Description
PSYC 351
SUPPLEMENTAL ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
In this Supplemental Assignment?s Resource section, you will find 2 articles:
1. The Transition from Middle School to High School as a Developmental Process Among
Latino Youth. By Yolanda Vasquez-Salgado and Gabriela Chavira.
2. The Role of Spiritual Development in the Cross-Cultural Reentry Adjustment of
Missionaries. By Thomas R. Kimber.
Read both articles and write a brief annotated bibliography in current APA format.
INSTRUCTIONS
An annotated bibliography can be a summary, assessment, or personal reflection of a journal
article you have used as a source. For this Supplemental Assignment, you will provide 1
paragraph of ?summary? for each source. Each paragraph must have at least 4 sentences, but no
more than 8. Provide a title page and 1?2 pages of text.
Follow the sample below (Note: the sample below is for a ?summary? type Annotated
Bibliography):
Furrow, J. L., & Palmer, G. (2007). Emotion focused family therapy and blended families:
Building bonds from the inside out. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 26 (4), 44?58.
doi: 10.1521/jsyt.2007.26.4.44
Furrow and Palmer highlight the use of emotion focused family therapy in dealing with
sensitive issues often found in individuals from blended families. This approach uses
evocative interventions (the prompting of vivid memories or images of things not present,
especially things from the past to promote a deeper level of emotional processing). This
enables family members to connect their primary emotional experiences (e.g., fear of
abandonment or rejection) with corresponding attachment related needs (e.g.,
reassurance, support, and acceptance). Overall, the techniques of the approach are useful,
leaving it to the practitioner to incorporate the biblical piece in assisting individuals
struggling with this issue.
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Copyright 2012 by Ros eme ad School of P sy chology
JOURNAL OF PS Y C H O L O G Y & T H E O L O G Y
B iola Uni ver sit y, 00 91-647 1/410- 730
2 0 1 2 , Vo l . 4 0 , N o. 3, 211?219
The Role of Spiritual Development
in the Cross-Cultural Reentry
Adjustment of Missionaries
Thomas R. Kimber
Biola University
the challenges of reacculturating into one?s home
culture.
Many returning sojourners report feelings of isolation, confusion, and not feeling ?at home? in their
home culture. Previous studies have largely attempted
to understand this phenomenon from a cultural identity perspective. Cultural identity is defined as the degree to which the sojourner identifies with his or her
home country or country of sojourn (host country)
(Sussman, 2002). While earlier studies focused primarily on culture shock and cultural adaptation, more recent studies tend to focus on the deeper issues of identity and multiculturalism (Onwumechili, Nwosu,
Jackson & James-Hughes, 2003), including sociocultural and psychological adaptation (Ward & Kennedy,
1993), relationships (Martin, 1986), communication
(Cox, 2004), multiple reacculturation (Onwumechili
et al., 2003), and grief (Butcher, 2002). During reentry,
there may be the discovery of changes in worldview
(Butcher, 2002) and cultural identity (Sussman, 2000).
Amidst the growing field of reacculturation studies, no
research could be found that attempts to understand
the role of one?s relationship with God during reentry.
This study investigated the relationship between spiritual
development and cultural reentry adjustment in a group of
missionaries. One hundred and two missionaries completed a questionnaire that correlated the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (SAI) with five cultural adaptation and
transition scales. The study found significant relationship
between the Reentry Distress Scale and the SAI Disappointment and Instability scales. There was also a significant relationship between the SAI Awareness scale and the
Transition Change Scale. The study also explored the relationship between reentry distress and calling, regularly
practicing spiritual disciplines, and returning home to a
supportive community. The implications of the study are
discussed in relation to missionaries, mission agencies, and
local churches in order to provide meaningful care for missionaries during cross-cultural transitions.
The most recent statistics indicate that there are approximately 42,000 long-term missionaries from
North America (including the U. S. and Canada) serving overseas ( Jaffarian, 2008). These are defined as missionaries who have served overseas for more than four
years, and include both traditional and bi-vocational
missionaries (tentmakers). At some point, most of
these missionaries will return to their home culture.
