About the Author
Alumni take road less travelled (and loved it)
As Karen Maberly packed for Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand, she carefully selected each item based on its “abandonment” value. Would it be OK to leave behind if she had to flee her new home? A pertinent question for those living near the border of Laos and Cambodia in the late 1970s. Karen and husband Clifton didn’t need to flee but have left many homes. Both spent their childhood years overseas. Clif especially identifies as a third culture kid, finding purpose and belonging in countries other than his own.
So, where did this life filled with movement and cultural intrigue begin?
Karen (nee Branster) first noticed Clif during registration at Avondale College in 1971. Sporting a safari suit and leaning against a table looking “aloof,” he didn’t look like someone she would ever date. His appearance, though, had more to do with adjusting to life on campus after months of travel through Europe and South-East Asia. Karen and Clif walked down the graduation and wedding aisles three years later. Within a week of these milestone events, they were off to Andrews University (Michigan, USA). Clif completed a master’s degree in religion with a focus on Buddhism to prepare for mission work in South-East Asia.
Leaving for Thailand, Karen thought she and Clif would return within five years. The transition proved emotionally difficult, but Karen worked hard to make the country her new home. In a step out of her comfort zone, Karen taught English in Thai language at the school, watching the kids to see if she had her Thai correct. Communication with family in Australia was by letter and Karen spoke on the phone to her parents only once during the first five years, sadly to hear the news of her grandfather’s passing.
Clif served in mission outreach and pastoral work. It took him about two years before he understood the “reinvention” of what his translators were saying. A few years later, he was writing in Thai. Cross-cultural studies and religion became a passion. He set up and ran the Buddhist Study Centre for the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, advising and training in 10 countries and teaching evangelism and contextual theology at universities.
Clif’s interest in Buddhism began before he graduated from Avondale. Taking a year out to study at Newbold College in England, he returned home through 16 countries landing with 20 cents in his pocket. He went from one Buddhist ceremony to another seeking free food and wondering if others made much sense of what he believed because he couldn’t make much sense of what they believed. He was keen to understand other cultures despite preconceived ideas.
Karen and Clif lived in Thailand for 24 years, raising children Nalissa and Simon there. Happy to leave the heat and humidity, but not their friends, the Maberlys’ next moved to South Korea. They both served at Sahmyook University, one of the Adventist Church’s largest tertiary institutions, teaching mission, anthropology, and cross-cultural skills; Karen taught English as a foreign language and completed her master’s in education through Avondale with research based on Korean’s school English learning. She relished her role teaching university students.
Their next foreign post? Australia. Clif pastored in Toowoomba and Karen, always the host, enjoyed a sabbatical from organising potluck lunches—the country women would cook up an unforgettable storm. She taught in a Christian high school, then set up a program to help those who had fled Sudan, under traumatic circumstances, transition to life in a new country. She then moved to a foreign student orientation program at the University of Southern Queensland. Although Clif intended to adjust back into to Australian life, he got involved with fellow refugees, including setting up a driving school, teaching them to drive.
But the third-culture-kid itch returned. Karen and Clif moved to Hong Kong, Clif as pastor and chaplain, Karen almost surviving teaching in a Chinese run school. After moving back to South Korea, and Clif’s compulsory Korean retirement at age 65, Karen accepted a call to head up the English program at a school in Egypt. The Muslim culture challenged her, particularly as a woman. “I never felt unsafe, but at times the outside community was an uncomfortable place to be.” Drawing on extensive life experience, she taught all ages, many without Arabic or English literacy. Clif took on the assistant principal’s role. The two consider this to be their cross-cultural experience capstone.
Egypt brought a close to the Maberlys’ professional careers, so they returned to Victoria where their daughter lives, just as COVID-related restrictions locked the state down.
Karen and Clif are citizens of the world having lived in several countries and travelled in many more (76 last count). They have returned to Australia without many roots but with no regrets. “I sometimes think my life has been an endless search for the lost villages of my childhood,” says Clif. As they emerge from lockdown, they will once again continue to invest in finding and connecting with community.
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