When Missionaries Come Home
When Missionaries Come Home
By Steve Concepcion
We all hear the inspiring stories of brave men and women who give up possessions , homes , careers , and the comfort of the United States to move to an underdeveloped country . They go to serve the poor , the marginalized and the disenfranchised . Missionaries sacrifice much , and sometimes all , to spread the Gospel of Jesus ; but what happens when the mission is over ? When these courageous men and women come back to what was once called their “ home ”, do they acclimate back into their own culture with ease ? Culture Shock is defined by Segen ’ s Medical Dictionary © as “ a constellation of emotions including a sense of isolation , rejection and alienation which is experienced by a person or group when transplanted from a familiar to an unfamiliar culture — e . g ., from one country to another ; disorientation and confusion when visiting or relocating to [ a ] culture different from one ’ s own ”. Reverse Culture Shock ( RCS ) is when you experience these emotions returning to your passport country after being on assignment that is over a long period of time .[ 1 ]
Studies show that most missionaries return home and find that through it all looks very familiar , nothing is quite right ; but they are not alone in their experience of RCS . The US State Department , the US Military , Multi-national corporations and the United Nations all struggle with this issue . The effects of RCS impact their staff and employees that work outside their home country and return home to experience RCS at every age . These organizations experience high levels of attrition from their repatriated personnel . As a result , these large organizations have dedicated significant resources to mitigate the effects of RCS in forms of pre-deployment training , pre-return and post return debriefing , free access to professional mental health counselors when needed at home , mentor / life coaching programs , and the like . The reality of RCS is that across all nationalities , gender , generation and religion , no one is immune .
My wife and I with our two young girls moved to the mountains of southeast Haiti for an agriculture-based mission . After three years we had begun to see substantial benefits and successes of all our hard work . We focused our efforts on agriculture per the community ’ s request . Some of our programs included cooking classes , farming techniques , scholarships for children in the local schools , we had brought the local churches ( Protestant and Catholic ) together to begin cooperating in the mission of community development which included bible distribution to churches that never had the book in their own language . We were making some amazing in-roads .
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22 Latin Times Magazine www . latintimesmedia . com Abraza el calor de tu cultura !