Re-Entry

Returning Home: A Guide for Missioners and Volunteers in Transition

$7.95 Buy on Amazon

After time living and working in another culture, volunteers and missioners face the difficult transition of leaving and returning home. Whether they were somewhere close to home or on the other side of the world, for a few weeks or for decades, the process of re-entry can be challenging. This book offers suggestions, reflection guides, and support for the person experiencing the process, from the time of preparing to leave through their return and readjustment to their home culture.

Transition includes the three phases of Endings, the Neutral Zone, and Beginnings, each with its own emotional, spiritual, and practical challenges. The book offers a deeper understanding of the transition process, exercises for personal reflection and processing, important reminders, and tips for storytelling.  This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.

Several months before my husband and I were leaving South Africa after two years as missioners, an earlier version of this book came in the mail. It gave us the words and questions that we most needed to hear and answer as we said our goodbyes and returned from the bush to the high powered suburbs of Washington DC. As I worked with many returned missioners in the following years, I found this book continued to be both a revelation —“these feelings are normal”— and a consolation to know that they were experiencing the acute life transition dozens of missioners and volunteers had known before them.

– Maureen Conners, PhD

Welcoming Them Home: A Guide for Families and Friends of Returning Missioners and Volunteers

$7.95 Buy on Amazon

When a volunteer or missioner returns home after service in another culture, people at home face many questions about how to best support them during their transition. Many people find that the person they knew has changed, missing their cross-culture experience and struggling to feel comfortable in the place they call home.  Friends, co-workers, parishes, families, religious communities, and mission sending organizations all play important roles in helping the volunteer or missioner thrive as they transition to a new place.

This book is intended to help those at home better understand the experience of re-entry and offers some suggestions for helping make this time of transition life-giving for those returning and for their receiving community.  The book includes information about re-entry, transition, and practical advice for those at home who want to support their loved one. This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.

In my seven years as Executive Director of From Mission to Mission, a frequent question I received from families, religious communities, and parishes about a returning missioner or volunteer was: “How do we welcome them home?” This practical guide helps all concerned avoid inappropriate comments, plan meaningful liturgies or prayer services and promote understanding of the life transition the volunteer or missioner is experiencing.

– Maureen Conners, PhD

Finding Life After Trauma: A Guide for Missioners and Volunteers and Those Who Care for Them

By Michelle A. Scheidt, DMin and Maureen R. Connors, PhD

$27.95 Buy on Amazon

People who live and work in a culture different from their own often have experiences of trauma, including experiences such as natural disasters, interpersonal conflict, violence, grieving, abuse, stress, and generally feeling overwhelmed by poverty and the needs of others. Volunteers and missioners typically face trauma experiences with strength and resiliency, but those who help others sometimes need help themselves.

This book offers resources for volunteers and missioners, leaders of mission sending organizations and religious communities, and those at home who want to better support their loved one who has experienced trauma. Including information and learning about trauma, practical suggestions and tip sheets, and emotional and spiritual practices, the guide helps equip those who have experienced trauma with the internal resources they need to heal and thrive.

This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.

I have worked with trauma survivors for the past fifteen years.  This is a wonderful book for missioners who have so much to process when they return to their first home.  Sometimes that includes traumatic events, and this book is a useful guide, while recognizing that some will need additional professional support.  It’s also a great resource for the people who love those returning missioners and want to understand and support them.

– Rev. Kenneth W. Schmidt, MA, LPC, NCC, Executive Director, Trauma Recovery Associates, Kalamazoo, MI

At Home in the Journey: Navigating the Transitions of Our Lives

By JoAnn McCaffrey

$19.95 – Buy on Amazon

At Home in the Journey is both a guide and a process that generates meaning and light for people who have had difficult journeys and transitions in life. Just as valuable, this book also brings understanding for those who love the person who struggles and wish to support them in their journey. In this second edition, the author broadens her text to help all people struggling with feelings of isolation and being misunderstood or unappreciated for what they’ve experienced, and she provides practical exercises and well-researched resources.

JoAnn breathes affirmation, truth, understanding and wisdom into the transition process with At Home in the Journey. Years after my mission experience, her work invites me to continue unraveling its endless gifts. She gives words to feelings that resonate, leaves readers feeling seen and heard, and provides tools to use for all of life’s transitions; tools to embrace them, honor them, grow with them and become more whole because of them. This is truly a gift to all of us on this journey of life, one to share with everyone.

– Kelli Nelson, MNM, Executive Director of From Mission to Mission