Well it feels like this project is really gaining momentum! I'm thrilled with the response I'm getting from this blog. :) I've read 3.5 out of the 4 books and have scheduled three different interviews with pastors who are connected with the ELCA GMU reentry process either by job description or experience. Meeting with these pastors will be a wonderful opportunity to pick their brains and gather ideas about how this process can be improved. Yet, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to ask. How do I synthesize what I've read, remember from my own experience, and heard about your experiences? These are ten interesting nuggets, thoughts, ideas and musings. I hope sharing them will enable me to process them more and make new connections! And by all means, if you see something I'm missing let me know! So here we go in no particular order....
1) Saying goodbye in your host culture well, makes saying hello in your homeland easier. In several places in my reading, authors stressed the importance of saying goodbye thoroughly. It seems important to tie up as many as lose ends as possible, make peace where there is conflict, do things intentionally for the last time, and create rituals that help you mark your leaving. If things are left messy, you seem to still linger there mentally in a way that takes away from your ability to adjust to being in your homeland.
2) Staying connected with friends and family during time abroad eases the transition back into relationships. This seems like commonsense, but yet should not be overlooked. Upon return you have to decide how you want to engage in many relationships that were dormant while you were abroad. This can be a challenging and even painful process. If you have solid relationships with your family or close circle of friends you will not have do as much catching up and and you can be present for each other in relationship immediately.
3) Having just one friend who has experienced reentry stress before can be invaluable. Being able to talk to someone who directly understands the struggles you're having can be an amazing outlet. While family and friends will (hopefully) be very supportive, in many respects that cannot fully understand the stress and emotions you feel about reentry. For this reason, some sort of mentorship or big sibling program seems crucial to any reentry system.
4) Missionary kids almost always seek to travel as adults and their experience often influences their career choice. Their childhood shapes their worldview such that they want to continue to be apart of the international community. Very few permanently settle in the US and never leave. I wonder how this applies to young adults. I think finding data on where YAGMs are several years later would be helpful to my study. I also know several people who now have a travel bug since their time abroad.
5) The American Grocery Store. What is it about American consumerism that causes so many of us to vomit, cry, or simply lose it upon out return? Can anything be done to change this?
6) Jesus and reentry. One of the most interesting articles I read was by a teen writing about how she saw Jesus work through culture shock. As in, Jesus used to be in heaven, and then came to earth and had to make sense to living in a new way. Interesting, right?! She cites several stories from the Gospels that show how Jesus never acted too holy, remembered his purpose, and didn't let public opinion change him. I think this is fascinating and need to ponder more on possible Jesus examples for culture shock.
7) What is God's role in our goings and comings? The one book whose explicit purpose to help communities welcome back mission personnel and aid in their readjustment process held a very different theology of God's presence and will in our lives than I do. He wrote of how God specifically lead missionaries here and there and home again. What is the ELCA theological understanding of how God's call and will leads us to mission.
8) Home is familiar people, familiar places and routines. This definition is used in The Art of Coming Home. These words have resonated with me deeply as I have been adjusting to a new home with my husband this summer. How much more do these words ring true when coming back after time abroad! It takes time for people and places to become familiar again after a time apart. After all, they have all changed during our absence. I think routines are what make things feel like 'ours'. Our coffee shop, our gym, our hiking path.
9) Are YAGM and one-year placements comparable to study abroad programs? I wonder what shorter term mission placements have in common with study abroad programs versus long term mission placements? I think this depends on the actual placement. But looking at information about returning from study abroad programs may be helpful, especially since they are written in the context of coming back to higher level learning and living in parents'/familial home again.
10) Sharing the story. Part of being a missionary is to be able to come back to your homeland and share the stories of your experience and the stories of that place. How do we strengthen the returned to be able to share with confidence what they have learned in a variety of contexts? How do help congregations to be genuinely receptive, open, and engaged with the returned? How do we care for the returned intentionally so that their experience can be a jumping off point for lifelong service in the church local and international and not a faith-stunting shock?
Thanks for reading and being my sounding wall. I hope to back later in the week with solid interview questions for your review!
No comments:
Post a Comment