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Indeed, if it is not handled correctly, the returning missionary may barely escape with his or her emotional well-being and faith intact.
The pressures of re-entry have the unfortunate tendency to push you in the opposite direction to where you want to go.
Instead of pushing you closer to God, re-entry stress tends to push you away from Him.
Re-entry can be a very disorienting time for both astronauts and for returning missionaries, and the longer you have been away, the greater the level of disorientation you are likely to experience.
Too many returning missionaries have crashed upon landing, because they mistakenly thought they could glide right back to a smooth touchdown in the culture they left behind.
Closure is the art of bringing to a satisfactory conclusion the passage
of life through which we have just passed. Closure enables us to move from one passage of life to another without carrying burdens of guilt and false expectations. It allows us to build on previous experiences instead of camping in the emotional fog of past memories.
It is difficult to move successfully into the next passage of your life if you have not brought closure to the preceding passage.
You must live in the present, not in the past.
God is at work, regardless of your circumstance, and He will be faithful to you. You must recognize that fact in your life lest you be overcome with disappointment and bitterness about leaving. If left unchecked, that disappointment and bitterness will mock your every attempt to adjust to life back home.
There is absolutely no need to experience guilt about leaving the mission field in the will of God. Your
confidence is in God, and He will provide. There are many legitimate things to
be concerned about in preparing for a return home, but guilt ...
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Missionaries are human, and mission agencies are imperfect institutions.
He is a God who wants His children to face their failures, and to deal with them with His help.
It is important to leave the mission field with a clean heart and a clear slate.
is imperative before you leave the mission field to take time to properly assess how much you have changed, and how much things have changed back home.
Nothing can produce a more volatile argument than a political discussion.
People at home who do not understand your motivation for going to the mission field may well think, and tell you, that you are a “sucker” for giving up so much, especially in the area of financial security. And don’t be surprised if some of these people are from your church! Friends and family may even resent having to help you financially. So be prepared for some testing in this area.
The life you leave behind on the mission field is very different from what you will encounter upon your return home.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed!
Given the re-entry stress you are going to experience upon your return home, your relationship with the Lord needs to be stronger than ever.
You can be a strategic bridge through which God can bring greater awareness, understanding and insight of another culture, as well as motivating other Christians to go to the mission field.
God calls us to run a leg of the race. In running our leg, we join the ranks of a long and illustrious line of people God has called to carry the baton in reaching the lost of the world with the Gospel.
The length of time for which God has called you to serve is not important. What is important is that you serve diligently to the best of your abilities.
You feel as though you’re someone who has come back from the dead; your friends and family have buried and forgotten you. You wonder if people really want you around at all, or if they would even notice if you just disappeared.
Whether we were missionaries or not has nothing to do with how God views us.
Learn to derive your identity from the fact that you are a child of God, not from the fact that you are a missionary.
Re-entry is difficult, but not impossible to negotiate.
While the mission organization narrowly focuses on the task at hand, the local church sees missionary endeavor as one of a number of important tasks it is called to undertake.
A returning missionary should come home humble, not haughty. Resist the urge to compare and criticize, especially when you feel people don’t understand you or what you have been through.
The best credential you can hold forth is your Christlikeness, which is ultimately best demonstrated through servanthood, since Christ was in essence a servant.
The hardest thing was to forgive myself. I had failed God and all those who had believed in me and supported me in missions. Finally, in desperation, I confessed to my pastor and others I trusted. What I received through them was God’s love for me. Then, and only then, was I able to look in the mirror and forgive myself.
They don’t really know what makes a missionary “tick,” so they tend to stay on the safe ground of keeping conversations vague.
Your work among this people group on the mission field does not stop when you get home; it expands!
Now we must pray for the walls in each person’s heart to be torn down so the Gospel might renew their lives.
Your identity is in the city that is to come, and that is where you must place your focus.