Spring Break
'Let's see what good we can do'
Former missionary kids reflect on their experiences in dangerous, foreign locales
Marieke van der Vaart
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: News
Sophomore Lee Kauffman was eight years old when he saw his first murder. Straight-faced and curly haired, he describes the experience unblinkingly.
"A guy got shot outside our kitchen window," Kauffman said. "Gang stuff. People got killed all the time."
Kauffman and his family lived in downtown Detroit for 10 years trying to make a difference in the city.
"It's not like a war zone but we would have drug dealers block our driveway and not let us in because they could," Kauffman said.
Missionary kids like Kauffman lived through unusual childhoods in cultural settings that still affect the way they live today.
Born and raised in a house he had to have permission to leave, Kauffman remembers the basement room he and his siblings would go to when there were gunfights in the front yard and the reason why his parents said they chose to raise him in Detroit.
"Just - 'This place is awful: let's see what good we can do.'"
As a missionary kid, Kauffman's childhood affected him ways that normal kids growing up in American suburbia couldn't relate to.
"People think it's really funny when I say I've been shot at - they think 'Oh my gosh,' but it was only normal to me. 'Of course I have, haven't you?'"
Missionary kid senior Isaac Brown also experienced this cultural disconnect, having grown up in northern Yemen where his father worked at a hospital.
"America's just really fast and I've never really adjusted to that," Brown said. "A lot of people missed out on the leisure of the third-world type. That's an experience I really wish more people would get. It's changed how I get about things now. I've picked up some of the joy of Middle Eastern relaxation."
Like Kauffman, Brown didn't fully understand why his family lived in Yemen, even though he lived with the reality of it everyday.
"There were a couple instances of aggression. For some reason one night a bunch of people went marching around our hospital with AK-47s shooting them up in the air," Brown said. "I was never scared, but I remember not really understanding."
"A guy got shot outside our kitchen window," Kauffman said. "Gang stuff. People got killed all the time."
Kauffman and his family lived in downtown Detroit for 10 years trying to make a difference in the city.
"It's not like a war zone but we would have drug dealers block our driveway and not let us in because they could," Kauffman said.
Missionary kids like Kauffman lived through unusual childhoods in cultural settings that still affect the way they live today.
Born and raised in a house he had to have permission to leave, Kauffman remembers the basement room he and his siblings would go to when there were gunfights in the front yard and the reason why his parents said they chose to raise him in Detroit.
"Just - 'This place is awful: let's see what good we can do.'"
As a missionary kid, Kauffman's childhood affected him ways that normal kids growing up in American suburbia couldn't relate to.
"People think it's really funny when I say I've been shot at - they think 'Oh my gosh,' but it was only normal to me. 'Of course I have, haven't you?'"
Missionary kid senior Isaac Brown also experienced this cultural disconnect, having grown up in northern Yemen where his father worked at a hospital.
"America's just really fast and I've never really adjusted to that," Brown said. "A lot of people missed out on the leisure of the third-world type. That's an experience I really wish more people would get. It's changed how I get about things now. I've picked up some of the joy of Middle Eastern relaxation."
Like Kauffman, Brown didn't fully understand why his family lived in Yemen, even though he lived with the reality of it everyday.
"There were a couple instances of aggression. For some reason one night a bunch of people went marching around our hospital with AK-47s shooting them up in the air," Brown said. "I was never scared, but I remember not really understanding."
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