Summer is a time for travel and, although we don’t plan any, once in a while we reminisce about the countries we’ve lived in. But it’s interesting that each person in our family tends to miss a different culture.
Deidre misses the people in Galela communities. She did most of the actual Bible translation and spent countless hundreds of hours immersed in discussing nuances of meaning with Galela friends. How are they doing? What happened to so-and-so?
Howard thinks of living out of Indonesian hotels for a week or two at a time. We didn’t do that very much, but that’s how we finished up during the last year or two. There had been religious civil war in the Galela area, so a large Christian city was about as close as we could get. Galela colleagues would meet us there, staying with their own shirt-tail relatives.
Robert thinks of Ambon, Indonesia, but has only vague memories. This provincial capital with Pattimura University, which sponsored our visas, was his most consistent “home” from age five through 10. He’d like to reconnect somehow someday, but the war changed it so much that none of us would recognize it.
Esther thinks of Manila and Davao in the Philippines. These were her pre-teen through mid-teen years. As she viewed American fads and pop culture from an international perspective, she saw through the shallowness and developed more altruistic values. She wouldn’t really fit into Philippine culture, though, so she’s what is called a third-culture kid.
Reminiscence wouldn’t be complete without recalling that our family was fully supported financially and in prayer. Since returning to the U.S., we have been below minimum support levels, even with the children grown and living on their own. Each of us continues to hold full-time assignments with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Howard as Corporate Communications Publicity Writer and Deidre as Strategic Training and Assignment Consultant.
Howard and Deidre Shelden
Dee_Shelden@WBT.org
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