Recently we had a series of questions from someone who was thinking about heading overseas. Now we have a few from someone considering a move in the other direction, back to her original home country. First, she asks:
How do you know when it's time to leave the mission field? I have been feeling very discontent lately but don't know if it's my own heart issue or if it is God beginning to prepare my heart to return to my home country.
There was a really good post about this topic on The Overseas Life blog, too.
we were in your shoes a few years back. i think one of the key things for us was to keep on keeping on right where God had placed us, but to really seek Him through prayer and fasting and time in His Word. we were also very blessed to have an opportunity to speak with a counselor - which was immensely helpful in wading through all of our human ideas and man's seasonings. over time, He helped us discern the reasons we were feeling so unsettled - but we did stay right there, where we were for 2.5 years before making a decision and even at that point, it was only tentative until we came home for a home assignment year and we received counsel from our pastor and our mission board.
ReplyDeleteIt's taken some time... very frustrating for my husband who tends to be more spontaneous - but in the long run, he is glad he followed the counsel we were given to move slowly and not to change any directions until we were sure God was the one steering us differently.