Lisa Ennis and Lori Bryan have put together a new book called, “Receiving Them Well: A Guide On How To Support Your Loved One Returning From Humanitarian Aid Or Missionary Work.” It is designed to offer advice on ways in which you can provide support that will benefit both the returning traveler and the welcoming friends back home.
https://www.amazon.com/Receiving-Them-Well-humanitarian-missionary-ebook/dp/B078BH85JN
The authors hope to help “by offering personal stories, useful questions, practical advice and foundational knowledge.”
[Now — it’s the elephant in the middle of the room… this title does sound similar to another book on reentry (published in 2015 and reviewed positively here in Brigada on multiple occasions)…
https://www.amazon.com/Returning-Well-Thriving-Serving-Cross-Culturally/dp/0986342602
We aren’t in the book titling business, but we know that sometimes, authors write books with similar titles and both books do well for decades to come. We’ve at least dropped a note to the authors of the new book (Receiving them Well) to make sure they were aware of Melissa’s book, which has been acclaimed as “an essential resource for anyone returning from cross-cultural service.” Perhaps this topic (reentry) is such a critical theme that it deserves BOTH books – so perhaps every church and agency should read BOTH resources to prepare to receive them, and perhaps every traveler should look at BOTH volumes because, in that epoch, there is no more critical theme for life than returning well. Either way, just to clarify, both books seek to offer help for both the cross-cultural traveler AND the parties receiving them in their homeland.]
And, of course, Doug, when I saw “another” book on reentry, my first impulse was, “What about MY book, THE REENTRY TEAM?” But that, oh-so-human-thought, quickly dissolved into a praise that more and more people are seeing the need for care for returning field workers. Just last Saturday I did another seminar for six churches on Missionary Care. When I got to the reentry section, their ignorance (and they admitted that) was replaced with specifics that they can do for their returning friends. To God be all glory! ~~~~NEAL