Thank you for your article "Getting the Feel of It". We can identify. My husband and I have served for 47 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators and continue to do so. We worked mostly in South and Central America, with some short times home in the US along the way. We returned from our foreign assignment to permanently resettle in the United States three years ago. We understand the feelings of being on the outside of all that is going on. The struggles with Social security, cell phones, and retirement savings are very real. However, we can assure you that it will get better. We now know how and where to slide or insert our credit card when we are making a payment. We have learned the difference between Medicare A and B and what it means to have a Plan F. We are beginning to understand to whom it is okay to give a hug, and are finally learning to withhold the kiss on the cheek, which was such a common part of the Latin American greeting. My eyes leak also, as I identify with what you are going through. As a less recent returnee to American culture, I welcome you home. And I pray, "Lord, comfort and encourage Eugene and Dawn Michelson as they go through all the steps of adjustment along the reverse-culture-shock road. Help them to stand tall when something embarrassing happens, to laugh with others at their own mistakes, and to know with certainty, that just as you guided them into familiarity in the African culture, you will do the same here, because now they are home. Amen."
Posted in: Getting the Feel of It
Thank you for your article "Getting the Feel of It". We can identify. My husband and I have served for 47 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators and continue to do so. We worked mostly in South and Central America, with some short times home in the US along the way. We returned from our foreign assignment to permanently resettle in the United States three years ago. We understand the feelings of being on the outside of all that is going on. The struggles with Social security, cell phones, and retirement savings are very real. However, we can assure you that it will get better. We now know how and where to slide or insert our credit card when we are making a payment. We have learned the difference between Medicare A and B and what it means to have a Plan F. We are beginning to understand to whom it is okay to give a hug, and are finally learning to withhold the kiss on the cheek, which was such a common part of the Latin American greeting. My eyes leak also, as I identify with what you are going through. As a less recent returnee to American culture, I welcome you home. And I pray, "Lord, comfort and encourage Eugene and Dawn Michelson as they go through all the steps of adjustment along the reverse-culture-shock road. Help them to stand tall when something embarrassing happens, to laugh with others at their own mistakes, and to know with certainty, that just as you guided them into familiarity in the African culture, you will do the same here, because now they are home. Amen."