Have your own reentry experience?
Sometimes hearing others’ experiences helps to normalize our own.
If you’ve written a blog post or article about your reentry story, please post the link in the comments below so others can click and read about your story.
Here are some that have been shared with us:
Gail: “The Future is a Mystery”
Cynthia: “Family Transitions”
Leslie: “When marriage is viewed as selling out.”
We’d love to be able to ready your story….put the link to your blog post in the comments below (don’t worry if it doesn’t show up right away…some times the links take a bit to get approved as valid comments).
Joyce:
http://www.joycestauffer.com/?p=351
This is going to be a little long, but I need to tell somebody. I’ve had nobody to talk to.
It’s been 6 years for me an my wife since our re-entry from the mission field. I’ve since travelled abroad on several occasions and each time I went felt like I was “alive” and had purpose in my life. We both lived in Mexico for a total of 10 years and even had our two kids born on the field too. We were part of a large thriving church and really grew in our calling. Eventually we felt in our heart it was time to leave and go back to the states (thought it would be a quick turn-around and back to the field again).
It was at a time in Northern Mexico where the drug cartels were warring and ISIS-like violence was a normal occurrence. Some nights you could hear bullets being fired in the night. We also had too many close calls with the cartel, one nearly ending up in me being kidnapped after witnessing an armed kidnapping while out doing evangelism training with my crusade team. Even all of our crusades were being monitored by the cartel according to a security guard I had work with me that was a former Mexican mafia member. It sounds like the violence is the reason why we left, but it had nothing to do with it even though it sure was nice to not be living under the constant stress of it.
Fast forward and it’s been 6 years since moving from Mexico and 2 years since my last time abroad to Latin America. I was traveling to Ecuador and Panama working with other missionary friends among indigenous people and other places like Honduras and Jamaica. Since my last trip to Ecuador I have had the hardest years of my life. We truly believe we were supposed to come back to the United States and even had direction from God to go stay with our folks in the midwest for several months before He would direct us elsewhere. Sure enough God connected us to somebody in Oklahoma where we now live.
We joined a church and it went great for about a year until it tanked from there. Amazing the politics that go on in churches ? Since 2009 I’ve experienced going through two churches, one that was spiritually abusive and where the Pastore wanted to be honored “above all” and controlled people along with his wife, to the latest church that pretty much ostracised me no matter how much I served and was loyal. They cut me out of employment there and denied me having any involvement in teaching at their Bible School. Through an inside source in leadership at the church, I was told that I my position was being dissolved due to financial issues when really there were firing me. I was lied to. I forgave and let it go. These experiences have obviously hurt me especially when I I went from being a Missionary working among indigenous people and rural communities to feeling like a hermit. I now work at a marketing agency full time and my daily battles are trying to find my purpose in life and working to stave off becoming apathetic like so many Christians in America are. We have no culture here, no flavor to life. The immorality in our nation is off the charts. I just can’t believe the craziness here.
Now 6 years since Mexico and 100 lbs. heavier, I have no friends, feel like I am at a dead-end with missions. I never knew what depression was till I experienced it. In Mexico I was a go-getter and thrived at all I did. I didn’t see this coming and didn’t expect to go through the hell I have been through. I know this all sounds really negative but I am being really honest about my experience. I know soldiers go through stuff when they come back home from war. That’s what I feel like. I enjoyed being on the battle field of missions though, it was an adventure for me. I was sooooo bold and God was so fiercely moving in my life. There so many stories of miracles I saw and heard. Miracles were a normal occurrence.
I’m reaching out because this Missionary re-entry pain is REAL. The enemy will try to isolate you and pile on you all kinds of stuff to take the energy and the wind out of your sails. Don’t give up! Even though I feel like I have handled my re-entry experience in such a crappy way, I still know God has a plan for my life. I want to go back to the mission field but will give up all my desires for what God wants. I just am living day-to-day by faith and hoping for better things to come. Has anybody experienced this too?
Yes, reentry shock can be pretty brutal. Couple it with reentry due to ministry burnout (sadly so so common!) and life can get really hard for a while. I’m trying to blog about it as a way to process and also as a way to help others going through the same thing. I left the field almost 4 years ago after spending 6 years in amazing and miraculous service. It was truly a gift from God. Then I burnt out to the point I could barely walk or eat. I left without saying any real goodbyes assuming I’d be back in a matter of months. Well, almost 4 years later I’m still too sick to travel and I’m haunted by the loss. Saying goodbye in your heart is just not the same. Well, you mentioned you’d like to see related blog posts, so maybe you can find some at http://www.foodfaithfatigue.com
I spent 25 years in Africa and now live in the USA again. It has been a year and a half now and it is very hard.
I have been back stateside for almost three years after living in the Dominican Republic for almost ten years. Here are some of my thoughts and lessons hopefully learned.
http://www.cherryonline.org