No one can really understand how it feels to come home after being on the front line—no one except another returned soldier.

Wearily, you find yourself on a plane traveling home. Your thoughts go back to the front line where things were hard but where your labors were so needed.

Back home, your family just doesn’t understand your need to sleep so much. You are quiet and not the same person they remember. Life has changed you. Having grown accustomed to the heat of battle, the cushy life of your homeland makes you realize that you do not fit in. Too many lunch choices or just too much food period! Everything is organized, clean and freely accessible. Plus, everyone wants you to tell war stories wherever you go. That is how it is for our returned missionary soldiers.
Many of them feel more at home in their mission field, and reverse culture shock plays all kinds of mind games with them.

My son Joshua returned from the mission front line in November 2013, and he is not the same man who went out three and a half years ago. Now he talks about how he looks forward to getting back to the battlefield. However, for now he is in a new battle in his homeland. Lord, keep his eyes on the task ahead of him.

Please pray for my son as he adjusts back to his home culture, for all missionaries serving on the front lines and for those of us preparing to go out to the battlefront.

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