While the successful transition from home culture to
host culture has been the emphasis of training and research, more recent studies are affirming that the endpoint of the cultural transition cycle must include one?s
transition back to his or her home country. While
much is understood about the challenges of learning to
live overseas, researchers are discovering more about
Missionaries and Cultural Adjustment
While research affirms that reentry stress is attributed to multiple variables and not any one single factor
(Moore, Jones & Austin, 1987; Sussman, 2001), very
few studies on spirituality and cross-cultural adjustment have been conducted. Studies comparing the acculturation patterns between missionaries and nonmissionaries in Nepal have found that missionaries
register more direct contact with locals while other
expats report less direct contact with nationals and
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higher levels of social support (Navara & James, 2002).
Studies report that missionaries and non-missionaries
cope and adjust with perceived stress in different ways.
When missionaries perceive higher levels of stress, they
are more inclined to engage in activities such as praying, seeking pastoral support, or trusting God to relieve
the stress (Navara & James, 2005). Hall, Edwards and
Hall (2006) found that spiritual development in missionaries is positively related to psychological development and other aspects of sociocultural adjustment.
Missionaries with lower levels of psychological development may be more vulnerable to the effects of spiritual difficulties during cross-cultural adjustment.
Missionaries who regularly practice spiritual disciplines, experience support from their mission agency,
have a clear vocational call and have greater spiritual
life satisfaction also tend to experience greater adjustment to the mission field (Andrews, 1999). Further,
missionaries who report better awareness of God also
report better relationships with their teammates; conversely, those who exhibit lower levels of spiritual development are more prone to having difficulties while
overseas (Barnett, Duvall, Edwards & Hall, 2005). Often, sojourners do not find the support and help
needed to make the transition back to his or her home
country, resulting in deep feelings of loss, grief, and
even abandonment (Furuya, Stevens, Oddou, Bird &
Mendenhall, 2007; Gaw, 2000; Selby et al., 2009).
These feelings of grief are exacerbated by a loss of
church community and a loss of spiritual connection
with God (Selby, et al., 2009). Studies of returned
short-term missionaries report that even those who
have been overseas for as little as two weeks may experience many of the same feelings of reentry distress, as
well as a renewed look at their own spirituality and
sense of purpose in life (Walling, Eriksson, Meese,
Ciovica, & Gorton, 2006).
Deeper understanding of the sojourner?s relationship with God would provide vital insight into the experiences of missionaries who live cross-culturally for
religious purposes. In order to address reentry more
completely, it is necessary to understand how the returned missionary experiences his or her relationship
with God. Of particular interest is whether the missionary is aware of God?s presence and the quality of
that relationship throughout the sojourn and reentry
transition.
Summary and Hypotheses
Previous reentry research has provided important
information about the sociocultural, psychological,
and practical issues of cross-cultural adjustment. How-
M I S S I O N A RY R E E N T RY A N D R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H G O D
ever, no studies could be found that attempt to understand the spiritual issues associated with cross-cultural
reentry. Based on theoretical, theological, and empirical support, it was hypothesized that there would be a
significant relationship between missionaries? relationship with God and cultural adaptation to the host
country, acculturation to both home and host cultures,
awareness of transition change, reentry preparedness,
and reentry distress.
Method
Participants and Procedure
The target population for this study was long-term,
U.S. Evangelical Protestant missionaries who had repatriated home to the U.S. Six mission agencies were randomly selected and invited to take part in this study. Of
the six agencies, four were affiliated with a denomination, and two were not. The agencies ranged in size
from 256 long-term missionaries to 4009 long-term
missionaries, serving overseas. All agencies emphasized
evangelism, discipleship, and church planting ministries. Each of the agencies was asked to identify missionaries according to the following criteria: (a) missionaries must have lived overseas for at least four years;
(b) be over 21 years old; (c) have returned to the U. S.
permanently and not be on any temporary assignment,
furlough, study leave, or sabbatical; (d) have not returned to retire, but intend to continue working; (e)
have been back in the U.S. more than six months but
not longer than five years; (f ) lived in the U.S. prior to
living overseas, and consider the U.S. their home country. Agencies did not include missionaries who were
asked to return home because of discipline, involuntary
termination, or other personnel issues. A web-based
questionnaire format was selected in order to facilitate
research among a population scattered across the U.S.
