{"id":5477,"date":"2021-09-06T15:24:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T07:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3cmspace.com\/?p=5477"},"modified":"2021-09-16T12:11:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T04:11:39","slug":"missionary-care-how-churches-can-help-returning-workers-settle-and-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/missionary-care-how-churches-can-help-returning-workers-settle-and-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Missionary care: How churches can help returning workers settle and process"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This article is adapted from a Global Missions Podcast interview with Melissa Chaplin, author of \u201cReturning Well.\u201d Melissa helps churches lovingly care for cross-cultural workers who are re-integrating into life in their passport country. You can listen to the full interview\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/globalmissionspodcast.com\/100\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"here (opens in a new tab)\">here<\/a>. (The conversation with Melissa starts at 9:38.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When cross-cultural workers return from the mission field, they often go through two stages \u2014 the Settling Stage and the Processing Stage \u2014 before they fully re-engage in their passport culture. There are different ways for churches to interact and help in each of these phases.<\/p>\n<h5>The Settling Stage<\/h5>\n<p>The Settling Stage is when returnees have just re-entered their passport culture. This includes a lot of travel to connect with churches, friends, family and supporters. It also includes tackling many logistics: setting up housing, procuring a car, changing insurance, getting a new phone. This stage can take up to four months, depending on how much clarity the returnee has about his or her next steps.<\/p>\n<p>This is a season of mixed emotions. There\u2019s relief and grief, joy and sadness. All of this varied emotion, plus other aspects of transition, can result in some challenges, like atypical indecisiveness, forgetfulness, insomnia, fatigue, even mental health issues for a time. It\u2019s important to give returning workers an extra measure of grace during this season. They\u2019re real people under real stress.<\/p>\n<p>With that heart behind it, here are some practical things that churches can do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ask how you can help:\u00a0<\/strong>Have an open conversation with the returnee, asking, \u201cWhat would be helpful for you? What kind of housing are you going to need? What kind of vehicle are you going to need? Can we help you find those things?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Remove a common stressor:<\/strong>\u00a0Often cross-cultural workers are overwhelmed by the number of choices in their passport country\u2019s stores. Try asking them for a pantry wishlist, and stock their house with food items to get them through that first month. Or, ask if they would like someone to accompany them as they go about their errands, to help them work through anything that might be new (like self checkout at the grocery store, or electronic prescriptions at the doctor\u2019s office, for instance).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be basic:\u00a0<\/strong>Most cross-cultural workers will have sold most of their earthly possessions before they left for the field. When they come back, ask them what basics they need \u2014\u00a0dishes, bedding, pots and pans, towels, and so on. Rally the church to provide those items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Give them time:<\/strong>\u00a0Allow returnees to choose when they\u2019re ready to share about their ministry with the church. Sometimes churches ask returnees to share before they\u2019ve debriefed and processed themselves. If churches wait until returnees are ready, the sharing can be so much richer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t forget the kids:<\/strong>\u00a0Keep in mind the needs of returning missionary children, too! Consider whether there are relationships with other children in the church that can be, not forced, but\u00a0seededthrough intentional playdate invitations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>The Processing Stage<\/h5>\n<p>In this stage, returnees are feeling settled in their living situation, and the emotional transition begins to weigh heavy on them. They\u2019re ready to begin processing internally. Here\u2019s how churches can help during this stage:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Build relationship through listening:<\/strong>\u00a0Ask open-ended questions that keep the focus of the conversation on the returnee\u2019s experience. Some sample questions could include: \u201cWho do you miss the most? What do you miss the most? What\u2019s been most difficult for you during re-entry? What aspects of your culture were most life-giving?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Offer patience:<\/strong>\u00a0Realize that it might take returnees more time than expected to work through their processing. When you think they should have an answer of what\u2019s next, they still might be mid-process with the Lord on what he wants to do with who they are now, after this season of living cross culturally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Encourage returnees to obtain an effective debriefing:<\/strong>\u00a0Debriefing programs usually last about a week, and include group debriefing with other returning workers plus some individual sessions. These programs are not free, however, so a church could help a returnee by making it financially viable to attend. Another option would be to use the book \u201cReturning Well,\u201d in which someone from the church would act as a Returning Well companion to help guide the returnee through the debriefing process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Thank you, Melissa, for your wise insights and your care for returning workers! Click below to listen to the full interview with Melissa. The interview starts at 9:38.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><figcaption>Global Missions Podcast episode 100<br \/>\n<strong>Returning Well: A Guide to Thriving After Serving Cross-Culturally<\/strong><br \/>\nMelissa Chaplin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/globalmissionstoolbox.com\/help-returning-mission-workers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"This article is reposted (opens in a new tab)\">This article is reposted<\/a>\u00a0with permission from the Global Missions Toolbox, an online resource designed for \u201cSENDers\u201d \u2013 faithful Christ-followers who will not necessarily live on a mission field themselves yet are earnest about advancing the Great Commission.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/globalmissionstoolbox.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Find out more here. (opens in a new tab)\">Find out more about the Global Missions Toolbox here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wpuf_customs\">            <li class=\"wpuf-field-data wpuf-field-data-radio_field\">\n                                    <label>Resource Format:<\/label>\n                                Article            <\/li>\n        <\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is adapted from a Global Missions Podcast &hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/missionary-care-how-churches-can-help-returning-workers-settle-and-process\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">\u9605\u8bfb\u66f4\u591a &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Missionary care: How churches can help returning workers settle and process<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":5474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-re-entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6228,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5477\/revisions\/6228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3cmspace.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}