanish and let me know they had been at the town hall trying to find a music teacher to help her husband warm up his voice in order to practice singing hymns again. I learned that he was 95-years-old and his voice was out of practice, but he had been an opera singer back in Venezuela and Canada!
When they heard I was on my way to teach a piano lesson they asked if I would be willing to meet with him and practice a day the following week. How could I say no?!
We met at the church on a Friday morning and spent about half the time warming up his voice and singing a couple of familiar hymns including Great is Thy Faithfulness/Oh Tu Fidelidad and then the other half hearing a bit of each other’s story.
His mother was from Spain, but he was born in France, moved to Venezuela as a child, to Canada as an adult, and then to Spain in his recent years. As a 95-year-old, I think it’s safe to say he’s the oldest Third Culture Kid I’ve had the privilege of meeting!
I attempted to explain (in Spanish) my role as a support for Third Culture Kids and their parents who are missionaries around the world and he seemed to understand in a unique way the gift of getting to be in this role and for my family to experience cross-cultural life as we share Jesus and try to encourage and equip other families.
It was special to get to worship our God, who is the same across borders and languages, together and with a hymn that was special and familiar to both of us despite our age, language, and cultural differences. God is so good at connecting people and resources at just the right time.
