The Choice is Yours… Mission Tourist Or Global Citizen?

Preparing to Return Home Before you ever leave

Preparing for Change The long-term impact of your short-term service on your place of service partially depends on the quality of your preparation before you go The long-term impact of your short-term service on your own life partially depends on the quality of your debriefing and integration after you return

From Culture Fatigue to Culture Grief  Feeling dismay over what we find at home  Feeling misunderstood by our family and friends  Feeling like our lives were more meaningful while we were away  Feeling like our relationships with people and with God were deeper there than they are here

The common re-entry process Fun Flight Fight Fit Fruitfulness

Preparing now for fruitfulness then  Keep the 8 great questions as the backdrop of your exploration  Covenant now with your prayer and debriefing partner (pray daily, meet regularly upon return, ask any ?)  Refer regularly to your personal mission statement and your team covenant  Commit yourself to the discipline of journaling

 Pray for 2 new relationships and commit yourself now to continue in prayer for them after you return  Be alert for the 1 scene that will encapsulate your experience to share with others when you return  Help people learn how to enter into your experience and to ask helpful questions  When you describe your experience, speak as if there was a person from that context hearing you talk  Keep reflecting on the question—how is God calling you to live differently as a result of this experience?

12 insights to remember 1. It is not the Church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission who has a Church in the world 2. That which is yet to be done in the world is far less than that which has already been done!

3. People are more alike than their cultures 4. Love is the universal language 5. Short-term mission is a treasure hunt 6. In cross-cultural encounters we are meeting long-lost distant relatives

7. God goes before you—you are catching up on a conversation that God has already begun 8. God does not send us to be critics 9. In the treasure-hunt of grace, our encouragement and affirmation of people may be our most significant ministry

10. Our privilege is to ‘lift Jesus up’ in deed and word 11. The quality of our love as a team, and our incorporation of new team members may be our greatest witness 12. God will not call us to do something without also giving us the resources to do it

Biblical Mandate: Make Disciples “ta ethne” Matt  Incarnational ministry (Phil 2) kenosis—emptying ourselves  Christ-centered ministry (Eph ) in his flesh made one, one new humanity, one new Body  Diversity-embracing ministry (Gal 3.28, Col. 3.11) clothed with a new self, in the image of God

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded Words: Arr. Bernard of Clairvaux, 12 th Century; tr. (German) Paul Gerhardt, 1656; tr. (English) James W. Alexander, 1830 Music: Hans Leo Hassler, 1601; arr. J.S. Bach, 1729 PASSION CHORALE

O Sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down

Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown ;

How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!

How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,

For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.

I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;

Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer spurn me not!

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,

For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?

O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never, outlive my love to Thee.

My Shepherd, now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.

Great blessings Thou didst give me, O source of gifts divine.

Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love;

Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above.

“Do all things without complaining or arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.” Phil

Lord, I give you my will. I am willing to be made willing and able to walk your way. Work out your will in my life now and always, at any cost. Do through me what you will. Love through me whom you will. Send me wherever you will. And grant me the gift of knowing your good pleasure, in Jesus’ name. Amen

When you return The trip may be over But the journey goes on