Missionaries have been on a unique journey in which they have experienced many transitions.
The purpose of a missionary debrief is to help them navigate the transitions that they have experienced in a healthy, productive and healing way that enhances their relationship with God and that deepens their desire and delight in him.
Through the course of the debrief the following topics will be covered: Paradox, Stress, Grief and Loss, Transition, Resilience and Sabbath Rest.
Debrief- we see the ministry of missionary debrief as a supporting role to care well for this vital and unique segment of the body of Christ.
Missionary debrief is a gift of an understanding and listening ear, by someone who speaks “missionary” fluently and is equipped to meet missionaries where they are, ready to listen well to their hard stories.
Debrief is a time for a returning missionary to re-view or to examine their theology, and to iron out inconsistencies that they have come to hold in light of their hard experiences.
Imagine the missionary who left everything they had to go out on mission. When they come home, they often do not have a home to rest in, no prescribed time to pull over and take stock, to evaluate from where the Lord has led them or to where He is leading.
Perhaps because of a lack of understanding, perceived lack of time or of resources, many seasoned missionaries have never had the opportunity to actually share their full stories with anyone – yet each missionary returns from their term of service with a deeply personal and valuable story that includes growth in grace, wounds from battle and fatigue, along with reverse culture shock.
By taking time to reconstruct their experiences then share their story during a debrief, they are affirmed in their faith, while they use debrief tools to help sort through, examine and categorize their experiences. A Biblical debrief helps a missionary to process and to reframe their experiences-- with the truth of God’s word.
Why Debrief
Debriefing helps missionaries recognize and find gratitude for the many areas of their lives where they have already permitted God to realign their paradigms, suiting them to go forward to live and minister successfully, wherever “over there” is...
Debriefing:
An opportunity to prayerfully take time to discern what God has in store for them next.
Helps a person make Biblical sense of changes, concerns, criticisms, conflict, and crises
Provides an unaffiliated, neutral and understanding place to verbalize experiences, thoughts and feelings
Shares the burdens of the missionary helps to prevent deeper mental and emotional pain from developing
Brings deepening surrendered faith to help understand difficult circumstances and celebrates God’s work and accomplishments through their service.
Offers supportive understanding for difficult--but common--thoughts, feelings, and personal experiences
Encourages a missionary to seek God's faithful direction through time for prayer and reflection, and find scriptural healing for losses, disappointments, offenses, and pain
Reaffirms missionary’s Biblical identity and refocuses their purpose for future growth and development and their dependency on God the Father.
Provides a time to receive encouragement, confirmation in faithful service, the knowledge that that God is pleased with them and with their faithfulness to the work which He has given them to do.
Provokes missionaries to consider certain aspects of their lives and ministry that need recalibration for their own spiritual well-being and for the health of the ministry to which God has called them.
Who would benefit?
Christian leaders are accustomed to the expectation to be "the strong one" in ministry, and often neglect taking time-out for recharging and replenishing of their spirit, mind, and body.
Missionaries frequently have no one with whom they can be transparent and share problems in confidence. Missionaries are just as vulnerable to failure as everyone else. They need a safe environment to process through sin, ministry and family difficulties under the grace of the Cross of Christ. Debriefing is for seeking a deeper relationship with God.
Missionaries who especially benefit:
Haven't taken a sabbatical from ministry in years
Feel like they are "just going through the motions" in the midst of their activities
Feel burdened, stressed, or burned out
Have conflict in their adopted culture, family, team or organizational relationships.
Need private conversation one on one to discuss deeper issues (Perhaps also Biblical counseling)
Feel like they want to quit and not go on
Frequently feel alone, abandoned, a sense of guilt, shame, mistreated, misunderstood, confused, disoriented, depressed, anxious, frustrated, angry without cause, fearful without danger, or the like.
They have lost a sense of who they are and where they are going or, their calling from God
Contact us to learn more about missionary debrief, to request date of next group debrief or request a private/family debrief.