The six participating agencies initially sent a combined total of 255 invitations to missionaries they determined met the criteria of the study. Of those, 13
were returned undeliverable and 10 missionaries informed their agencies that they did not qualify for the
study, reducing the number to 232. There were 125 total responses for a response rate of 54%. Of those, 21
were incomplete and 2 exceeded the acceptable length
of time back in the States. This yielded 102 usable responses. Respondents were not asked to identify their
agency and all responses were collected and analyzed in
a single batch.
Of the 102 qualified respondents, 62 (61%) were
male and 40 (39%) were female. The majority of respondents (95) were married (93%), 5 were single
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(4%), and 2 were widowed (2%). Ages ranged from 32
to 69 with an average of 52 years. Data on ethnicity was
not collected for this study, though all participants indicated that the U.S. is their home country. The average
length of time overseas was 15 years, with a range of 4
to 36 years. Thirty-one (30%) of the respondents had
been back in the U.S. for one year, 22 had been back for
2 years (21%), 20 had been back for 3 years (19%), 16
had been back for 4 years (15%) and 13 had been back
for 5 years (12%). Forty-one had served in Europe
(40%), 30 had served in Asia (29%), 16 in Latin America (15%), 13 in Africa (12%) and 2 in the Middle East
(2%). While living overseas, 55 (53%) lived in a metropolis (more than 1,000,000 people), 12 (11%) lived
in a large city (500,000 to 1,000,000 people), 11 (10%)
in a town, 9 (8%) in a small city (50,000 to 100,000), 9
(8%) in a village and 6 (5%) in a medium city (100,000
to 500,000).
Measures
The research questionnaire was comprised of six instruments, which had been used in similar studies. Five
additional questions were developed by the researcher
as a result of a theological study connected with this
research.
Spiritual Assessment Inventory. The Spiritual Assessment Inventory (Hall & Edwards, 1996) is a measure of spirituality based on object relations theory and
contemplative spirituality literature. The instrument
includes 54 self-report items scored on a 5-point scale
in which 1 is ?not at all true? and 5 is ?very true.? A
high score indicates the presence of the trait being measured. The SAI is designed to measure spiritual maturity based on two dimensions of one?s relationship with
God. The first, Awareness of God, relates to a person?s
ability to be aware of God?s presence in his or her life.
The second dimension, Quality of Relationship, is
measured by four subscales: Instability, Grandiosity,
Realistic Acceptance, and Disappointment. The Impression Management subscale was added later as a
means of addressing a person?s test-taking attitude, and
is helpful in identifying illusory spiritual health. In previous studies, each of the subscales demonstrated good
internal reliability (alpha scores between 0.73?0.95).
In the current study, all scales except one demonstrated
good reliability with alpha scores ranging from 0.77 to
.094. Only the Grandiosity scale was a little low with a
0.61 reliability rating and did not yield any significant
relationships with the other scales. Replication studies
have correlated the SAI with other instruments thus
supporting the construct validity of the subscales.
These include the Bell Object Relations Inventory
213
(Bell, 1991), the Intrinsic/Extrinsic?Revised (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989), the Spiritual Well-Being
Scale (Ellison, 1983), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Emmons, 1984, 1987), and the Defense Style
Questionnaire-40 (Andrews et al. 1993).
Sociocultural Adaptation Scale. The Sociocultural
Adaptation Scale (Ward & Kennedy, 1999) is a 29item questionnaire that assesses the skills needed to
manage the everyday aspects of living in a new culture.
