Ep. 391: Healing Trauma From A Childhood in Missions A conversation with Joy Smalley

For 2000 years Christians have heeded the call of The Great Commission to “go into all the world.” Christian missionaries have become some of the heroes of the faith, the subject of books, songs, and movies. But we rarely hear about the children of these missionaries. In the past few years, stories of spiritual and sexual abuse of missionary kids have started making news. Sometimes, even when there is no abuse, there is neglect and isolation, as many missionary kids, or MKs, are shuttled off to boarding schools, or follow their parents from one missionary assignment to another, often having to leave friends and support structures behind. Recent research suggests that there are more than 425,000 Christian missionaries in the world today, and many hundreds of thousands of current and former missionary kids. Recent research suggests that MKs experience childhood trauma at a rate nearly twice that of kids raised in the United States. The result is that MKs are often left with questions about God and their own faith if their own commitment doesn’t match their missionary parents. Joy Smalley was one of those missionary kids. Her parents were missionaries to Mongolia, and she was raised in conditions that at times compromised her safety and caused her to question her own faith. Ultimately, she did not reject her faith, and her story is one that evangelicals need to hear if we hope not only to be obedient to the Great Commission, but also to be obedient to Scripture’s commands to “suffer the children” in our midst, to protect them and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Her book is Abraham’s Daughter: Healing Trauma from a Childhood in Missions. She spoke to me from her home in Tustin, California. The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh. I’m your host Warren Smith. Please join me on Friday when Natasha Cowden and I recap the week’s news. Until then, may God bless you.