Transitions are tough.
Post-transition can be even tougher.
Whether you’re returning home temporarily or permanently, equipping yourself for the process will make a such a difference, and prepare you for whatever is next.
Re-entry
Whether returning home temporarily or permanently, you need to be prepared for a season of transition – and all the challenges that brings!
Debrief
We strongly recommend a debrief, even informally, as a way of processing your time spent in another cultures.
New Season
A Sender’s Role
Any fieldworker needs a great team of friends, family and colleagues supporting them. You have a huge part to play in ensuring their success. Check out what you can do to ensure your fieldworkers thrive!
- Please don’t view the missionary’s return as an event, but rather as a process that may be difficult for them.
- Reverse culture shock (or ‘re-entry stress’) can be as difficult, or even harder, for returnees to navigate than the original culture was! Often that is because it is unexpected.
- Be prepared to love and welcome the returnee home, even if they appear ‘difficult’ as they struggle with this phase.
- An ‘end-of-term’ debrief may have been given by their agency while still on the field, but a ‘returning home debrief’, around 6 weeks after the return may also be a welcome addition.
- This could be an informal, open-ended question, ‘interview’ style to allow the returning field worker to process their thoughts and feelings.
- A debrief can be useful, even for a temporary trip home to address issues that may be under the surface.
- Returning field workers will have experienced and learnt a vast amount, more than can be summarised in a mid-service update interview or a polite question over coffee after a service!
- A perceived lack of interest in this may lead to feelings of disappointment or offence for the returning field worker.
- Consider how you can communicate that their story and experiences matter, and how you can allow them to share them in an unpressured environment. Ensure the worker’s PACTeam is on hand to spend time with and support them.
- This may feel like a repeat of the pre-field sending out, but making the effort to mark the occasion and commission a returning fieldworker will ensure they feel supported.
- Be sure to surround them with prayer and encouragement.
- Commit to keeping engaged with them and track how they are doing over the early weeks especially. Make sure their PACTeam does not disband too soon – not until they are fully settled back and re-integrated in the community.
- A new season of belonging and of continuing service is what we should hope for when a mission partner returns home for good.
- Support them practically as they settle back in.
- Consider how you can involve this returning field worker in the church’s life – they have a wealth of experience and wisdom they can contribute!
Get Equipped
Here are some useful materials for whichever stage you are in
Calling – Who? What? Why?
In the church, there exists a widespread misconception that only “exceptional Christians” receive a “proper” calling from God. The truth,…
The Antioch Factor
Ross Paterson presents a stark choice that no Christian or church can avoid making – whether we become a Jerusalem…
Developing Leadership for Cross-Cultural Ministry
Mission thrives on cultivating leaders who embody the life and character of Jesus, the most effective figure in history who…
Growing in Cultural Intelligence
Thriving Across Borders
This course covers the major transitions that someone will make when crossing cultures. We delve into the typical transition points…
The Antioch Factor
Building a Support Ecosystem
In this course, we examine the different dimensions of support that are needed for a successful cross-cultural experience or lifestyle….
Know Thyself
This course explores the concept of understanding ourselves within the context of our own cultures. Before delving into how we…
Zechariah gets a second chance | Luke 1
Ross shares from in Luke 1 about Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and stresses that our God is…
A Heart for the Unreached with Dr Mary Ho
Dr Mary Ho serves as the International Executive Leader of All Nations International, a global Christian missions organization. In this current…
Serving Anywhere with Lydia David
Lydia David is a missionary who has worked in China & Turkey. She worked as an occupational therapist before she…
Joseph #7: Blessing or Obedience or Both?
The final in this 7-part series on Joesph, Ross looks at the important balance between God’s sovereign grace and empowerment…
Interview with Ross & Christine Paterson
Enjoy the wisdom and inspiration of over a century combined missions experience, as we sit down with our founders, Ross…
Mobilising Senders with Lori Rogers
Our latest interview is with Lori Rogers, who leads MomentumYes, an exciting mission mobilisation organisation. Their free, 6-part video course…
Go and do likewise…
Ross speaks from the story of the Good Samaritan with a powerful call to us all…
5 Lessons Joseph Teaches About God and His Plans for Our Lives
Ross Paterson’s message, recorded at Bread of Life International Church. He encourages us with five lessons from one of his…
Transforming Slums with Nicola Neal
When Nicola and husband Simon were called out of a comfortable life into the poorest communities, they had no idea…
Seven Lessons From Job About Values
Ross shares lessons from the book of Job that help us to walk through the hard and puzzling times in…
Eric Liddell – Olympic Gold Medal Winner in Paris, 1924
Eric Henry Liddell (1902-1945) is one of the heroes of the Oscar winning film “Chariots of Fire”. The film tells…
Article 5 of the Serampore Agreement
Original text: Fifthly. In preaching to the heathen, we must keep to the example of Paul, and make the great…
John Mark – A Missionary Failure Who Later Succeeded.
John Mark is a missionary whose story, unlike most of those I write about each Sunday, is told in the…
A Prayer Meeting In A Haystack That Changed U.S. Church History!
Historians say that all Christian missionary organisations in the U.S. trace their history back to the Haystack Prayer Meeting. In…
George Müller – A Second Wind For Mission
Many readers of these brief missionary biographies will know something of the remarkable life of George Müller (1805-1898), how he showed amazing…
J. O. Fraser – An Unusual “Business Partnership” – Prayer.
In his outreach to the Lisu people in southwest China, James Fraser pressed forward with renewed permission from the China…
Seven Lessons From The Life of Lilias Trotter
I previously wrote about Lilias Trotter. This remarkable sister merits a second look, because there are important, even success-defining, lessons for…
Jesus Is Taking Over! – Easter Week Pt 10
This is part of our Easter week series from Ross Paterson’s daily devotional Facebook post. Like our page to keep up with…
Chinese Missionaries to Europe?
ChinaSource recently commented that “despite Europe’s historical legacy as an active sender of missionaries, Europe nowadays should be considered as…
Philip – The Model Missionary
Having looked recently at cross-cultural missionaries from the pages of the New Testament, it struck me that I couldn’t do…
