Home assignment. A concept that used to be as vague to me as job titles in Washington, D.C. What happens to missionaries on furlough? Do they have jobs and live normally? Do they live in a house? Do they own that house and, if so, how does that work? Do they still need financial support? WHAT DO THEY DO???

I imagine some of you have similar questions. I grew up fairly knowledgeable in the ways of missions, and still I had no clue about furlough when the first missionaries I supported came “home” for theirs. So here’s my attempt to tell you what furlough, or home assignment, means to us.

Rest.

Reconnection.

Renewal.

Work.

Stress.

Isolation.

There’s good, and there’s bad. Our lives, as you can imagine, are back in PNG. Our home is there. Our truck is there. Our dog is there. Our work is there. Our social lives are there. Even our next child, whom we don’t yet know, but who is very much a part of our lives, is there. Everything near and dear to our daily lives is there. Throw kids in the mix and it’s much more complicated. They wonder daily when we’re ending this crazy train and going home. In their world America is a fun novelty, but it’s abnormal and they want PNG.

All of the uprootedness breeds the stress and isolation that comes knocking during home assignment. We are isolated from our present lives on the field, while feeling an acute distance from our old lives. Our worlds here have gone on without us, as it should. But missing out on major events and not being around as life unfolds for those so dear to us in our previous lives creates a chasm between us and them that can’t be easily crossed in a brief home assignment. Isolated from our present, isolated from our past, living in betwixt.

But there is also good. Sometimes on the field you begin to run dry, and you don’t even know it. Friction builds up internally and it’s not until you drink those first sips that you recognize the source of the friction and terrifyingly realize exactly how dry you are. Worship in PNG is not fulfilling for us. It never has been. Going to church is more work than worship simply because it’s not our language or our culture. The Sunday evening team services (in English, with our teammates) just scratch the surface of our God-given need for corporate worship. After our travels through Italy and Richmond, we finally came together in Dallas this past week. Pioneer Bible was in the middle of Discovery, an annual event where interested individuals can come see what the organization is all about. They learn about Bible translation, the different fields, and different roles they can play on those fields. It’s brimming with vibrant, on-fire, future missionaries. They care. They’re passionate. They’re excited. They haven’t been broken or dried up by the field. At first my soul, weary and jaded, internally huffed at them. They were grating me with their naïve passion. Then I went to a morning devotion where they sang It Is Well in its purest form. No one person in the microphone louder than the rest, no instruments, just voices singing in the painful determination the song evokes that no matter what, it is well. I found tears pouring down my face from a need I hadn’t even known of until I found myself in that room with those joyful and passionate voices. My soul thirsted for something I will never get in PNG, and I needed to come on a home assignment to heal and refill.

Our physical bodies also have some needs PNG doesn’t really address. We can’t get thorough check-ups of bodies and teeth easily, something so desperately necessary. We’re not looking forward to a coming week of being pricked and prodded, but we’re relieved it will happen.

Through the end of August we’ll reconnect with our wider Pioneer Bible team in Dallas. Brian will go to work every day in the office getting key tasks done for the branch. The girls and I will enjoy life in America. Ray will continue her Pre-K homeschool program and attend a week-long morning camp at the Dallas Zoo focusing on art and animals. Willa will work on potty training. And during this time we’re blessed with a short-term rental right next door to the Pioneer Bible office! It’s perfect.

We’ll eventually leave here and travel all over the States to visit churches telling them what we’re doing, how we’re doing, and to better connect them with what they’re supporting in PNG. And even though our friends and family have moved on in our absence, we will still enjoy many sweet moments making new memories and remembering the old. Learning a little about who they are now. During those long travel days our home will be the van, hotel rooms, and kind people we stay with along the way. This will be the most trying part of our home assignment, but will only be about a month long.

Then we’ll land in Delaware and live in an RV in Grammy and Poppy’s driveway!! We’re excited to be so very close to them, but with beds and a little kitchen of our own. Two months with them will see us visiting churches and supporters in the Delmarva area and Kentucky. Brian will also continue doing his work as Branch Director, even heading to Bali for a week of meetings.

Finally, our last month in America will be intentionally full of rest. We’ll be staying at my parents’ house in Richmond enjoying all things Christmas. Hopefully all of our shopping and major preparation for returning to the field will be done. We’ll be able to pack the essentials and focus on saying goodbye to our families well.

So where do we live?? Everywhere. Anywhere. Do we work?? Yes and no. We don’t get traditional jobs, but Brian’s work from the field continues, and my work as a stay at home mom is very portable. Do we still need financial support?? YES!! Just because we’re stateside doesn’t mean we wholly stop our lives as field missionaries. We are alternately resting, completing work for the branch, reporting in person to supporters, and preparing for our next term. Our focus and work still swirls around PNG and we need financial support until we return.

Though our home assignment started with a beautiful trip to Italy, there has been ugliness. We left PNG one month ago and have faced various illnesses almost every week since then, including a visit to the pediatric ER. Please pray that the “bad” of home assignment would be swallowed up in the “good” and Satan would not be allowed a foothold of discouragement through illness, financial fears, or temporary homelessness. That instead we would feel a depth of rest, reconnection, and renewal that would hold us steady throughout our next 3-4 year term. We grieve all the goodbyes we’ve already had, and the ones we still face, but what a sea of blessing the hellos have been! We refuse to focus on the sadness, and instead we look forward to seeing many of you and meeting new people in the coming months. Before we know it, January 6 will be upon us and our plane will be touching down in Madang once more. Pray we use these months well to prepare for that reentry!