A letter from Debbie Blane, mission worker in Sudan
May, 2011
Dear Friends,
Greetings!
I bring you greetings from Sacramento, California, where I am currently as I begin itineration with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the dual purposes of (1) raising awareness of God’s ministry through me in South Sudan at Nile Theological College (NTC) in Malakal and (2) sowing the seeds for fund raising for both my position and the college.
I will be sharing the message of my work and ministry in various venues for the next few days. Sunday May 1, I preached at two services in a local church in Sacramento Presbytery. Other presentations will be in a more educational format.
I am being hosted by different members of a family in which the parents and aunt are originally from Uganda. They have been in the United States for over two decades and are now U.S. citizens. Their children were born here and are far more American than African. The parents are a mixture. I have discovered that there are immigrants who desire a strong link with their original country and others who desire to assimilate into the new culture much more thoroughly.
In discussions with my hosts I am learning about the concept/reality of “third culture.” I want to share about this in this letter.
I have heard before that missionary kids (children who are in the mission field with their missionary parents) are Third Culture kids. I never could figure this out. I understood that in the case of Americans the United States was the first culture and whatever country the family was living in would be the second culture. But what, I wondered, was the third culture? I now have an answer to this and a concrete example to share to help others understand it more fully.
The third culture is what happens when a child of one culture lives in another culture, and a new culture is created within that child. Here is the concrete example: In ancient Israel in First Testament (Old Testament) times — in B.C.E., Before the Common Era — the Israelites, God’s chosen people, were sent into exile. First they were exiled by the Assyrians and taken to Assyria. Then Babylon conquered Assyria and became the masters of the then known universe. Then the Persians conquered the Babylonians. Under the Babylonians the Israelites who chose to return to their original ancestral home were taken back to Israel. They of course returned as a different people from the original Israelites who had lived in the land of Judah and Israel before all of the conquests that took them to other lands and cultures.
What I want to emphasize, however, is what happened in 334 B.C.E. In that year Alexander the Great swept down from Greece, bringing the Greek culture to the known world. Alexander was bringing with him Classical Greek culture, the Greek culture of Homer, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. This was a magnificent culture, the effects of which are still felt today in our modern world because of the far-reaching impact on humanity of these ancient human beings.
While Alexander the Great was spreading Classical Greek culture, what happened was the birth of a new culture altogether. This was known as Hellenism. Hellenism was a Third Culture! It was what happened when the already hybrid Israeli culture (hybrid from all of the exiles and the exposure to the cultures of conquering countries) was brought together with Classical Greek Culture. What resulted was Hellenism, the Third Culture, which came from Israel and Classical Greek cultures, from the first and second cultures.
I am taking care to explain this because I am realizing that this is a phenomenon that not only impacts missionary kids around the world but is also having an enormous impact on our American culture of today. As our immigrant population swells in the United States through both immigration and birth, our American culture is changing into a Third Culture. At the same time through my work in Sudan at Nile Theological College, a Third Culture is being created both in myself and in my students. Every time a person from another culture touches and impacts a second culture, a third culture is being created and there is a change that becomes a part of permanent culture shock.
These are things that I am learning in my personal journey and that I want to share with you so that we learn together as you pray for me and God’s ministry through me at NTC, and as you pray for the students at the college and for Sudan.
I thank each one of you this letter reaches for being a part of my work in Sudan. As always, if you feel so led by the Holy Spirit, your financial gifts are greatly appreciated and gratefully received.
Many Blessings,
Debbie
The Rev. Debbie Blane
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 54
Visit Debbie’s blog: Debbie's Journey Continues
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