What do MK conferences look like and why are they important?

As previously stated, kids who grow up cross-culturally often end up having an additional set of emotional issues added to normal growth and development patterns. TCKs (Third Culture Kids), as they're often referred to as, end up moving anywhere from 8-12 times before they turn 18. With this amount of moving, kids can tend to develop an unhealthy perception of loss and grief.
Something that sets MK conferences apart is that we like to focus on these hard things - but we focus on them from a perspective on how this is normal in an MK's life and how the Lord can use that this type of experience to bring glory to His name.
Normalizing is controversial because want everyone to feel validated in their experiences, but we also want to paint a picture that MKs/TCKs are having a shared experience. In this, these conferences foster a sense of community that promotes safety, sharing and begin potential healing.
These spaces will also act as a debrief from cross-cultural experiences. We want to create a space where kids are comfortable enough to share their stories with people who’ve had similar experiences. Our team is comprised of people who’ve lived (or in my case grown-up) outside of our passport countries. This is done specifically to help form safe relationships.
Something that I would like to see as a component of each conference the MK Care Team leads is an element of personal evangelism. This helps to engage the thought in theses MKs that they can partner with their parents in ministry. In addition to that, when the conversations are revolving around interpersonal issues, this helps to get them “outside of themselves”.
The reason we have a newly formed MK Care Team is to help facilitate these conferences. We want our MKs to feel the freedom to share their lives with us by knowing us from previous events. It is our goal to have an established conference team so we can continually pour into these MKs.

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