Towards Effective Parenting Interventions for the Challenges of Korean Mission Kids: Case Study at Andrews University

Seminary Room N335

As of 2015, there are 400,000 foreign missionaries throughout the world. In Adventist circles, over 800 full-time missionaries have been sent by the General Conference alone. As quite a few of these missionaries have taken their families to the mission field, there has been a growing interest in missionary children or kids (MKs). There are positive things about MKs, but this paper covered the challenges with particular emphasis on the spiritual challenges encountered by Korean MKs. Separate parent interviews were conducted to identify the spiritual challenges of and the parenting intervention for those Korean Pioneer Mission Movement (PMM) MKs whose fathers are currently studying at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary of Andrews University. The spiritual challenges included the idol worshipping environment of the mission field, confusion over the different spiritual atmospheres in the mission field and Korea, and the parents’ unsatisfactory responses to the children’s spiritual questions. Parental interventions included explanations about idol worship, providing the chance to make the right choice upon reentry into Korea, and demonstrating empathy to the spiritual questions raised. Effective parenting interventions suggested included asking for helpers from Korea and the mission field, spending quality time with the children, effectively using resources for Korean Adventist children, being a witness to the children, and accepting the call of God as missionaries with certainty but also humility.