Training in Debriefing and Returning Well: Preparing for Overseas Missions Part 5

Don’t forget to read the previous posts in this series: Training in Godliness, Training in Developing Partners, Training in Cross-Cultural Skills, and Training in Safety and Security 

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” –Heraclitus

Pretend with me that it’s early August. It’s been a long summer. You’ve experienced all kinds of new and interesting things. Hopefully, you’ve seen God at work in and around you. Now you’re ready to go back home. The problem is that home is no longer the same home, and you are no longer the same you.

Learning to return well from the mission field is a vitally important, yet often overlooked, skill. We intuitively understand when we go overseas that we will experience culture shock upon arrival. We know that we will see new things, experience new experiences, smell new smells, hear new sounds…and we expect that some of it is going to rub us raw. However, what we don’t expect is to experience cultural shock upon returning. This is called reverse cultural shock, and usually it’s the lack of expectation that makes it hit the hardest.

Reverse culture shock is defined by Webster University as: 

“a term used to describe the feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion, etc.) experienced when people return to their home country and find they do not fit in as they used to.”

When we return home, we expect to jump right back in where we left off. However, I have never met a person who did just that. Understand that after being away for as short as a couple of weeks, you’ll come back changed. Being away changes the way you see the world. It changes the way you see people. It even changes the way you read the Bible and know God. 

All these changes are usually for the best, but it is very common for students to take a while to process and be able to apply what they’ve learned in a healthy way. Often students come back with a judgmental attitude, and they aren’t prepared to reintegrate into their groups. It’s common to develop a jaded view of America, the church, and more.

Much like jet lag, the longer you are away, the longer you can expect it to take to get back to normal. For those of us who lived overseas for a significant period of time, I’m not sure if normal ever comes back. A good rule of thumb is this: don’t make any big life decisions for the same amount of time as you were away. If you went on an eight week trip, then don’t make any major life decisions for eight weeks. Don’t change your major. Don’t get engaged. Don’t drop out of school. Give yourself some grace and time to settle back in.

Just being aware that you will experience reverse culture shock will help you adjust better. Being blindsided by it is the worst. Proper debriefing can be part of how you turn on that awareness and brace yourself for the impact.

Debriefing on Return

Usually your overseas host will help walk you through a debriefing process before you leave the field. However, it’s still important to continue debriefing and processing your experience when you return home. At OneLink, we send all of our students a debriefing packet to help them work through this. It is full of thought provoking questions that help the student process their summer and re-enter their community. Then, we coach our campus partners on how to continue to debrief students well. 

This is one of the reasons it’s beneficial to go with a team from your own campus ministry, instead of individually going through different organizations. You’re able to debrief with one another through your shared experiences.

As you think about debriefing here are 3 areas to consider:

Debrief the Past

Reflect on and process the experiences you had in training and overseas for the summer. What did God do? What surprised me? What was painful? What was joyful? What sin did I struggle with? How does sin affect the culture?

Debrief the Present

Reflect on and process the time period from when you stepped off the plane in the States through the first month of being back. How am I doing re-entering into my church and school? How is my relationship with God? How am I dealing with my own feelings about my experience and about being back in the USA?

Debrief the Future

Consider how to move forward in obedience to the Great Commission on your campus and after graduation. What does God want me to do now? How can I leverage my experience this summer for God’s glory?

Sharing on Return

Another thing to expect and prepare for is how to share your story when you get home. Often our expectation is that people will be super excited and want to hear all about it, but the truth is often different. Some people want to hear every detail, and other people will just want a short and sweet answer. I’ve found that people might be curious about it, but they don’t have enough context to even know where to start asking questions. We have to give them some grace.

You’ll be surprised by who wants to hear your long story and who just wants a short answer. At OneLink, we train our students to have three answers prepared for when they get home. They need to have a 30 second, a two minute, and a 30 minute answer to the question, “How was your trip?”

30 Second Answer

When people ask how your trip was, start with your 30 second answer—especially if the listener is an acquaintance you don’t know well. Your 30 second answer should include something interesting about your trip, something you saw God do, and something at the end to see if they would like to hear more. 

Your 30 second story might be as simple as, “It was amazing. My mind is overloaded with interesting things I hadn’t seen or experienced before.” Then watch their body language and see if they ask for more. If they do, you can move on to the two minute story. If not, be grateful for the opportunity to share with them a little bit about your trip. Because of its brevity, the 30 second story often needs the most thought put into it. 

Two Minute Answer

For your two minute answer, you can give more details and squeeze in another story or two. This will typically be to friends, but not closest friends. You still don’t want to blow them away and show them all your pictures and tell them everything you did. Again, allow a spot at the end of them for them to either engage and continue the conversation, or move on to a new subject.

30 Minute Answer

Lastly, you have your 30 minute or longer answer. This is for the people who really care and want to know all about your trip. You can share your heart, your highs, and your lows with these people. Treasure them because they are valuable. With this experience in mind, hopefully you can become this person for others who return from the field.

Listen on Return

We said it above, but I think it’s good to reiterate, you will be surprised who wants your 30 minute answer and who does not. Don’t judge them. Be grateful for the people God gives you who want to hear the long answer. 

It’s also important to remember that while you had an interesting experience overseas, your friends also had summers and things that happened in their lives where they were at. Try not to be so focused on your experiences that you don’t ask them about theirs. They may be the one wanting you to hear their 30 minute answer about their summer. Their summer experiences, while different than yours, are no less valid or meaningful.

Return Well

This whole debriefing process is aimed at enabling you to return well. God has given you an experience with Him this summer in a new place. It’s your job to steward that experience to bring Him glory where you currently are. How is God going to use your experience now that you’re back at your university? I would like to suggest three great ways for you to consider allowing Him to use you now.

Engage Internationals

You have been a foreigner in a foreign land. You can use that fresh experience to reach out to international students around you. Help ensure they feel welcome in your country and in your culture. There is a sad statistic that says 80% of international students never visit an American home while in the U.S. You can change that. Welcome them and show them the same hospitality your overseas friends showed you. 

It would be amazing if you rallied your group of friends and said, “No international student on our campus is going to study here for four years and not be offered a friendship and an invitation to know more about Jesus.” Then, make a plan and implement it.

Recruit Friends

The second way God can use your experience is through recruiting some of your friends to go next year on a trip like yours, or to go together next summer. Your campus minister and organizations like OneLink are working to mobilize students to go to the nations. However, we believe no one is more effective at mobilizing a college student than another college student who went the summer before. 

Make an intentional effort to specifically invite friends to serve for a summer overseas. Just as most people don’t come to Christ without a specific invitation, so most people don’t go overseas without someone inviting them. You are the best person to invite them!

Consider Going Back

The last way God can use your experience is by calling you back overseas for a longer term. Most long-term workers on the field started with a short-term trip. Is God calling you to live your life among the nations? We hope so. Talk to your pastor, campus minister, IMB rep, and us. We would love to see God call you, and we’d like to help send you. Each of us have different resources, and we are all working together to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations!

Steward Your Experience

Make sure you set a plan in place with your campus minister, pastor, and close friends to ensure you can debrief and return well. Steward the experience God has given you and let it bring Him glory in your life.

To conclude this series, we hope and pray you will seriously consider investing at least a summer overseas sharing God’s hope with those who have little to no access to the gospel. It may be too late to join a trip this summer (or it may not), but it’s definitely not too late to start planning to go nex summer. 

 We echo the words of Jesus in Matthew 9, 

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”   

 We are praying that one of those laborers is you!