Josh Smith: Spiritual Emphasis Week began at Black Forest Academy this morning. A couple hundred very American-looking students filed into the auditorium and did some very un-American things. To begin with, they sang. Loudly. They also laughed continually at silly jokes and 20 year old movie clips. Then they filed out respectfully. Later, they asked questions in classes and thanked their guests (unprompted) for sharing with them. After school, they played intramural sports in such a way that one might have been convinced that they were more interested in having fun than dominating the field. I was pretty convinced that these were the Stepford Kids.
After a few hiking (mis)adventures, we walked to share dinner at a couple of the many dorms spread throughout Kandern, home of BFA and several missions organizations. Of course, after dinner the students all pitched in to clean up and serve their guests tea or coffee before warmly inviting us to conversation and to play games. We were amazed at the diversity of the students. These are "American" kids who have grown up in several countries, rarely having spent any time at all actually in the States. They are American, and yet they aren't. They find American culture very strange. The thing that unites these multinational nomads is their status as "Third Culture Kids," or "TCK's," called such because they don't really feel like they belong here or there. They've created a third place, and they share it together here in the fairytale beauty of Southern Germany.
I think it explains the Stepford anomaly we'd been experiencing. I told my wife earlier today that it's just too early to tell whether these kids' behavior is spiritually or merely culturally motivated. It may be revealed that the warm and sterile environment of an American Christian school insulated within a paradisiacal forest village has created a couple hundred really nice kids. It's certainly possible to be so immersed in a thing that you don't realize it's there. My prayer is that God will use us to reveal to them the reality of every person's need for deep and radical salvation, and to cast a vision for living that glorifies God, not by our own righteousness or politeness, but by the blood of Christ, which then sends us on mission for Him. We may need to convince them of their need. Once they truly understand the gospel, the fact that they are unfettered by many of the debilitating social sins their stateside counterparts struggle with will give them a great jumpstart on their true sanctification, and that is a great mercy God has granted them.
At any rate, they sure are pleasant. I'm certain this trip will continue to be a joy as we serve out the rest of the week.
