I’m like
one of those people with initials in their names. Not “M.E.” like Quincy or “M.D.” like Doogie
Howser, but PK and MK. And I don’t know
what you’ve heard about us, but pastor’s kids and missionary’s kids are not
always the miscreants they’re made out to be.
But hey, I’m certainly not perfect because I’ve done and do plenty of
stupid things in my life. And having
your dad as your pastor out on the mission field gives you plenty of stories to
tell.
I suppose
at this point I should give you a little bit of background so you know where
I’m coming from because after all, knowing is half the battle. (I suppose actually fighting with all those
fancy blue lasers and machine guns would be the other half.) But I really hate doing this part. Whenever people ask me that
usually-simple-to-answer question for most people, I have no easy answer. “Where are you from?” Aaargh! There it is! I don’t know.
I was born in Spain ,
grew up in Trinidad and now live in the United States
I only
spent about a year in Spain Caribbean
twin island nation of Trinidad & Tobago.
(I was on the larger island, Trinidad .) My parents were Christian missionaries and my
father worked as the pastor of the church we were serving with in Trinidad . I
remember hearing about Jesus most all of my life! I first came to know Him as Lord and Savior
when I invited Him to live in my heart and take me as His own as a young
child. I had this great book that taught
you the alphabet by giving you a verse for each letter. I remember the first one was Isaiah
53:6. “All we like sheep have gone
astray, each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all.” The text of that
great hymn, “At the Cross”, was printed next to the verse with a picture of a
little boy laying down this big burden from his back next to the cross at Calvary . And one
night during our family devotions I heard a story about a guy who took his pet
pig with him on a cruise. Apparently the
pig fell overboard and the man dived into the ocean to rescue his pig from
drowning. This wasn’t a perfect picture
by any means, but it drove home to me as a child just how much God loves us so
much more than pigs because He sent Jesus to die for all the wrong and stupid
things we’ve done and by rising again from the dead, He proved that He is
God. After seeing the good example of my
older siblings, I made the decision myself to follow Jesus at the ripe age of
about seven. And that’s something I’ve
been more and more thankful for every day since!
There’re a
couple of funny stories I remember from growing up in Trinidad . There were all the different slang words that
I had to get used to hearing. When
someone asks how you’re going, they just mean to see how you’re doing. My parents, upon first hearing that phrase,
once told a bank clerk that they had come by car and were going by car! And then there’re those trips you take when
you’re “going down the road to come back.”
Sounds like a likely plan. It
just means you’re taking a quick trip somewhere.
And I sure remember some of the
sermons. As pastor’s kids, my siblings
and I got to hear some of the messages over again and when we started hearing
Dad preach from John 15 about staying in the Vine again, I remember leaning over
to my brother and whispering, “Rerun!”
Or there was the oft-lampooned by our family infamous “hermeneutics”
sermon series. It was also known as “How
to drive your church down to nothing” series by my family. My father preached on Sunday nights about how
to read and understand your Bible, which is definitely a good thing to
learn. Unfortunately, my father had a
tendency to do a “quick review” of last week’s sermon throughout this
series. By the time the review was over
and we had actually gotten into the current message, the service was definitely
dragging on. Sunday nights never tend to
be a big attendance for many churches, but this series really drove away
people. What got me was when even one of
our deacons, who had been coming each night and taking notes, stopped coming-
then we knew we had hit the last straw.
There were some services where my whole family was the service! My dad did the preaching, my mom played the
piano, my sister led the worship songs, and my brothers and I prayed and took
up the offering! At the end of each of
these messages, my dad would ask if anyone had questions. My little brother would always crack us up by
raising his hand to ask, “Are we finished yet?”
Though much as we joke about it now, I can still tell you to pray and
ask God to give you understanding, keep the passage in context by reading
what’s before and after it, and analyze the passage by finding the “Who”,
“What”, “Where”, “When”, “Why” and “How” of it, when studying the Bible. But I have to tell you the joke my father
would always use. Here’s how to make a
case for suicide in The Bible. The Bible tells us, “Judas went out and hung
himself. Go and do likewise. What you do, do quickly.” The message here is to not take verses out of
context! (And I laughed every time at
the absurdity of those verses out of context when he would tell this!)
And let me
just clear up this misconception that seems to float around about us PKs and
MKs. We’re not the finest Christians
around, and we’re not necessarily the worst of the bunch either. I am not perfect nor am I even good. I do stupid and bad stuff all the time and
there’s more instances than I care to recall.
The times I’ve lied, cheated, stolen, entertained sinful thoughts,
lashed out in anger, fallen flat on my face in pride or said something really,
really dumb all slip back into my consciousness from time to time. And there’s still junk I did as a kid that I
can remember that I’m still ashamed of.
On the other hand, I’ve never shoplifted, vandalized, done drugs, drunken
alcohol, smoked a cigarette or cigar, and I’ve rarely used foul language. (There was this one time as a young kid when
I repeated a word I heard on television that I quickly found out was not cool
like I thought it was! I don’t believe
I’ve ever said it or most any other swear word since.) Oh yeah, and I’m proud to say that unlike
Madonna’s song, I’m not like a virgin, but I am in fact a virgin and will
remain so until I marry a Christian woman.
And I will be faithful to her and God alone. All this I can do through Christ alone who
strengthens me because apart from Him I’m nothing.
So I guess
you can say that life has been a bit different for me than many Americans. I am an official American, but I’ll always be
a Trinidadian in my heart. I have fond
memories of that country. Growing up in
a British school system with uniforms and playing cricket and football (soccer)
during recess and lunch was great. It’s
also cool to be able to say I went swimming on Christmas Day! I enjoyed weather from 70 to 80 degrees
Fahrenheit (or more) most every day! I
could go on about the many cultural differences from America
