mkPLANET Newsletter: May '08

Hello mkPLANET Members! Here's a look at the topics in your May '08 newsletter:

OVERVIEW:

1. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- mkPLANET needs volunteers
- Book Club - Still time to join!
- New Ways to Donate to mkPLANET
- News from MuKappa: Call for Submissions
2. FORUM CONVERSATIONS
- "What MKs Wish" Series

• What MKs Wish Churches Knew
• What MKs Wish Dorm Parents Knew
• What MKs Wish Schools Knew

- Other Popular Topics
3. NEW AT mkPLANET's BLOG
4. mkPLANET LIBRARY: LATEST ADDITIONS
5. UPCOMING MK/TCK EVENTS
6. SUPPORT mkPLANET
- New ways to support mkPLANET
- Learn more about Joel & Dana, mkPLANET Administrators
7. CHECK US OUT AT www.mkplanet.com!

Click 'Read More...' for the full newsletter:

1. ANNOUNCEMENTS

mkPLANET Needs Volunteers
• We are looking for volunteers to work with us on a variety of projects in our community, including forum moderators, tech support, chefs, and more.
• We're hoping to build a truly international team. View available volunteer positions!

mkPLANET Book Club
We're starting a book club at mkPLANET for all of our members who love to read! We'll choose one book together, and gather to discuss it in our forums beginning July 1, 2008. Click here to learn more!


New Ways to Support to mkPLANET
• There new ways to donate to mkPLANET. Check out our new info page!

News from MuKappa: Call for Submissions - MK Devotional
• MuKappa is hoping to compile a devotional for MKs, by MKs. This 365 day devotional aims to encourage MKs during their first year "back" from the mission field.

• We are looking for journal-entry style submissions from your lives about how God met you during that year. Attached to a Bible verse, these journal-entries should include a story that addresses one or more of the common issues that MKs deal with during this year of transition, including, but not limited to: loneliness, depression, grief, loss, identity, relationships, transition, re-entry, cross-culture, acceptance. The aim of this journal-entry story is to encourage someone else who is wrestling with these same issues.

• Entries should be approximately 300 words, and signed with your name and respective country or countries. Example: Jim, Zambia & Ireland. Multiple submissions are accepted.

• E-mail submissions to: mkdevotional@gmail.com
• The deadline has been extended
• For more info check out: www.mukappa.org and http://mkdevotional.googlepages.com/home


2. FORUM CONVERSATIONS

Add your voice to a special series: "What MKs Wish..."
• What MKs wish Churches knew
• What MKs wish Dorm Parents knew
• What MKs wish Schools knew
• Know of other categories we should add to this series? Let us know!

Other Popular Topics
• raising monocultural kids
• Headed to College
• Vervet monkeys, anyone have one before?
• Is guy politeness a given, or do you earn it?
• Europe and Multiculturalism
• Ongoing Games: Endless Story & Balderdash
(Note: Instructions for these games are on the first page of each thread)

• Feel free to browse our Forum Index and jump into any of our discussions!


3. NEW AT mkPLANET's BLOG

• Global Nomads: Cultural Bridges for the New Millenium - by Alice Wu

Alice Wu gives us an overview of a video she filmed on six college campuses, in which she interviewed Global Nomads/TCKs on key TCK topics including...

- cultural identity
- being a cultural chameleon
- sense of home
- reentry
- friendship
- commitments and roots
- decision making
- global nomads as cultural bridges

• Children in International Mission - by Ana Gobledale
Three MKs - from El Salvadore, Indonesia, and Australia - talk about church, "compulsory furlough", racism, re-entry, and more:

[Global Nomads] are part of an ever growing group of Missionary Kids (MKs), who have not grown up on mission stations on which the "home" culture is preserved and cranberry sauce is opened on Thanksgiving, but rather have been integrated into the local life of the host country where cranberry sauce may be unheard of and the fourth Thursday in November may be merely another warmer day as summer approaches.

• Laos: Where are You From? - by Tamara

"Where are you from?"

The teacher's words sent my heart racing. We were all crowded into a tiny white classroom on the first day of fifth grade in a French lycee in Vientiane, Laos. I was feeling alone and different. I was the odd apple in a sea of Laotian faces with almond shaped eyes and pitch-black hair. One by one, the children stood up and introduced themselves with ease. As my turn grew nearer my mind raced: I didn't understand what the teacher wanted to know. My legs felt like spaghetti and could barely support me as I struggled to stand up. "My name is Tamara and..."

