Re-Entry
Our re-entry publications are a great asset for those in need and are now available through Amazon.
Returning Home: A Guide for Missioners and Volunteers in Transition
$7.95 Buy on Amazon
After time living and working in another culture, volunteers and missioners face the difficult transition of leaving and returning home. Whether they were somewhere close to home or on the other side of the world, for a few weeks or for decades, the process of re-entry can be challenging. This book offers suggestions, reflection guides, and support for the person experiencing the process, from the time of preparing to leave through their return and readjustment to their home culture.
Transition includes the three phases of Endings, the Neutral Zone, and Beginnings, each with its own emotional, spiritual, and practical challenges. The book offers a deeper understanding of the transition process, exercises for personal reflection and processing, important reminders, and tips for storytelling. This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.
Several months before my husband and I were leaving South Africa after two years as missioners, an earlier version of this book came in the mail. It gave us the words and questions that we most needed to hear and answer as we said our goodbyes and returned from the bush to the high powered suburbs of Washington DC. As I worked with many returned missioners in the following years, I found this book continued to be both a revelation —“these feelings are normal”— and a consolation to know that they were experiencing the acute life transition dozens of missioners and volunteers had known before them.
– Maureen Conners, PhD
Welcoming Them Home: A Guide for Families and Friends of Returning Missioners and Volunteers
$7.95 Buy on Amazon
When a volunteer or missioner returns home after service in another culture, people at home face many questions about how to best support them during their transition. Many people find that the person they knew has changed, missing their cross-culture experience and struggling to feel comfortable in the place they call home. Friends, co-workers, parishes, families, religious communities, and mission sending organizations all play important roles in helping the volunteer or missioner thrive as they transition to a new place.
This book is intended to help those at home better understand the experience of re-entry and offers some suggestions for helping make this time of transition life-giving for those returning and for their receiving community. The book includes information about re-entry, transition, and practical advice for those at home who want to support their loved one. This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.
In my seven years as Executive Director of From Mission to Mission, a frequent question I received from families, religious communities, and parishes about a returning missioner or volunteer was: “How do we welcome them home?” This practical guide helps all concerned avoid inappropriate comments, plan meaningful liturgies or prayer services and promote understanding of the life transition the volunteer or missioner is experiencing.
– Maureen Conners, PhD
Finding Life After Trauma: A Guide for Missioners and Volunteers and Those Who Care for Them
By Michelle A. Scheidt, DMin and Maureen R. Connors, PhD
$27.95 Buy on Amazon
People who live and work in a culture different from their own often have experiences of trauma, including experiences such as natural disasters, interpersonal conflict, violence, grieving, abuse, stress, and generally feeling overwhelmed by poverty and the needs of others. Volunteers and missioners typically face trauma experiences with strength and resiliency, but those who help others sometimes need help themselves.
This book offers resources for volunteers and missioners, leaders of mission sending organizations and religious communities, and those at home who want to better support their loved one who has experienced trauma. Including information and learning about trauma, practical suggestions and tip sheets, and emotional and spiritual practices, the guide helps equip those who have experienced trauma with the internal resources they need to heal and thrive.
This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.
I have worked with trauma survivors for the past fifteen years. This is a wonderful book for missioners who have so much to process when they return to their first home. Sometimes that includes traumatic events, and this book is a useful guide, while recognizing that some will need additional professional support. It’s also a great resource for the people who love those returning missioners and want to understand and support them.
– Rev. Kenneth W. Schmidt, MA, LPC, NCC, Executive Director, Trauma Recovery Associates, Kalamazoo, MI
At Home in the Journey: Navigating the Transitions of Our Lives
By JoAnn McCaffrey
$19.95 – Buy on Amazon
At Home in the Journey is both a guide and a process that generates meaning and light for people who have had difficult journeys and transitions in life. Just as valuable, this book also brings understanding for those who love the person who struggles and wish to support them in their journey. In this second edition, the author broadens her text to help all people struggling with feelings of isolation and being misunderstood or unappreciated for what they’ve experienced, and she provides practical exercises and well-researched resources.
JoAnn breathes affirmation, truth, understanding and wisdom into the transition process with At Home in the Journey. Years after my mission experience, her work invites me to continue unraveling its endless gifts. She gives words to feelings that resonate, leaves readers feeling seen and heard, and provides tools to use for all of life’s transitions; tools to embrace them, honor them, grow with them and become more whole because of them. This is truly a gift to all of us on this journey of life, one to share with everyone.
– Kelli Nelson, MNM, Executive Director of From Mission to Mission
Short-Term Mission
Our short-term mission publications are a great asset for those in need and are now available through Amazon.
