Message Magazine Online - Vol. 54, No. 01, Spring 2006

In This Issue

• The Big Picture
  By Donna Messenger
• To the End of the Earth - Are We There Yet?
  By Michael G. Loftis, President
• The End of the Earth - Are We There Yet?
  By Donna Messenger
• A DISTANT THUNDER
  By Bill Commons
• Sent Out from the Developing World
  By Craig Kennedy, Philippines
• The Missionary Family: MK Education Abroad
  By Russell E. Ebersole, Jr.
• Cultivating Heart Soil
  By Wayne Haston
• Reaching Farther Through Healthcare Ministries
  By Becky Davey
• Ministering to the Disabled
  By Diane Koroski
• Reaching Street Kids on the Sidewalks of Brazil
  By Tim Hoganson, Brazil
• Three Certainties: Death, Taxes, and Missions
  By Spencer Jackson
• Children's Corner
  

The Missionary Family: MK Education Abroad

By Russell E. Ebersole, Jr.

One of the first questions many of our candidates ask is, “What about my children’s education?”

For many, there is no simple answer! However, the fact that the majority of missionary kids (MKs) are educationally ahead of their peers when they return for furloughs and that they do well on college entrance exams indicates that their parents have found some good answers.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mission agencies had rigid policies governing the educational choices for missionary families. However, ABWE has always encouraged flexibility in the area of MK education, which is greatly appreciated by missionary parents who have many difficult and unique educational decisions to make. This flexibility gives parents the liberty and responsibility to provide the training programs which they believe will best meet the needs of their children.

On some ABWE fields, schools have been established for MKs, which usually happens where ABWE has a larger concentration of missionaries, such as in Chile and Portugal. These schools also serve the needs of MKs from other mission agencies. On some ABWE fields, MK schools have been established by concerned missionary parents from a consortium of mission groups. This was true in São Paulo, Brazil, where ABWE personnel helped begin Pan American Christian Academy. This was also the case in Manila, Philippines, where in the mid-1950s, ABWE missionaries helped to spearhead Faith Academy, now the largest MK school in the world. Our eight children attended this fine school.

Another option for some missionaries has been national public schools, which provide opportunities for the MKs and their parents to make meaningful and continuing contacts with the people, and enable the missionary family to become an integral part of the local community in which they serve. Social contacts with national children are often a very positive element in the MKs’ growing years.  Because the curricula in these schools often do not mesh with those of the MKs’ passport countries, the parents must provide additional studies.

Home schooling has been growing in popularity in North America during the past few decades, but it is nothing new on the mission field. Missionaries living in isolated areas have home schooled for generations. This option allows the MKs to remain with their parents and to become a vital part of the ministry. However, it places an additional burden on the mother and sometimes also on the father. Home schooling can also limit the important ingredients of social contacts and extra-curricular activities, which are important parts of a child’s education. Creative parents have solved these problems in unique ways. When MKs are ready for high school, many parents decide to send them to boarding schools in or out of the country where they serve.

Each missionary couple must decide which option they believe will best meet the educational needs of their children. This decision is often a difficult one, and in some cases, has been a factor in taking missionary families off the field.

Please pray for your missionaries who face these important issues relating to the training of their precious MKs.