CEE Story From The Mission Field
MKs are Missionaries Too
October 15, 2002
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5
If you've ever thought that missionaries are ruining their kids by bringing them to the mission field, then you need to read this story:
Carla Ramey is a missionary kid. She is 14 and lives in Latvia, and she just completed her first assignment as a Russian Bible teacher. It sounds amazing, but it's true.
Carla, her brother Scott and her parents Gary and Cathy live in an apartment building surrounded by other apartment buildings which house hundreds if not thousands of Latvian people who don't know Christ. Included in that number are youth who have no thought of eternity. Most every evening Carla and Scott go and hang out on the sidewalk around their apartment building, talking and playing with the other kids, but it's not easy. Sometimes they are ridiculed out of jealousy, other times they are placed on a pedestal as Americans, and still other times they are ignored as foreigners. Through it all God gave Carla a burden to begin praying. For 8 months she prayed every night for her Latvian friends who were lost.
One day she and her mom sat down and talked about how to reach them for Christ and decided that an afternoon bible club might be the best way. Though the odds against them were overwhelming -- the interest level of the kids, the language, the fact that it had never been done, etc. -- they knew that this idea was inspired by God.
So…Carla got to work on invitations. She went out on the street armed with pen and paper and got her friends to help her use the right words and then printed them up on the computer and handed them out. She and her mom planned for a week of bible clubs with activities, songs, crafts and bible stories. Carla enlisted two of her friends to help with music and memory verses and since her Russian is better than her mom's, she herself prepared to teach (she practiced in front of her cat, Nadia). Then they waited to see what God would do.
God brought 6 girls that first day and they understood and responded with enthusiasm to all of the efforts that had been made on their behalf. Each day the girls returned, even arriving earlier and earlier as the week progressed, and each day they learned a little more. As Cathy walked down the street during the days, she would hear the girls on the street corner practicing their memory verses. They were so vocal about what they were doing and how much fun they were having that the neighborhood boys started complaining that they weren't invited! After the week was through, the entire gospel had been presented and plans made for a weekly bible study to begin in the months ahead.
So even though MK's (missionary kids) might not get all the comforts of "home," they can learn to make their home somewhere else and bloom where they are planted. Carla might be where she is because her parents were "called," but Carla is a missionary too.