• These articles and lots more may be found at http://mkplanet.blogspot.com
• Now it's easier for anyone to make a post at our blog! To learn how to start posting, look in our sidebar under the section called "Are you a writer?"


4. mkPLANET LIBRARY: LATEST ADDITIONS

• Of Many Lands: Journal of a Travelling Childhood - by Sara Mansfield Taber (1997)

From the Author:
My aim in creating this journal for mobile young and not-so-young people has been to provide people raised as I was, in several countries, with an opportunity to gather together into one place the many aspects of themselves. I want to offer them a chance to assemble the places they have lived, the many odd life experiences they have had, and the personal tastes and perspectives they have developed and to see them united as a whole. At best, my hope is that the journal will help a person raised on the wing to put together his or her personal story, to record, in written form, perhaps in fragments, who he or she is.


• mk.cam: Tales from the Life of an Urban Missionary Kid - by David B. Lloret (2005)

Description from Amazon.com:
You will sympathize, laugh, cry, or simply be amazed at what growing up in a foreign country is like for a missionary's child. Most "MKs" have exotic adventures in faraway lands and remote jungles. These, however, are the unique tales of growing pains, told first-hand, of an MK living in the capital city of Guatemala and other towns of Central America. mk.cam tells the stories of one child's life in the variety of settings encountered by MKs around the world. Parents will empathize with the usual child-rearing challenges made more complicated by life in a foreign culture. Anyone who has spent time in another culture will relate to the often humorous accounts and experiences this author faced while growing up in Central America. Here, then, are the memories of one MK's early childhood and teen years during the 1960s and '70s. "Pura Vida!"

• Our library currently lists over 100 books on MK/TCK life, re-entry, MK biographies, how to support missionary families, and more. Visit the mkPLANET Library today!


5. UPCOMING MK/TCK EVENTS

Albania: MK Retreat (grades 9-12)
• June 2 - 6, 2008
• At Udhekryq facility, Erseke, Albania
• Organized by Rebekka Neigh of OM and Jeremy Spaugh of Christar
• Cost is about 2000 lek plus transportation
• Contact neighcef@yahoo.com

United States: MK Reentry Camp
• July 5 - 12, 2008
• At Bethel Christian Camp in Gaston, South Carolina, United States
• Register by May 1, 2008
• Organized by Liz Stuart
• Cost is $350 US
• Contact by email at ADMIN@mresourcesconnection.org or by telephone at 803-254-3313

United States: Interaction's Transition Seminar
• July 19 - 25, 2008
• At Olcott, New York, United States
• Website: http://www.interactionintl.org/transition.asp
• Register by June 15, 2008 (registration after this date includes a $25 late fee)
• Cost is $350 US
• Organized by Donna Sisk
• Contact by email at donnasisk@interactionintl.org or by telephone at 630-653-8780

• Browse other MK/TCK events at the mkPLANET Events Calendar
• Want to add your event to our calendar? Contact us today!


6. SUPPORT mkPLANET
• mkPLANET began in October 2004 as a place to connect MKs with one another. Since then we've grown not only in terms of membership (1400+), but also in our focus to serve the MK community in various ways as opportunities arise.

• mkPLANET is not for profit, and is made possible by the time and financial commitments of Joel & Dana Crawford (Suo & Dana), so support is always welcome. There are three ways you can support the work and leaders of mkPLANET:

1) Donate to the work of mkPLANET - Donations will be used to cover web hosting fees, updates, and upgrades as needed.

2) Donate a personal gift to Joel & Dana Crawford (a.k.a. Suo & Dana), the administrators of mkPLANET. Learn more about Joel & Dana.

3) Volunteer your time to help us out with a project. View available volunteer positions here.

• Your help is such a great resource for the development and continuation of mkPLANET, and your gifts are received with much gratitude. Thank you.


7. Check us out at www.mkplanet.com!
• Questions? If you have any questions about mkPLANET (e.g. how to post in the forums) please contact us at: administrator@mkplanet.com.
• Updates: If you wish to receive mkPLANET updates by email, send an email message to Dana with "Subscribe" in the Subject line. All of our updates will continue to be posted on our blog, and you may access them here at any time. Thanks!