It has been found to be particularly useful for research
in investigating both psychological and sociocultural
aspects of cross-cultural adaptation. The original instrument (Searle & Ward, 1990) was based on Furnham and Bochner?s (1982) Social Situations Questionnaire. It included 16 items that assessed intercultural
competence and the behavioral aspects of cross-cultural adaptation (e.g., ?making friends,? ?using the
transport system? and ?going shopping?) as well as
other areas of adaptation such as ?finding food you enjoy? and ?dealing with the climate.? The more recent
version also explores cognitive domains (?understanding the political system,? ?taking a host country perspective on the culture?). The self-report instrument
uses a 5-point Likert scale in which 1 indicates ?no difficulty? and 5 indicates ?extreme difficulty.? Lower
scores indicate a higher level of cultural adaptation to
the host country. The SCAS has demonstrated good
reliability in previous studies with alpha scores of 0.75
to 0.91, (a = 0.91 in this study).
Acculturation Index. The Acculturation Index
(Ward & Kennedy, 1999) measures two dimensions of
acculturation: the sojourner?s relationship to his or her
culture of origin (home culture) and to the culture of
contact (host culture). By evaluating these two realms,
four acculturation strategies may be identified: both
home culture maintenance and intergroup (host) relations; home culture maintenance; intergroup relations;
and neither home nor host culture relations. Respondents are asked to consider two questions about their
current lifestyle: ?Are your experiences and behaviors
similar to other Americans?? and ?Are your experiences
and behaviors similar to people in your country of missionary service?? Respondents rate the 21 cognitive
and behavioral items on a 7-point scale measuring how
similar their personal preferences and characteristics
are to his or her home culture and host culture. The
questions reflect items of everyday life including
?clothing,? ?pace of life,? and ?food,? as well as deeper issues such as ?worldview,? ?self-identity,? and ?political
ideology.? Lower scores indicate lower cultural identification while higher scores reflect higher cultural identification. In previous studies, the instrument has
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proved highly reliable in both home culture and host
culture identification with alpha scores ranging from
0.89 to 0.96. Alpha scores in the current study were
0.93 and 0.90.
Transition Change Scale. The Transition Change
Scale (Sussman, 2002) is a 4-question scale designed to
measure the overall change in cultural identity experienced by the sojourner after returning to his or her
home culture. Transition change is built on the notion
of the sojourner?s perception of self-change through
their interaction with host nationals. Subjects respond
on a 7-point scale (1 indicates ?strongly disagree? and 7
indicates ?strongly agree?) to questions such as ?I feel as
though I changed as a result of living and working overseas? and ?I have tried to incorporate some international customs and ways of thinking into my work environment.? Higher scores indicate greater change as a
result of the international sojourn. The scale has proved
reliable in previous studies (a = 0.88). An alpha of 0.64
in the current study is a little low, which may be the result of a small number of items in the scale. Scale reliability may be improved by increasing the number of
items (Salkind, 2008).
Repatriation Preparedness Scale. The Repatriation
Preparedness Scale (Sussman, 2001) is a 10-item scale
used to assess the sojourner?s psychological preparedness for returning to the home culture. Participants are
asked to think back to the time period immediately
prior to returning home from living overseas. On a 7point scale (1 = ?strongly agree?; 7 = ?strongly disagree?) subjects respond to statements such as ?I expected that coming home to the U. S. after an overseas
assignment would be difficult,? and ?I felt comfortable
saying goodbye to my host country friends.? Lower
scores indicate less psychological preparedness for returning home while higher scores indicate a greater degree of psychological preparedness. In previous studies,
the RPS has reported alpha coefficients ranging from
0.66 to 0.75 (a = 0.66 in the current study). Reliability
was improved by eliminating one question (a = 0.75).
