Before College -
Everyone has a story - no matter what the circumstance. It is still being written: a new page; new paragraph; new chapter. There are plenty of details and beauty to be unfolded in the mundane of everyday life, but there is no need for me to share my whole back story (that's for another time).
The foundations of my desire to live in a cross cultural context began in high school. Throughout my high school and college years, I was given the opportunity to work as a camp counselor in the Brooks Range of Alaska. The pilots, staff, and volunteers with Kingdom Air Corps. would load up the planes for this 6 hour trek up North. We would help get the camp set up for 2-3 days, then it was time to pick up the campers in the surrounding villages (first week is for elementary; second week for teens). The two-week summer Bible camp was located at a homestead that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere; but the views were absolutely breathtaking. After the first few years of volunteering, I felt conviction to share my testimony - a testimony that I used to embarrassed or ashamed about. My heart was humbled in the coming days of sharing. Who knew God could use such brokenness for His glory?! Many teens came to me afterwards to share their similar disheartened childhood stories and would ask, "How can you be at peace or have so much joy or faith in God after what you went through in your life?" I didn't have an answer upon my doing, but all of what He was doing in me.
Since that summer of 2011, God started planting seeds of wanting to work somewhere that involved youth. I didn't have a desire to live in a normal American town and teach at any of the schools. I wanted to be a teacher in the villages of Alaska. I wanted to go where I felt I related to the kids most. My dad and step-mom wanted my brother and I to get out of America to get a glimpse of the world - the saved up and let us choose a country to visit together as a family for our high school graduation presents. In the summer of 2012, we traveled to several places in Europe. In the winter, we went to the Philippines and spent time with family friends who developed a ministry called REAP, International. Both trips left a huge impact on my life; yes, traveling and experiencing new things is fun, but meeting people with different lifestyles, language, culture, and even beliefs was what left me craving for more. I want God to use me in the way that brings Him the most glory - I say that humbly, I am such a small part of His big picture.
In 2014, at Alaska Bible College, I met Jeremy - the only student I knew of who lived overseas as a missionary kid/third-culture kid. In becoming friends, he would talk about the differences in living in Senegal, West Africa to the few years he lived in America. He talked about the international Christian school (Dakar Academy) and the 30+ countries that represented this school. That opened up my perspective on missions and what's next after college. I loved Alaska, but it was home to me - I felt almost too comfortable. Not that feeling comfortable is wrong, but I believe God wanted me to be stretched and see that there's more to life than just my little corner of the world.
(Photo Credit: Aaron Dalton BRBC '16 Album )
Marriage & Going Overseas
Fast forward to December 2016 - I'm skipping all the details of how Jeremy and I started dating and then decided to get engaged and married (another story for another time, ha). When we got married, Jeremy said that he wanted us to go to Senegal for a few years to understand who he is a little better. Soon after I graduated, we left everything I was familiar with, and went to Jeremy's "home." We were planning on teaching / dorm parenting that first year at a small boarding school, but the leadership team was concerned that we were rushing into things with it being my first year overseas, first year of marriage, and our first baby on the way. We didn't want to go back to America, but we needed something to do while we were living in Senegal. Honestly, I am thankful it worked out the way it did. Because we didn't have teaching jobs, the director of the Beer-Sheba Project allowed us to help out here and there with the agricultural training program. We didn't own a car, so we couldn't live too far away from Beersheba. Beer-Sheba had close relationships with the surrounding villages and through meetings and building of trust, we were accepted to be a part of the village of Soussane. We were not expecting this to be our new home for almost a year, but we bought land and built a home and moved out there when our baby was 3 months old. During our time, Jeremy helped with maintenance at Beer-Sheba, and I would go to learn about the language and culture.
As time went on, we would live in our village home for about 2 weeks on and then go back to the capital city of Dakar for a week to raise support since we left soon after I was done with college. During one of our week stay in Dakar, we somehow ended up getting interviews at Dakar Academy and became teachers for our second year in Senegal (had our second boy during the school year!). We loved being a part of the DA community, but also enjoyed visiting and spending school breaks with our village community.
For the start of our second year at DA, we became dorm parents for the younger girls dorm. Our first year as dorm parents had a lot of learning curves, but we fell in love with dorm parenting and those 9 girls became like family to us. The spring semester of a year was crazy with covid coming in and shutting down the dorms and school going online, but we still made it out of that year wanting more of that job.
We spent three years total at DA - two of them as dorm parents (had our baby girl during fall of 2020). Jeremy and I knew our contracts were going to be ending soon (school year 2021-2022), so we prayed about whether or not we should sign another contract. Due to a lack of boarding enrollment, our time was cut short. There were a lot of mixed emotions; thankfully, we choose joy and put our trust into the One who knows the whole picture. We did grieve over the community we had in person in Senegal, but that's ok, that just shows us the love and great friendships we had during our time in Senegal. Our time in Senegal did show us that we still have a desire to work in a cross-cultural setting overseas.
Newest Ministry - Ob Anggen
Right now we are in a season of waiting, preparing, praying, and hoping. The next chapter for us is Papua, Indonesia in a village called Bokondini. Unlike International Christian schools, Ob Anggen (Pronounced: Ohb-Ahng-gen) was created to provide education for the missionary and national kid in the highlands; it is a school in the most simplest form and the desire is to join in ending the cycle of poverty. Before Ob Anggen, there really wasn't any education options for the children in this area, and 12 years later, the first class has finally graduated! The plan for our family is to serve as the 6th set of dorm parents - we will have 7th-12th graders that has a desire to pursue an education in America or beyond Indonesia.
We decided a home assignment would be best for our family in these transitioning months. As we wait for visas and gather our luggage items, we have appointments, passport and license renewals, learning Indonesian, begin a "homeschool" routine for the boys, and various speaking engagements with churches. We have been included in the Ob Anggen community already. A lot of back to back WhatsApp voice messages as we learn what it's like to live there: 34 hours of plane travel plus a 5 day quarantine in Jakarta; electricity turns off every night at 9; how to get groceries: produce at market nearby and fly in your groceries; washing machine doesn't always have enough pressure or electricity; internet doesn't have the greatest connection so video calls is poor. Jeremy and I are definitely stepping out of our comfort zones and continually try to put our faith/trust into the hands of our Savior.
With love,
Tam
As I continue to post, I want to share my life with you - not because I have it all together, by no means - but because I believe God can use anyone, if they let Him, for His glory. I hope I can share encouragements, ups and downs of motherhood serving overseas, and truths that I have learned along the way. If there is something that you want to know more about or if there is a topic you want me to discuss: motherhood, international cuisine, traveling overseas - let me know in the comments! Thank you for taking the time to get to know me :)
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