Re-entry!

Thanks to Phil Plait & Soichi Noguchi
When things re-enter the earth's atmosphere things happen.  If you are a meteor, you hit the atmosphere and condense the gas so that you glow in a fiery yellow flame and fall to the earth in a ball of fire.  If you are a satelittle, you also get singed and fall to the earth at maximum speed.  But if you are the space shuttle, then you brace for the re-entry, endure the fire by making S-turns through the atmosphere, glide to the earth wherever you designated.

Sometimes I wonder if missions trips are little like re-entry from space. Most people don't go outside their comfort zone, let alone a new world.  Then you can return either as a meteor, satellite, or space shuttle.  

I would love missions trips to be like space shuttle re-entry.  You know what to expect. You are equipped to handle the heat.  You glide to a safe landing.  Yet I know that others have experienced crash-and-burn re-entries. 

I intend to formulate a way to go through re-entry where you are refined.  You've gone to serve.  You sacrificed.  You experienced new things.  These new things have reshaped you. Warped you.  Catalyzed new contortions. Burned you up.  Drained you.  Marred you.  You are never the same. But in the end, the trip has refined you like a fiery kiln. 

One passage of Scripture that informs a "space-shuttle" type of re-entry is Acts 14:26-28. Four things emerge from this text. Your team:

1. Finishes their work
2. Returns to their sending church
3. Shares what God had done in them and through them
4. "Rubs-off" on everyone

Thanks to Neal Pirolo for writing The Reentry Team (San Diego, CA: Emmaus Publications Intl, 2000). He directed me attention to this passage of Scripture (ch.2 pp.22ff).   His application of this passage focuses on long-term missionaries, but I believe the principles apply to short-term missions as well. 

I need your help as short-term mission teams re-enter life back home--in Wooster or wherever.  Please send me links, files, or lists of titles for things to help with re-entry. I will share a few thoughts in a later post.  But what things do you need to know about re-entry.  I wonder what your thoughts are. Please post comments on my blog.