Set a New Direction

When you’ve had a mission, you can never go back to a mere job.

Returning home after living and working overseas is a major challenge.

The horizon looks like an unknown twilight. The exact path forward is unknown. The loss of what you've left behind makes it feel like a very sad divorce.

Now you need to develop cultural competence - in your passport country - specifically related to the globalized workplace.

Your key concern is to find meaningful work that has purpose and aligns with your values. You desire the best person / position fit in your new "post–mission" context.

HOW HARD IS REENTRY?

We are in a serious economic downturn at the present time. Plus, you've been immersed in your overseas work which means you were out of the loop regarding jobs on the home front.

Your challenge is to objectively translate / reinterpret your unique skills, overseas experience and International IQ to the best opportunities here.

And there are even more challenges:

"The Reality of Reentry is that more than sixty percent of former missionaries returning home find the experience negative – even devastating". Marion Knell, Burn-Up or Splash Down: Surviving the Culture Shock of Re-Entry

"Most missionaries feel that re-entry is the greatest challenge of the entire missionary experience." Belinda Ng, Too Valuable to Lose - William D. Taylor (ed.)

"On the eve of reentry the question, ‘Who am I?’ may perplex a missionary…[w]ho would ever expect to feel like a stranger in his own country?" Kelly O’Donnell, Mission Member Care Author and Psychologist with YWAM Frontier Missions.

Reentering Mission and Cross-cultural workers ask:

• "Do I still have a calling?"
• "Will I make a difference here?"
• "Where will I work?"
• "Where do I fit in here?" ("I feel like such a misfit")
• "How will I cope?"

As a returning cross-culture or mission worker, you know the incredible emotional investment you’ve made in your overseas work. It was very significant. It was comprehensive. It deeply affected all the family members like no other job. Returning home can be traumatic. Very few can understand your reentry experience. And not everyone navigates it well.

Returning home is a major turning point and you will need to allow the process to take its time. Grief will be a huge emotion during this time and it must be allowed. Great opportunities are over the horizon. You need faith. You need encouragement. Beware of the tendency to short circuit a healthy transition.

Reentry means reestablishing on the home front. It means re-acculturating. In today's world, it means rebranding.

Set a New Direction offers 2 things that can make your reentry better:

1. A specific career program that is geared to your situation.
2. An empathetic and competent person who's been in your shoes to be your career guide.

The good news is that returning overseas workers already have many strengths that align to the needs of a global, diverse, dynamic and now challenged economy. You already understand the significance of Mission and Ministry, but there is another concept that is front and center today - Market. A market not just in material things - but spiritual things - soul matters. See Right Brain for Reentry for what I mean.

Full program details, see here

My own experiences living in another culture, see here.

Sending Agencies, see here.

Would it help to have a Free 1 hour Consultation, just ask!