Three families. Ten kids. One big transition. Campus Outreach SERVE’s recent pre-deployment gathering had never looked quite like this, and someone needed to make sure the children in the room were just as ready as their parents.
For Hawk and Ali Hawkins, the need was personal. After 17 years of campus ministry in the Carolinas, they and their three sons are preparing to move to Cape Town, South Africa. The transition comes with a long list of unknowns: new schools, a new culture, new friends — a new everything.
As Ali considered the move, one prayer repeated through her heart: “Help us, Lord, as we shepherd our children through this transition.”
Enter Sherry Lewis.
Serving with CO SERVE’s member care team and drawing on her own experience as a TCK (Third Culture Kid) mom, Sherry created a week designed to help the children understand one simple truth: they’re not alone.
So she built something that looked a little like a VBS and a lot like an adventure, complete with a rented 15-passenger van and her nineteen-year-old daughter along as co-leader.
What the Kids Actually Learned
Sherry’s primary objective was to help the children understand that they were not alone. She knew the content mattered, and organized the week around five core topics that mirrored what the parents learned across the hall.
But Sherry knew that for a group of seven-to-thirteen-year-olds, you can’t just sit them in chairs all day. So in addition to these sessions, they went to an international grocery store, and each kid picked out something new to try. They went rock climbing. They had a pool party, a scavenger hunt, and a movie night. The fun wasn’t filler; it had purpose.
“I realized that even if teaching was simple, with seven, eight, or nine-year-old boys, they might not walk away remembering a ton. My biggest goal became creating opportunities for them to connect with one another and see that they’re not the only family leaving friends and their school to do something big, different, and scary. From what I observed, that goal was met. I felt a real sense of camaraderie.”
For Ali, watching her boys move through the week was its own kind of gift. She had simply prayed: God, let them have good attitudes. Let them make friends. In the end, she laughed and shared, “I kept thinking, this is better than Disney World.”
The Hawkins Kids’ Response
From the beginning, the youngest Hawkins had been fairly easy to win over. He just wanted to see a cheetah. Their middle son had been excited from the beginning. After the week in Birmingham, AL, he was asked what he’d learned and how he was feeling. His answer sums up the crazy balance trying to be struck: “I’ve been hearing a lot about how hard it’s gonna be. But I get to have a dog.”
The impact was especially meaningful for their oldest son, who had struggled most with the upcoming move. He didn’t want to leave his friends or football. But at pre-deployment, something shifted. Time with other boys facing similar transitions helped him realize he wasn’t alone, and the connections he made were, in Ali’s words, transformative.
Why It Matters
Sherry’s goal was never to fix every hard thing. Her biggest objective wasn’t the curriculum; it was connection. And by the end of the week, that’s exactly what these kids had found in each other.
For CO SERVE, this pre-deployment marks a meaningful moment — an opportunity to acknowledge that caring for families going overseas means caring for the whole family. The kids aren’t a footnote to the mission; they are part of it.
Caring for them involves instruction and shepherding their hearts. It might also look like a scavenger hunt, a few new best friends, and yes, rejoicing in the very real prospect of a guard dog in Cape Town.
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