Some Thoughts on Re-Entry (1)
The period of re-adjustment into one’s home culture (pretty much always called ‘re-entry’) has only become an area of discussion in the last few decades of missionary work. Having returned to Oz about a month ago, I think I’m sufficiently stabilised to throw a few thoughts out there on what it’s like to return, and what we can do as friends/family/churches to help the transition. Because I have not much better to do while watching the cricket, here are some grammatically precarious ‘P’s to help those re-entering their home culture.
Patience
Only those who have had to cross cultures and back will understand how hard it is. A couple of articles I’ve read have pointed to the incredible psychological impact, especially amongst young people1.. The initial home culture -> away culture crossing tends to be approached with great excitement – I personally threw myself into the challenge of learning language and cultural norms with an enormous sense of fun (the initial crossing is worthy of a few posts in itself but I won’t go into it much here). Yet, cross-cultural workers consistently report far higher distress during re-entry. There are many possible reasons for this: the distress may catch them off-guard as they expect happy reunions with loved ones; they may have underestimated how much their culture/friends/family may have changed; they may have underestimated how much they have changed…
Now, in the grand scheme of missions I was away for a pathetically short time2., but here are some of the big areas I struggled with was (1) a massive change in my value system – I am having to re-learn how to consume; (2) a massive change to my responsibilities – I came from effectively pastoring a church to surfing and drinking coffee (woe is me, eh?); (3) a great disillusionment with churches – they all seem so narrow-minded, despite my spending most of my time in Vanuatu disillusioned with the church there (a deeper problem in my own soul I think)!; (4) a real struggle articulating everything that had happened and changed in me (please forgive this blog’s awkwardness!).
Bottom-line for family/friends/church: Re-enterers will need time and patience on your part as they sort themselves out. They might need to gush about everything that happened, complain about everything they miss, or just tuck away somewhere by themselves to process.
People, Practicalities, Prevalence, & Pondering to come in the next few days…
1 “… Young adults are in the unique developmental stage of identity formation. It is logical to predict that international experiences have tremendous impact during such formative times, particularly on students’ sense of cultural identity. Cultural identity is the mental framework through which individuals understand their way of being, interpret social cues, choose their behaviors, respond to their surroundings, and evaluate the actions of other people (Sussman, 2000). According to Sussman, culture is part of the internal framework of an individual, and it becomes a reference for self-definition and a way of ordering social expectations and relationships. Every study so far involving college students have highlighted the impact of cultural transitions on cultural identity …”
2 Interestingly, one article I read (Uehara, 1986) found that duration of trip had little to no effect on the severity of re-entry shock
Posted: Jan 13, 01:06 AM Category: Re-entry
Tags for this article: cross-culture, mission, re-entry, vanuatu
Phone · Jan 13, 04:02 PM
Thanks for writing about this, Joel. Dave and Sarah come back from Thailand in a few weeks, and I’m sure I will be spending quite a bit of time with them as they learn to readjust. Hearing about your experience will help me to know how to support them.
J · Jan 14, 02:21 PM
No worries, Phone – hope it’s useful!