Understanding Short-Term Mission: A Guide for Leaders and Participants
By Julie Lupien
$27.95 Buy on Amazon
In short-term mission experiences, people serve in a culture different from their own for a few days, a week, or a few months. Sometimes called immersion experiences, short-term mission can include alternative spring breaks, medical outreach teams, building programs, parish twinning, mission trips, and other volunteer programs offering people an opportunity to give of their time to help others.
This guide offers support and learning for those who lead these programs as well as for the participants. Topics include understanding mission, practicalities for leaders, a comprehensive tool kit for reflection and spiritual practice, and a series of essays sharing wisdom from experienced leaders of short-term mission experiences.
As more and more people participate in short-term mission, this book provides practical guidance on how to prepare for, participate in, and reflect on the experience so that participants integrate short-term mission as part of a lifelong commitment to service. This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.
Many good-hearted women and men have taken part in a variety of short-term mission programs for years, but proper guidance often was lacking. However, finally, this book, Understanding Short-Term Mission, provides an excellent accessible resource for participants and organizers through the stages of preparation, insertion, and return. It includes practical tips, reflection guides, and most importantly in-depth insights into the challenges and opportunities of such experiences.
– Rev. Roger Schroeder, SVD, Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Professor of Mission and Culture, Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, Author of What is the Mission the Church? A Guide for Catholics, 2nd ed. (2018)
Remaining Faithful: A Guide for Reflecting on Short-Term Mission Experiences
By Julie Lupien and Michelle A. Scheidt
$11.95 Buy on Amazon
This guide offers a series of exercises for reflection, integration, and prayer following a short-term experience in another culture.
In short-term mission experiences, people serve in a culture different from their own for a few days, a week, or a few months. Sometimes called immersion experiences, short-term mission can include alternative spring breaks, medical outreach teams, building programs, parish twinning, mission trips, and other volunteer programs offering people an opportunity to give of their time to help others.
As increasing numbers of people participate in short-term mission, this book offers practical tools for integrating the experience as part of a lifelong commitment to service. The exercises can be used by individuals or groups to guide regular, structured reflection for one year following the short-term service experience. This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.
I have been waiting for a resource like this for those who are returning from short-term mission and volunteer programs. They have seen good times and bad and been changed in the process, but they often don’t know what to do with all of this when they come home. Remaining Faithful provides a very usable practical guide—with good input, reflections, exercises, and prayers—to help people reflect upon their experiences and to integrate this into their on-going life journeys.
– Rev. Roger Schroeder, SVD, Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Professor of Mission and Culture, Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, Author of What is the Mission the Church? A Guide for Catholics, 2nd ed. (2018)
Articles
Transition
25 Suggestions for Handling Transition Successfully
Excerpts From the Story of Ruth
How to Manage the Transition Experience
Trauma
Trauma: A Missioner’s Occupational Hazard
Integration
Excerpts From Writings on Simplicity
The Grace of Living on the Margins
Helpful Practices
The following practices to help with stress, loss, grief, and trauma come from our publication: Finding Life After Trauma: A Guide for Missioners and Volunteers and Those Who Care for Them. Feel free to use them. For those wanting more on trauma, our book can be purchased here.
Managing Your Loses After Trauma Exposure
Grounding as a Coping Skill for Dealing with Emotional Pain
Practices for Protection and Creating Good Boundaries
Finger Holds to Balance Emotions
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): Tapping to Manage Negative Thoughts and Feelings
Switching – To Center and Balance the Mind and Body
Journaling as a Spiritual Practice
Mind Mapping as a Spiritual Practice and Tool for Prayer
Journaling Exercise on Healing and Forgiveness
A Sample Ritual for Individual Healing: Letting Go of Losses
A Sample Group Ritual: The Shawl Ceremony for Healing and Transformation
How do I Channel My Anger and Sense of Powerlessness at Structural Violence and Injustice?
Webinars
Webinar: Living Re-Entry During the Time of COVID-19
Leaving your service site is never easy – but abrupt departures and self-quarantines present a unique set of challenges for many current volunteers and missioners. This webinar provides support for those who have had to return early/end assignments early due to COVID-19. This session is facilitated by Kelli Nelson, Executive Director of From Mission to Mission and sponsored by Catholic Volunteer Network. The original webinar was held on April 2, 2020.
Webinar: Telling My Mission Story
This webinar, led by From Mission to Mission’s Kelli Nelson and USCMA’s Don McCrabb serves to help people give voice to their mission experience and frame their mission story for a wide variety of audiences. Learn how to engage listeners, as well as reconnect with your mission experiences, reflect on them, and articulate them. The original webinar was held on September 10, 2019.
Thousands of faith-based service opportunities can be at your fingertips with the RESPONSE. Download the latest edition today!
