Mission background brings new outlook to college life
By Jamie Dean
Old Gold and Black Reporter

Though the Baptist State Convention recently severed most ties with the university, religious and ministerial groups still play a large part in campus life. As a part of its religious culture, the university is enriched by many students whose parents are involved in full time ministry. A number of these students’ parents are missionaries in foreign countries, and the children of these missionaries bring vast experiences and immensely different world perspectives to our community.

For many students whose parents are missionaries the transition to college life combined with the adjustment to life in the United States can be especially difficult.

“I was pretty depressed most of last year,” said sophomore Joe Taylor. “I had a pretty hard time living in the States.”

Taylor, whose parents recently retired after 14 years of mission work in Argentina for the Southern Baptist Convention, said that he has had a much better time this year, but he still does not consider the U.S. to be his native land.

“My parents wanted me to feel at home here and they tried too hard to get me to accept that,” Taylor said. “My transition to school was more difficult because it was hard to get people to understand that the states is not my home.”

Freshman Becca Cook was born in Kenya where her parents worked at a school for missionary children under the auspices of a non-denominational ministry known as the African Inland Mission.

Like Taylor, she notes that her assimilation into the American and collegiate cultures was probably more difficult than that of other university students.

Cook points out that the society she lived in and university society seem to be in two different eras. Though she attended an English-speaking school she says that all the music and fashions they had were about two years behind those of the States.

“The Internet is changing that some,” she said. “But there is really only Internet access in big cities like the capital.”

Both Taylor and Cook had the advantage of living in the U.S. periodically while their parents were on furlough.

Freshman Kristin Smith had never lived in America before she came to the university from her parents’ mission post in Berlin, Germany.

Of the three, Smith seems to have had the most enjoyable move. She admits that her easier transition may be partially due to the fact that the European culture she grew up in was not as drastically different from American culture as compared with the cultures in which Taylor and Cook lived.

“I’m enjoying it (and) having fun,” she said. “I have less complaints than the locals. I guess you have to bring fun with you; I came with a really open attitude.“

Secondary schooling and the search that eventually brought Cook and Taylor to the university were also quite different from that of the traditional American high school senior.

Taylor had been home schooled until the 10th grade at which point he attended an international school for two years while Cook attended an English speaking school throughout her education.

“The international school is the only reason I’m surviving here now,” Taylor said.

One bond that ties the children of missionaries together is a wealth of experiences that run much deeper than that of most university students.

“I guess my entire life has been a cool experience,” she said. “I get to see things that people in the States don’t see, both good and bad. I’ve seen, first-hand, poverty and famine and the effects of AIDS.”

Living abroad, in itself, has been an experience that has shaped Taylor’s and Cook’s outlook on the world.

Both see the typical American’s apathy towards global affairs as a major societal flaw.

“There seems to be a lack of international interest,” said Taylor. “It is kind of hard for me to deal with that.”

Missionary life has also ingrained a spirit of service into Taylor and Cook, both of whom plan to work abroad after graduation.

Along with their academic work, Taylor and Cook have stayed active in ministry both on and off campus. The men’s singing group Chi Rho provides Taylor with a platform for service and Cook is a member of the Christian organization Intervarsity.

Perhaps the attitude of both students is summed up best by Cook.

“I think that wherever you are you are called to be a missionary,” she said. ”It is a wonderful experience to be placed outside your comfort zone and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”