Furlough, home assignment, vacation, sabatical, huh?

We've been "home" now for about 3 weeks, with about 4 weeks remaining in our vacation... uh, home assignment... uh, furlough... Honestly, I don't know what to call it as it encompasses so many aspects of all of these! I wanted to give some insight as to why missionaries (including us) go on breaks back "home". Some take more frequent breaks, as many as 2-3 times a year depending on their ministry, budget, location, and purpose for breaks. While others take breaks every few years. In today's day and age of missions, it is easier, cheaper, and smarter to take a break from the mission field for multiple reasons.

Today's most common terminology for this break is a home assignment. Is home assignment just a code word for a funding raising trip?  Is home assignment just a big long missionary vacation? Is home assignment like a sabbatical? Do missionaries go on home assignment when they get fed up with their host culture and just need a break? There is a bit of truth in all of the above.

R & R

Taking time to rest and recuperate is a very valid reason. For us, this was one of the primary reasons. Many other factors played a part, one being we moved to a new location. Although our ministry has "started", there are many details that need worked out after Christmas so it made a good time for us to return. Beyond the initial culture shock of being in a foreign country, there is a certain level of culture stress that never goes away. Living day in and day out in a culture with different values, beliefs, and language than your own can create a certain amount of stress. You can never fully identify or understand the people around you, nor they you. Being a foreigner in Honduras is like living in a fishbowl. People are always watching you. It can be really helpful for missionaries to completely remove themselves from their host culture once in a while.

Reconnect

One of the most difficult parts of being a missionary is separation from family. Besides the language and culture differences, this is the major factor that makes missionaries different from pastors and other full time Christian workers living in their own countries. Everyone’s family situation is different but for those with children like us, the absence of grandparents and aunts and uncles is significant (and in our case 22 cousins). Kids grow up really fast so four years overseas at a time is a long time for our boys to not see grandparents and other relatives face to face. Going on home assignment gives that opportunity to reconnect with family in a way that is just not possible via email and phone. Even video conferencing on Facetime or Skype falls far short of actually being there. And the opportunity to catch up with a good friend that we knew from “back then” is so refreshing to the soul. For our boys, staying connected to their home culture is important too. We hope that they will someday go to college and this will most likely be in the U.S. So staying up with cousins and just understanding their own culture is important. It gives them a break from trying to always fit into a culture not of their own.

Report

We are primarily responsible to our home churches and those who have sent us to Honduras. It is essential to have face-to-face time with those churches and people who support us every once in a while in order to renew those relationships. In order to be effective partners in the Gospel, there needs to be trust and mutual understanding. Not everything that needs to be communicated can be communicated in a monthly blog or email update. Sometimes we just need to spend time together face-to-face to know what is really going on – both for the people at home to hear from us, and for us  to hear from people at home. When we actually see each other, questions come up that may not otherwise.

Besides renewing relationships, our home assignment is a great opportunity to encourage the people with stories of what God is doing on the mission field and of how He has led and sustained us. We share openly about the difficulties and challenges that we face so that our supporters can intelligently pray for us and support us. This is not just a desire of ours, but a need!

Financial Support

You may have read the subheading and thought, "here it comes, the pitch..." (or not). The reality is that it is very difficult to raise financial support, if needed, from 4000 miles away! Missionaries often go on home assignment, at least in part, because they need more money. And, yes, in part this is the case for us as well. After nearly 1 1/2 years on the mission field with no increase in support (only decrease) we have come to the point we need to raise more support. Several of our supporters have gone home to be with the Lord as well. We have also changed mission organizations so some of our support has dropped off for this reason (if you are one of those who forgot to change over, please do so here). There is the unfortunate idea out there that missionaries only show up to speak at churches back home because they need money. My own perspective on the money issue is that God will provide how He wants, when He wants, and from whom He wants. And He often does this in ways that I don’t expect, at times I don’t expect, and from people whom I don’t expect. It's His economy, for which I am grateful!

“God’s work, done in God’s way, will not lack God’s provision” (Hudson Taylor) 

Far from being a really long vacation or just an appeal for funds, our home assignment is a time for work and for ministry. It is a time for renewing relationships and re-equipping ourselves to head back out there and keep plodding in the difficult places of Honduras. Please contact us while we are here so we can reconnect. We'd love to hear from you! ckwells1@gmail.com or 503-428-0459