Repatriation Distress Scale. The Repatriation Distress Scale (Sussman, 2001) is a 4-item scale used to assess psychological discomfort experienced by sojourners after returning to their home country. The scale was
developed through the author?s Cultural Identity
Model of cross-cultural transitions, based on the theory that a weak home cultural identity results in greater
repatriation distress while a strong home cultural identity would likely be associated with lower repatriation
distress. The scale measures the psychological aspects of
reentry through statements such as such as ?I feel
lonely or have homesick feelings for the overseas coun-
M I S S I O N A RY R E E N T RY A N D R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H G O D
try/assignment,? or ?I am more anxious and irritable
since I returned home.? Participants respond on a 7point scale with 1 being ?strongly disagree? and 7 being
?strongly agree.? Higher scores indicate a greater level
of repatriation distress. The RDS has been used in several studies and proved reliable with alpha coefficients
ranging from 0.77 to 0.80 (a = 0.81 in the current
study).
Additional questions. Five additional questions
were developed from a theological study associated
with this research and were added by the researcher to
the instrument. These explored sojourners? experiences
of calling, relationship with God, practicing spiritual
disciplines, and being received home by their community. Participants responded on a 6-point scale (1 indicating they ?disagree strongly? while 6 indicates that
they ?agree strongly?) to the following statements: ?I
felt called by God to go to the mission field?; ?I felt
called by God to return to my home country from the
mission field?; ?During my reentry transition, I felt secure in my relationship with God?; ?During my reentry
transition, practicing spiritual disciplines (i.e., prayer,
Bible reading, etc.) was a regular part of my life?; and ?I
came home to a supportive community.? Because these
were analyzed as single-item measures, Cronbach alpha
measures for reliability were not applied and must be
considered in generalizing the results.
Results
Correlation statistics were performed on all scales
in order to discover relationships between the SAI and
all cultural adjustment scales (Table 1) and between
the researcher-designed questions and all cultural adjustment scales (Table 2). Several significant relationships were found.
In regard to relationship with God and transition
change, the results showed a positive correlation between the TCS and SAI Awareness scale (r = .30, p =
.002), indicating that missionaries who were aware of
God?s presence during their reentry transition also reported a greater awareness of change in themselves. The
results also showed significant relationships between
the TCS and two researcher-designed questions: ?During my reentry transition, I felt secure in my relationship with God? (r = .32, p = .001), and ?During my
reentry transition, practicing spiritual disciplines was a
regular part of my life? (r = .25, p = .010). Conversely,
there was a negative relationship between the AIHome scale and regularly practicing spiritual disciplines (r = ?.25, p = .01), indicating that during the
reentry transition missionaries who maintained a
stronger home culture identity did not practice spiri-
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TABLE 1
Correlations for SAI and Cultural Adjustment Scales
Scale
SCAS
AI-Home
AI-Miss
TCS
RPS
RDS
Awareness
Management
Acceptance
Disappointment
Grandiosity
Instability
Impression
?.030.
?.150.
.09
.30**
?.140.
.04
.10
?.08
?.01
?.00
.03
?.05
.13**
.01**
.04**
.07**
.03**
.28**
?.04
?.09
.14
?.06
?.04
?.08
.12
.08
?.00*
?.08*
?.01*
.20*
?.24*
?.04*
.21*
.01
?.10*
.08
*p < .05 (2-tailed)
** p < .01 (2-tailed)
Abbreviations:
SCAS: Sociocultural Adaptation Scale; AI-Home: Acculturation Index-Home Country; AI-Miss: Acculturation Index-Missionary Country;
TCS: Transition Change Scale; RPS: Repatriation Preparedness Scale; RDS: Reentry Distress Scale
TABLE 2
Correlations for Cultural Adjustment Scales and Researcher Designed Questions
Scale
SCAS
AI-Home
AI-Host
TCS
RPS
RDS
Called to
the Field
Called Home
From the field
Secure
With God
Spiritual
Disciplines
Supportive
Community
?.14
?.03
.01
.15
?.08
.10
.14
?.10**
?.06**
.18
.36**
?.13**
?.14**
?.18**
.15
.32**
?.06**
?.10**
?.05**
?.25**
.16.
.25*
?.06**
?.11**
?.11**
.02.
.13.
?.00**
.03.
