Welcome to the newest page of this website, posted following the 2022 TCK Bung focusing on Third Culture Kids (TCKs). The TCK Bung was held on July 1-3, 2022 at Friendship Celebration Lutheran Church, 765 East Chinden Blvd., Meridian, Idaho, 83646 (a suburb just west of Boise).
The theme of the bung, A Legacy and a Prayer, was chosen to help PNGMS participants focus two major agenda items: the “Legacy” of PNGMS in terms of “Third Culture Kids” and the future of PNGMS. The focus on “Third Culture Kids” was facilitated by special guest speaker Ruth Van Reken (picture left), co-author of the book Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing up Among Worlds. We also gave considerable attention to the continuing vision for PNGMS as a functioning mission society. All of this was done in prayer as “Jars of Clay” living, loving and serving by the power of God (2 Cor. 4:7).
The gathering was certainly a time of fellowship as well as worship as participants greeted and renewed friendships and heard interesting presentations about recent events from PNG. Importantly, sessions were streamed online for the first time in bung history: people not able to attend in person were able to participate on Zoom electronically. A trip to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) USA headquarters in close-by Nampa was included after the mission festival gathering on Sunday morning, July 3. The links above and the picture gallery below captures just a few of the highlights.
Video Link to more bung pictures
This link is to a google gallery of videos recorded during the bung.https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1danmG0rDguwOg1oLuCpiShJDRqwxZd6N?usp=sharing
Papua New Guinea Guests Visit the Bung and Tour Parts of the USA
The bung in Boise was privileged to have ten guests from Papua New Guinea visit and participate, including Ezekiel Peter, Jacob Luke, Chaimon Luke, Charis Luke, Stephanie Luke, Raylene Iki, Jubilee Tindiwi, Angeles Kis, Ben Andare and Isaac Yukulyo. Dale Dawson (Andrew Luedtke’s father-in-law) and Todd Luedtke met the group in Los Angeles with a fifteen seat van, and they traveled through Las Vegas to Boise. After the bung, they travled through Wyoming and South Dakota to Concordia St. Paul, Minnesota and then on to St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Bob Holst arranged their stay in St. Paul, and Schache and Ralls put together their stay in St. Louis. The picture gallery below captures a few of the highlights.
TCK Written Reflections
In preparation for the bung, several PNG Lutheran missionary kids who are TCKs submitted written reflections about their experiences as TCKs. Below are links to the articles submitted several of which are recent, while four of them were written by TCKs in the 1990s.
Papua New Guinea Mission Society 