By Delaney Tufts, Features Editor
Meet junior Josh Pelletier, a media communications major with a film emphasis. In 2004, when he was eight, he moved to Nairobi, Kenya, alongside his missionary parents.
Throughout his time in Kenya, God was present and teaching Pelletier a valuable lesson through his experience as a missionary kid. “God taught me how much I must trust in what he has planned for my future and live in the now he has given me,” he said.
During his time there, he was given the specific job of organizing a group called Kids 4 Kids, which created pen pals. “Families in America would buy a goat to sustain a family lifestyle in Kenya,” Pelletier said. His parents, however, had different jobs. “My dad worked to fundraise money for the Salvation Army’s orphanage and my mother worked for women’s ministry,” he said.
When asked if he enjoyed being there, Pelletier said, “I loved living in Kenya. My favorite thing about it was that everyone took care of each other because it was right.”
In 2006, he and his parents had to leave Kenya. They moved back to the United States because of the condition of his father’s health. Upon returning, Pelletier experienced culture shock, which, according to Merriam Webster, is a sense of confusion, uncertainty and sometimes anxiety that may affect people exposed to a new environment without adequate preparation. The biggest difference Pelletier experienced was “the emphasis on self in America that didn’t exist in Kenya.”
Over this past summer, he returned to Kenya with a mission team. “We worked with a group called Others, which helped women get out of human trafficking. This time, I learned what it meant to be a support. Anyone could go to another country for a day, but support is forever,” he said.
The biggest lesson Pelletier learned from being a missionary kid was that it wasn’t about him. “Life isn’t about what we can get out of it, but what we can bring to it.”
Photo by Brody McKinnon
