From Missionary Kids to Mission Veterans

By Paul Boatman

David Filbeck, a second-generation missionary to Thailand, is president of Christian Mission to the Orient.

Tim Doggett, a second-generation missionary to the Republic of the Congo, is executive director of the Alliance of Christian Missions International (ACM International).

 

Tell us about your early life as a missionary kid (MK).

DAVID FILBECK: I was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1961, just before my family moved to a remote tribal village in northern Thailand. Dad was a linguist doing Bible translation. Most of my memories up through eighth grade were about my childhood on the mission field. In the mid-1970s the Vietnam War was spilling over into our area of Thailand, and my parents chose to come to the U.S. for Dad to teach. I then had 13 years of living in places like Seattle, Lincoln, St. Louis, and Texas. My childhood gave me some pretty rich experiences.

TIM DOGGETT: I was born in the U.S.””Flora, Illinois, where Dad was preaching. In 1963, when I was 4, we moved to Bukavu, Congo. Dad was called to do leadership training, but we had only been there six months when the Simba Rebellion broke out. Phyllis Rine, one of our missionaries, was murdered in Stanleyville (Kinshasa), and the country was getting dangerous, so Dad sent us back to America [in 1964]. About six months later, we returned to the field, and were a family together there until we evacuated in July of 1967. This time we all went home as a family and lived a full year in the U.S. It was 1968 before we got to go back. From age 8 to 17 most of my life was in Africa.

 

You both describe your MK life as though it were “normal.”

DOGGETT: It did not seem that unusual. We were a close family, and I got to be involved in great stuff””riding for hours over bumpy jungle roads with Congolese preachers singing the whole way. It was never boring. From sixth to eleventh grade I went to boarding school in Kenya, but that seemed pretty normal, too. I spent eighth grade in the U.S. and I felt kind of weird, but I knew I had life experiences the other kids could never imagine.

FILBECK: That”s where I sensed “differentness.” In high school here in my passport country, I knew I was not like other kids, even if I looked like a typical Midwestern kid. Our experiences had helped us develop different ways of thinking, reacting, coping.

 

Not every MK follows parental footsteps in missions. When did you experience your own call to mission?

FILBECK: While I was in high school in the U.S., I knew I wanted to go to Bible college. School counselors and testing urged me toward teaching, but being a teacher did not exclude teaching as mission. In Bible college, when my brother and I went to Thailand for an internship, that experience sealed the mission call to Thailand.

DOGGETT: I can”t imagine having my childhood experience without feeling a tug toward mission, but it came together at 17 when Bob Williams from my parents” mission board asked me to consider preparing myself as a missionary pilot. His challenge was direct: he believed in me. I could see the value for the mission. I believed I could do it. My calling was settled. My wife, Cheryl, agreed to marry me knowing that going to Africa was in the covenant.

 

Both of you possess personal giftedness, as well as language and cross-cultural abilities that would have opened great career opportunities in the U.S. State Department or in international business.

DOGGETT: [Chuckling] Yeah, maybe I should have done that.

FILBECK: I never doubted that the mission calling was where I belonged.

DOGGETT: When I was in flight training, some of the guys were dreaming of flying big airline jets. That never excited me as much as flying a small plane across the African bush to remote mission stations.

FILBECK: As adults, Sharon and I have had times when we have reflected on career options like that, but why give up a great calling for a good job?

 

You both seem to downplay some events that could have been disincentives to returning to the land where you were an MK.

FILBECK AND DOGGETT: [puzzled looks]

 

David, you had war on your mission field. Your parents” home was leveled by a truck bomb. Tim, war has devastated the Congo. One missionary colleague was killed, rebel soldiers invaded your home, your family has repeatedly evacuated the country. Need I go on?

FILBECK: The war is over in Thailand. I was here in college when the bomb attack came. My parents were not the intended victims. A neighbor who was a drug lord was the target of the attack. We”ve since lived in the same subdivision; it”s a nice area.

DOGGETT: The events you mention really highlight how much gospel transformation is needed in Congo. We have always felt like God was protecting us. Plus every evacuation led the national Christians to step up and the churches grew.

As missionary kids who are now veteran missionaries, would you like to share any thoughts on MKs?

FILBECK: MKs should realize how they have been enabled to see and relate to God”s world in a way never available to most people. Their unique perspective is a gift. Being an MK has tremendously blessed my life, and I think it has opened doors for serving.

DOGGETT: I feel the same way. Being an MK is an amazing privilege, especially if the kids can be involved in the mission ministry. Parents who include their kids in the work are incredibly enriching their lives.

FILBECK: For missionary parents, I might add that MKs can use extra help with transitions. Even though they learn to adapt cross-culturally, they may not feel really a part of any culture. For example, entering college may be an especially hard time where extra TLC is in order.

 

Tim, can you compare your current mission to your parents” mission?

DOGGETT: That”s hard. The mission has always been in transition, adapting to changing situations, but the main emphasis has always been on leadership for the church. Dad invested in leadership development for church planting in the Congo. That led to teaching in the ministry training institute in Bukavu and more widespread Theological Education by Extension. Our work has been more in support of those frontline missionaries. Early on our work with the shortwave radio and aviation was to make sure the missionaries were getting the resources they needed to do the work. We are still passionate about serving the people on the front lines, encouraging them, empowering them. I have the same final goal today that Dad had in the 1960s. Title and methods are different, but it is all about the mission.

 

David, can you personalize the same question?

FILBECK: In a half-century of work, my parents” mission has also changed enormously. They still go out to those first villages where they translated Scripture and planted churches, but they have been part of a huge change. Second- and third-generation Thai Christians are now planting and serving churches. Lanna Theological Center is the heritage of separate schools serving separate tribes in Thailand. It is now united in serving different Thai groups, as well as training leaders from other Asian nations, including some where Christians are persecuted.

The basic goals have not changed, but they have been enlarged as God has shown more opportunities. The maturing church in Thailand is a reflection of the work done by my parents and several other great missionaries in the past century. We are still trying to help Southeast Asians be servant leaders for the church in Southeast Asia.

 

Paul Boatman is chaplain of Safe Haven Hospice in Lincoln, Illinois.