There and Back Again

I have been on many mission trips, but during the last couple of years, several people who have served with me overseas shared with me their difficulties of preparing for their trips, as well as coming home from the mission field. I searched for devotionals and resources that I could use to help them and future team members, and I realized that there were very few resources intended to help people prepare before their trip, and none that dealt with the challenges of returning home. God laid a burden on my heart to develop a tool that could be used to encourage and prepare short-term missionaries as they follow God's call on their lives to go and make disciples. This book contains three parts: Part One consists of stories and lessons I have learned during the past twenty years of short-term mission work. It deals with the importance of team dynamics, spiritual warfare, physical and emotional challenges, kingdom purpose, and more. Part Two is a thirty-day devotional that will guide you through the Bible prior to your mission trip. It will help prepare you spiritually for any obstacles you may encounter and will encourage you to rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit. Part Three is a thirty-day devotional that you will begin when you return home. It is designed to help you recognize and manage the many emotions you will experience as you strive to reacclimate to life at home. There will be pressure to conform, as well as discouragement from an apathetic culture that many of you will not expect. These devotionals will remind you that you are not alone and that God is more concerned with your obedience than with the reactions of others.