A Sabbatical?
When we made the decision to return to the USA after many years serving in Brazil (10 years as a single missionary, 6 years as a family), I started to study up on how to transition well. I’d been back and forth enough over 17 years to know that it wasn’t easy, and I would need a lot of help.
These were some of my best resources: A Life Overseas site (the whole thing), What Every Missionary Needs to Know about Re-entry, 8 Things I wish Someone had told me Before I Moved back to the US, 8 Ways to Serve Missionaries Coming Home.
Personally, I knew I needed lots of counseling and TIME. Three months minimum was what I kept reading, and what people kept telling me. I am so thankful for serving with a ministry and having supporters who simply said, “Take the time you need and we will talk when you are ready.” Having our financial worries on hold has been the necessary key to allow me to even start unpacking emotionally (and physically unpacking also takes forever).
We returned October 31st, but needed to finsh the semester teaching online. Since we were home November and December, but were still working part time, I counted them as half-months. We agreed with our ministry that in January we’d finalize my new position as support staff in the USA, and I would start in March, giving me roughly three months Sabbatical. From this great article, I figured:
November/December: Rest
January: Renewal
February: Re-Entry
I haven’t done so well. First of all, moving transcontinentally with 8 suitcases to making a home/car/life in the USA is not considered rest in any sense of the word. Neither is teaching online in Brazil while trying to aclimate to a new life. I love teaching, I love my kids, but it felt like I was pulled back into a world I couldn’t really be a part of but I had to pretend I was still a part of. It really threw off my grieving and resettling process.
“Transition is a funny thing
Endings need grieving
And beginnings need celebrating.” —Stu G
I am fighting to hold them both
Inside of one beating heart
I’ve found it must be held loosely
Wrapped in a whole lot of gratitude
Thankfulness fills the holes much better
Than bitterness or silence
But thanks to so many people who have supported us and especially family members who have babysat SO MUCH, I do feel that even in the last crazy two months, we had some time to rest and work on getting back to zero. That is the good thing about transition—it is a great time to re-evaluate EVERYTHING, and throw out old habits that weren’t working and try new ones. Sabbatical phases are not cut and dried, but I am ready to ease into renewal:).
What I’ve learned about Rest:
Return to the basics: breathing, eating, sleeping, exercising. Figure out how to listen to your body to do these in a restful, healthy, whole-full manner.
Add simple beauty. Being able to change location is great in sabbatical, as it helps take you out of old habits and mindsets when you are surrounded by new things/places. But it isn’t necessary, as adding beauty can simply be observing sunrises/sets, going for walks, and nature in general.
Rest needs silence. Slowly turning down all the noise of regular life. Lowering your heartrate. Concentration and meditation.
“Rest” is a noun and a verb. This has interesting implications as an English teacher, as well as for a Sabbatical.
There are two related greek words for rest in the New Testament: Anapausis: to pause again, and Anesis: liberty from. Both are important for Sabbatical.
