I tilt my head back in the salon chair and wait for the cold water to hit my head. And all these memories wash over me.
Please excuse my very corny, clichéd analogy—I get this way whenever I move. There’s something comforting about cheesy “Friends are friends forever”-type songs and heart-felt cards written by hand […]
I am often asked about by very well-intentioned people how they can help MAF missionaries who are returning from the field. Coming home is one of the hardest things a missionary faces. Yet this may be the single most misunderstood stage in a missionary’s journey.
People typically think the initial departure—leaving friends, family, and all […]
I should be used to going outside my comfort zone, I thought, as I grabbed my purse and my keys. I’ve raised support––speaking in front of crowds and befriending strangers. I’ve learned a language––blundering my way through many a stilted conversation. I’ve moved to an impoverished country––making it through culture shock. But as I left […]
I studied culture shock in college and read about its various stages: honeymoon, frustration, depression, and acceptance. Graphs showed how you start on the ‘high’ of the honeymoon phase and over time sink down through frustration to depression before eventually bouncing back up to acceptance, thus completing your bumpy culture shock trajectory.
We have been […]
Recently, my husband and I returned to the States for a quick month while he attended the Instructor Pilot Seminar at MAF headquarters. After several years of living in Indonesia, I knew that I would feel reverse culture shock returning to America, so I prepared myself. I knew the most daunting task for me would […]