One of my friends from years ago—a friend who grew up in France and now lives in Canada—recently wrote on her facebook wall: I may not have gone where I intended to go…But I think I’ve ended up where I intended to be. I think that sums up Gloria’s, Sabine’s and Heather’s stories too. Each of these three women is exactly where they were meant to be!
Gloria P
I grew up in South Korea and moved to study in America at age 19 right after high school graduation. I’ve lived in Riverside, CA and Tucson, AZ.
Right now I live in Manhattan, KS with two beautiful girls, a somewhat boring but loving husband and a little Doxin boy, Boots.
- I love tranquility and small town feeling in Manhattan.
- I’d say it’s pretty safe here to raise kids and family.
- I love what K State offer for people here. They offer good science programs and music programs/camps for children.
- McCain Theater has great performances ever year. We had the privilege to listen to Yo Yo Ma two years ago and we just loved it! We’ve been enjoying McCain performances ever since my girls were old enough to sit through a whole performance.
- You guys wouldn’t believe me, but my girls love their schools, teachers, and friends. Jecca, my younger one even said that she was sad because she couldn’t go to school this Monday, President day to see her friends and teachers.
- People are more relaxed and kind here.
Sabine M
I grew up in Pakistan.
I now live in Germany.
It took me about 10 years to start feeling at home here and another 10 years to REALLY love it here in Germany, to be PROUD of my country and to feel like I’m a part of the German feeling.
What I love about Germany:
- The food – the 200 types of bread, the beer, cheese, sausage and much more.
- The Lebensstil – the WAY OF LIVING: spending a lovely warm evening in a Biergarten with friends, enjoying a cup of tea in a quaint little Oma-Café, celebrating Carnival here in Cologne.
- Religion and faith: After MCS I learned that here in Europe it is very much possible to combine faith with a relaxed life-style. Choir practice in church always had a small break so that all the Church members could smoke their cigarette. Our Church pastor would have a beer with his breakfast before Sunday service. Topless tanning at the beach was a must! I found all that liberating. Here I can be a Christian but a rather liberal one!
- Society is not as black-and-white minded as I experienced in MCS. Politicians can be far-left and yet still be devout Christians! I had never heard that before I left.
- Europe! I love traveling for an hour to the Netherlands, hopping over to Belgium, from there to Luxembourg and then on to France for a cup of coffee!
- Refugees: Hey we’ve taken in a million refugees which is more than any other Western country- I’m proud of that. Of course we have problems because of it, but I’m so glad we are helping! Well done Ms. Merkel!
Heather G.
I grew up 1/2 of my childhood here in Nairobi where I live (I even went to the school I work at for 4 years).
I live here in Nairobi really close to the school my husband and I both work at and where our son Timmy attends.
While it wasn’t ever my “dream” to live in Nairobi our location and situation in it fulfills some things that are really important to us.
#1 We both love the jobs we have here. We feel like we are truly contributing to something worthwhile that is Kingdom building and life changing and doing so in a community that is loving and growing.
#2 Our son goes to the school we work at and is getting a top notch education as a benefit of our job. The school community is great for our son and us for other reasons too. Everyone looks out for each other and there is plenty of space for the kids to play together and run freely and safely. Also part of this is that as an interracial by adoption family – we are not the only family that “looks like us” and we don’t really stick out in our school community at all.
#3 We have full time guards at the compound. Most of them are super nice and they like to play with our son (who is Kenyan born, adopted by us) –– basketball, soccer, drama, tree house and lots of story telling and political commentary too – so it gives our son good interaction with Kenyan men who can be role models to him in a way that we can’t and also teach him authentically about who Kenyans are.
#4 It’s been nice to make Kenyan friends through our dynamic local church. The church is very outreached focused. It’s exciting to hear about all the ways they are reaching out to and making a difference in their communities. There are a lot of visionaries and dreamers in this church which inspire us in our faith.
#5 Nairobi is infamous as “Nairrobbery” and unfortunately for the vast majority of its residents it’s not a great place to live but we live in a very beautiful suburb which is probably the safest part of the city. There are a lot of nice “western amenities” here too – malls, grocery stores stocked full of western and South Asian imports.
#6 The only reason we can both work full time as teachers and stay sane is that in the local economy here the disparity between have and have not is HUGE and HORRIBLE. We can afford to have a full time and amazing housekeeper/gardener/ cook/child care provider. He works for us to support his family while also ministering in a slum church.
#7 The weather in Nairobi is pretty much always awesome!
Kenya is a beautiful country that we love so much both from growing up here as well as because it’s our son’s birth-land. And then there’s that other unexplainable “heart country” factor.