Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about homecomings. With my son’s arrival just 72 hours away (he’s returning home following a medical discharge from the army), I’ve been trying to play it all through my mind. Should we have a big banner? But what if he’d prefer something less public, less showy? Will he want to go on a weekend camping trip with me to talk about his experiences — to “debrief?” Or would he rather just ‘chill’ with his friends. Those questions — and more — are on my mind.
Along a similar vein, I wonder what kinds of approaches our Brigada participants have taken to welcoming missionaries home. When your worker comes home from Kosova or Kazakhstan, Mozambique or Morocco, Ukraine or Uganda, how do you say ‘hello’ again? What are your “rules of engagement”? How much do you plan in advance, vs. how much do you leave ‘unstructured’? Does your church try to provide a vehicle? Does your organization have furlough housing?
Would you take a moment to spell out some of the broad strokes of your approach to ‘homecomings’, and if you have link(s) to resources for further reading, please be kind enough to share those too.
As a former missionary, I’d suggest that many missionaries are like me and would prefer to come home quietly. When I’m coming back from an international trip with kids in tow, I wasn’t at my best. It was a long trip, I was tired, the kids were tired, we were often hungry, and didn’t look our best. We thought it was nice to have family or a friend who “understood” meet us and take us immediately to a place where we could rest and refresh. After that we were ready to meet the world.
As Roger said, after traveling you are tired! So, as a church to welcome home our Missionaries we did “ding dong ditch” On their first day, and each day after for as long as we have sign ups, we would have a family/person go to where they were staying and leave something special at their door and run! Just lets them know we are excited they are back and we are ready to be with them when they are ready. Many creative things have been left at the door and many missonaries stated how much they enjoyed this kind of welcome!
Our church has a “sending team” for each of our missionaries. This team keeps in touch with missionaries while they are on the field, then coordinates their needs when they return home. This team will find housing, furniture, a car…whatever the missionary tells us they need. Usually someone from the team picks the missionary up at the airport (unless they have family in the area). Members of the team are kept informed of needs/how much interaction the missionary wants on return by email.
Our agency offers debriefs to any of our folk coming home to the UK. We recommend that churches give the returnee space , but communicate that support is there when they want it. It’s good to sound them out whether they would like to share in the service after they have rested, but be ready to take no for an answer if the person is unwell or struggling.
As a current (female) missionary, something I’d really appreciate when going back to the States is a small “American makeover.” When I go back to the States, my hair, my clothes, my shoes, and my make-up sometimes don’t really fit, and I don’t know what’s current. It may seem minor, but I’d soon be speaking in many public places, and I’d like to look my best, and also look somewhat relevant (i.e. not distract my listeners by my clothes that are “so 90s”!). That would be something nice for a supporting church to at least offer as an option.