Hannah* and David* sensed the Lord’s prompt to move to the Middle East three years ago with their baby Bethany*.
Living and working cross-culturally brings its challenges for all our workers, but bringing children up in this context brings additional difficulties and joys. Hannah shares from her family’s experience so far…
“It’s cold! Where are my woolly socks?!” We were expecting to be in a very hot country but we went at the beginning of the year and it was freezing!
In some ways it’s harder than expected. In some ways it’s not.
The main challenge is not having the same kind of support networks such as health visitors, playgroups and church groups. Experiencing this isolation is difficult, but we’ve been blessed to have a couple of friends who are workers and, like us, also have children Bethany’s age. It’s nice to talk to people who are just as clueless as we are!
One lovely aspect of living here is that children are treated so warmly. There isn’t this kind of distance that you can feel with other people’s children in the UK. For example, if Bethany was throwing a tantrum in the supermarket, instead of having lots of people judging you, you’d have people come up to her, rustle plastic bags and say, “Look at this, darling!” and try and cheer her up for you. And it’s not just other mums, it’s even people who you wouldn’t expect like teenage boys and older men…they’re absolutely mushy over small children.
‘My husband has found that shops are great places to practise the language because they’re quite unforgiving environments. They speak Arabic very quickly, so if you can get a phrase in and understand the reply, you know you are doing well…We look forward to the day when our Arabic is up to the level where we can take someone through the whole gospel message.’
David and I both enjoy it. For me, it’s been great seeing tangible progress in language. For David it’s been more challenging as he’s had to unlearn some Arabic phrases that aren’t used in this part of the Arab world. But he has found that shops are great places to practise the language because they’re quite unforgiving environments. They speak Arabic very quickly, so if you can get a phrase in and understand the reply, you know you are doing well!
We look forward to the day when our Arabic is up to the level where we can take someone through the whole gospel message.
Please pray for boldness in sharing Christ with people, discernment to know who are spiritually open, continued enthusiasm in language learning, protection on our marriage, and God’s guidance in our parenting.
*Name has been changed to protect identities.
**Library image used for illustrative purposes only. Image credit = Joshua Rodriguez from unsplash.
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