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Tag: missionary kids

#alt=I'm a Hidden Immigrant, debbiejoneswarren.com
Surprise! I’m a Hidden Immigrant

Surprise! I’m a Hidden Immigrant

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Here’s the link to a podcast in which I’m interviewed by a writer friend, Mabel Ninan https://player.lightcast.com/0AjM5kjN Below is the story behind this interview! In April 1963, my husband and his family immigrated to California from Scotland when he was five years old. In the first few months of kindergarten, kids often pushed or punched him just to get him to speak. Then they laughed at his funny accent. By Christmas, the shy, little boy had taught himself to speak…

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#alt=Where Can I Find Satisfaction, debbiejoneswarren.com
Where Can I Find Satisfaction?

Where Can I Find Satisfaction?

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While living in a boarding school for ten years as a child and youth, I developed many necessary coping mechanisms. They got me through hours of loneliness, confusion, and grief. With the threat of a bad report card being sent home to my parents at the end of each term, I was motivated to measure up in my classes. At Kent Academy, I also got a Dorm Report Card covering my attitudes and actions throughout the day. Each week I…

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#alt=A Salty Tale, debbiejoneswarren.com
A Salty Tale

A Salty Tale

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“Soup again?” My stomach sank to my toes. We had soup every Saturday at Kent Academy (K.A.), the boarding school for missionary children in Nigeria. Just a thin broth with a few pieces of chicken, soft slithery onion bits, rice, and parsley. But not much flavor. “I love this soup with chicken and rice.” My tablemate swallowed a big spoonful. “Not me. I wish there were noodles. The green flecks taste yucky.” I stirred them around. “My mom puts that…

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#alt=Family on couch, The Shiny, White Truck debbiejoneswarren.com
The Shiny, White Truck

The Shiny, White Truck

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Today, February 18, is my dad’s birthday. When I was a child, I thought all famous men were born in February! Dad passed away in November 2015, and a few months later I began writing my childhood stories. Here’s one of the first memories I documented but am just now publishing. Let me know what you think of The Shiny, White Truck… The morning sun blazed through the African sky at our mission station in central Nigeria, as I grabbed…

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#alt=workbook A Surprise Experience of Forgiveness debbiejoneswarren.com
A Surprise Experience of Forgiveness

A Surprise Experience of Forgiveness

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Sitting in a women’s Bible study, I looked around the circle at the smiling faces. Am I the only one who has trouble with forgiveness? I wondered. As a six-year-old, my heart shattered when I was sent to boarding school for several years. When I returned home for vacation, I couldn’t express to my parents the homesickness, rejection, and abandonment I experienced. I felt hurt and angry. The many instances of abuse I saw from people who were supposed to…

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alt=Tell me about Jesus on a hillside smiling at little children
Tell Me the Story Again

Tell Me the Story Again

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Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering … the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:4,5 (NIV) “In place of our usual devotion time tonight, we have a special speaker,” the Dorm Uncle announced to the eager first-through-third graders gathered in the lounge. After dinner, I had expected our usual Bible reading in the dorm in our pajamas. Instead, we had walked from the dining room, across…

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Trouble at Rest Hour; debbiejoneswarren.com; Justice
Trouble During Rest Hour

Trouble During Rest Hour

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Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore, he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18 (NIV) The tall, harried woman loomed in our doorway, hands on her hips. “Debbie! What on earth are you doing?” Stretched out on my bed in the dormitory for missionaries’ children in Nigeria, my body stiffened. I knew I was in trouble. Earlier in the…

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