helping women connect with their world
Re-entry to your home country takes just as much grace, maybe more, than leaving it did. Often your arrival on the field is more exciting and energizing than your return to your home country. The time and effort it takes to “fit in” comes as a surprise to many.
After the decision to return, there is much preparation necessary for a smooth re-entry.
Are you looking forward to furlough or dreading it? Probably it is a mixture of both those feelings. Since many PWs go on furlough during the summer, December seemed a good time to talk about furlough planning.
Your husband has probably already been emailing contacts to plan the itinerary. Email has made that process so much faster and easier.
Tuesday morning in eastern USA, was Tuesday evening on Borneo. We had enjoyed a wonderful, badly needed day of rest at a lovely resort at the foot of jungle covered mountains overlooking the South China Sea. Much of the day had been spent soaking in the pool and resting on chaise lounges. Our idyllic peace was shattered at 9:15 PM when my husband channel surfed to CNN. Pictures of the World Trade Center in a pillar of smoke and the Pentagon engulfed in flames shook us as the horror unfolded. Nothing could have prepared us for the shock.
36 hours later, we still hardly know what to say when asked how we feel. But last night my husband began a series of camp meeting addresses. With the tragedy so fresh on everyone’s minds, there really wasn’t another topic that seemed right for that session.
The first years on a foreign field can often be called the lean years. Actually, the lean years probably started several years before arriving on the field. Years of training and then months, if not years, of raising support for the venture to which you were called.
Our first years in service were lean years. They were lean as far as what we had, but they were rich in what they produced in us.
Women everywhere struggle with their roles and responsibilities. Living and working in another culture complicates that struggle. Some of our roles are easier to see than others. Our role as wife is primary. God gave us to our husbands to be a “helper suitable” for him. Our role as mother adds a lot of new responsibilities. If we are employed, we have more responsibilities added to our lives.
But some of our roles and responsibilities are harder to identify. Depending on our husband’s work, we may play many different roles and have many added responsibilities. As an active member of our church we will have varying roles and responsibilities. Just as good citizens, we have roles and responsibilities to fulfill.
