Jo’s time in Pennsylvania

Jolanda has put another notch in her belt, aka visited yet another, new state. Before you know it, she will have visited more states than Rodney!

She had a great time visiting an area where Amish and Mennonites live. The debriefing retreat for missionaries was held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the pretty town of Ephrata. What a different world than Colorado! The rolling hills reminded her a lot of Germany and Luxembourg. It is also called Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) because of the ancient history of German emigrants who came to Pennsylvania. Really beautiful!

“Restoring and life-giving”

One of the participants that Jo debriefed indicated that the retreat was very restoring and life giving.

A “battery” can lose it’s charge so quickly, that’s why it is so good to be recharged with clear steps in the right direction of restoration and healing. Sometimes it’s just simply gaining more insight and getting a better grip on the situation a missionary is in.

You may be wondering why missionaries come to our debriefing retreat. The most common case is burnout, a traumatic event, re-entry (moving back to their passport country) or denied visas, which brings their work, vision and lives on the mission field to an abrupt stop.

Missionaries have a lot of “stress”, feeling misunderstood and experiencing grief and loss.

During our retreat in Pennsylvania, we hosted two families (with a total of 6 children) and 3 single missionaries. Just to give an idea: after 14 years serving overseas one family’s visa was unexpectedly denied. The children were all born there and now have to adjust to a new life in the USA. Another missionary has lost her entire ministry (a shelter home) and her own home through the fires in Paradise, CA. This is such a big loss and trauma to process.

We gave the participants an introduction to their debriefing journey with topics like grief and losses, recognizing stress symptoms, transition, and on making their own “personal timeline”, a life path where they reflect on (and identify) those areas.

Trial and error!

Each morning, the participants were given the time to work on their personal “Life path”. During the afternoons we as debriefers looked with the participants at the various events that had taken place on their Life path. Events such as change, concern, criticism, conflict or even a crisis. The missionaries tell their story from shallow to deep, and go to more and more safety. They start recalling those events, recognizing where the pain, misunderstanding or losses come from. This whole process is really a “trial and error” that sometimes involves a direct confrontation with pain, guilt, sin, loneliness, a loss or depression. After a few days, the participants already start thinking differently and want to see change in their own lives. YES!

The participants also get the opportunity to bring everything to the Cross. They go into a “sanctuary” for time alone with God, writing their own lament and give everything back to Jesus.

Fit to serve

We also took three days to work on WELLNESS. Together we looked at the state of our spiritual, physical, social, emotional, intellectual and occupational health and well-being. We did this through teaching and practical activities. Creating and exercising goals for our own “well-being” is very important. It helped the participants to reflect on their own journey and how to move forward into God’s direction. We’re glad that we have been able to give missionaries some practical ways to stay “fit to serve”!

Putting down roots in America

While we were debriefing the adults, we also had two debriefers who worked with the kids and teenagers. They addressed the same topics with a special focus on the age of the kids and teenagers. So special and beautiful to “hear” their process and enthusiasm over lunch. What a big change some of those kids are going trough trying to find their way in America. Some cross-cultural children received an American flag to symbolically “plant” in the ground, to start “putting down roots” in America and will soon be able to say “I am an American”.

What a privilege to invest in the lives of these missionaries! Thanks in part to your prayers and support, Jo’s work in missionary care is possible.