Longing for Home provides a template and encourages others to try remarkable things as a family. Beginning in the spring of 1983, Brad Burgess, the eldest son of the Stan Burgess family, accepted a photographers position on an archaeological expedition in the Middle East. His stories stirred the longing for adventures beyond the Ozark Mountains for the rest of his family. Then in the summer of 1985 to late spring of 1986, the remaining six members of the family Burgess left their comfortable country home in Southwest Missouri and began an adventure of a lifetime. Beginning in London they felt the harassment of being American. Other extended cultural experiences were waiting to meet them beginning as they landed at Lode Airport in Tel Aviv. Soon the expected Israeli-Palestinian disputes were heightened as other foreigners, who were living at Tantur Ecumenical Center, became sympathetic to different perspectives. Here the four children, along with their parents, were to learn lifelong lessons.
The main snippets format of Longing for Home was taken from the Diary of Justin David Burgess. His perspective could be contrasted to those found in The Diary of Adrian Mole as one reads of social conflicts through the eyes of a preteen. Their use of humor and sometimes pathos brings one to feel with them as they write their inner thoughts and feelings in poetry and prose. Davids (eleven years) attention to writing in his diary is judicious through this time period. The story blossoms with the letters and oral stories of the remaining family members: Brad, Matthew, Scott, Mandy, Ruth, and Stan.
Extraordinary challenges await those who seek intercultural experiences. Subsequently, the reality of home changes as the adventure becomes a reality. Is home an ancient or a contemporary place? Does home become an illusion as one ponders the significance of modernity and a possible eternity? Perhaps like Odysseus in Greek mythology, one must meet the threats of the trip, all the while yearning to return home. From these acts of bravery emerges a satisfaction equivalent to grasping a holy grail.
O autorze
Longing for Home is a memoir coauthored by a mother-and-son team. Justin David Burgess, the youngest of four brothers and a twin sister, is known for his creativity and adaptability. Dave received a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 1996 and earned a master’s of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2001. He earned his doctor of ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in 2013. The school honored Dave with the Nelson Award for his final project, “A Violent Wind: Discovering God’s Story in the Midst of Our Storm.”
Ruth Vassar Burgess, now a professor emeritus from Missouri State University, devotes her time to preserving family heritage and to the dissemination of the theory of structural cognitive modifiability and its applications. Among her publications are “Spirited Sisters” (Xlibris Press, 2014), “Changing Brain Structure through Cross-Cultural Learning, ” “The Life of Reuven Feuerstein” (Mellen Press, 2008), and “Reuven Feuerstein: Propelling the Change, Promoting Continuity” (chapter 1 in Experience in Mediated Learning: An Impact of Feuertein’s Theory in Education and Psychology, Elsevier Science, 2000). Additional insights relating to Dr. Stan Burgess and Dr. Ruth can be found in their festschrift “Children of the Calling” (Wipf and Stock, 2014).
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