?.37**
*p < .05 (2-tailed)
** p < .01 (2-tailed)
Abbreviations:
Call to the Field: Called by God to the mission field; Called Home: Called by God to return home from the mission field; Secure with God:
Secure in relationship with God during reentry; Spiritual Disciplines: Regularly practiced spiritual disciplines during reentry; Supportive.
Community: Returned home to a supportive community
tual disciplines as frequently as those who reported a
stronger host culture identity.
Regarding relationship with God and reentry distress, this study found significant relationships between the RDS and SAI Disappointment (r = .28, p =
.005) and SAI Instability (r = .20, p = .039), indicating
that missionaries who experienced a greater degree of
reentry distress also experienced greater levels of disappointment with God and instability in their relationship with God. The SAI Impression Management scale
showed a positive relationship with the AI-Host (r =
.21, p = .028) and a negative relationship with the
SCAS (r = ?.24, p = .012). The RDS also showed a sig-
nificant relationship with the statement, ?I came home
to a supportive community? (r = ?.37, p = .000), indicating that those who experienced a greater degree of
reentry distress also reported lower levels of community support. The study also found that 57% of the respondents indicated that they returned to a supportive
community, while 43% indicated they did not return
to a supportive community.
Regarding relationship with God and reentry preparedness, none of the SAI scales showed significant
correlations with the RPS. However, the correlation
between the RPS and calling home from the mission
field showed a positive relationship (r = .36, p = .000),
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indicating that missionaries who had a greater sense of
calling home from the mission field tend to prepare for
the reentry transition. While 99% of the respondents
indicated that they felt called by God to go to the mission field, responses to the statement, ?I felt called by
God to return home from the mission field,? were
much more mixed. Most indicated that they felt a sense
of calling, (strongly agree = 37%; agree = 23%; agree
somewhat = 12%), yet 26% indicated that they did not
feel a sense of calling to return home (disagree somewhat = 10%; disagree = 7%; strongly disagree = 7%).
Given the number of variables correlated, to reduce
the risk of Type I errors, a standard multiple regression
analysis was conducted in order to test the hypotheses
(Table 3). The findings were similar to the Pearson
product-moment analyses.
Discussion
The results of this study indicate that relationship
with God is a significant factor in the reentry adjustment of missionaries. This study found that missionaries who were aware of changes in themselves during the
reentry transition also reported an awareness of God?s
presence and that they felt secure in their relationship
with God. Additionally, these missionaries also reported that they regularly practiced spiritual disciplines during the cross-cultural transition. Previous
studies have found a relationship between awareness of
God and spiritual well-being, especially in one?s satisfaction in relationship with God (Andrews, 1999).
While the relationship among these variables should be
explored further, these findings could be an important
key in understanding the role of relationship with God
in accepting the changes in oneself during cross-cultural transitions, as well as the importance of intentionally cultivating that relationship through the practice
of the spiritual disciplines.
Conversely, this study found significant correlations between reentry distress and feelings of disappointment with God and instability in relationship
with God. The SAI Disappointment scale may reflect
excessive and unrealistic demands of God (Hall & Edwards, 2002), while the Instability scale measures the
degree to which people have difficulty trusting God
and viewing him as loving. The combination of these
variables may reflect an unstable relationship with God
and a fear of rejection (Hall & Edwards, 2002), and it
may indicate the potential vulnerability of the returning sojourner.
Missionaries who reported higher levels of reentry
distress also indicated they did not return home to a
supportive community. Previous studies have found
M I S S I O N A RY R E E N T RY A N D R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H G O D
TABLE 3
Multiple Regression Analyses for Relationship with God
and Cultural Adjustment Variables
Dependent
Variable
Independent
Variable
?
Awareness
AI-Home
SCAS
?.08
AI-Host
TCS
RPS
RDS
SCAS
AI-Home
AI-Host
TCS
RPS
RDS
SCAS
AI-Home
AI-Host
TCS
RPS
RDS
SCAS
AI-Home
AI-Host
TCS
RPS
RDS
SCAS
AI-Home
AI-Host
TCS
RPS
RDS
.03.
?.76**
.06.
.28**
?.13**
?.06**
.18.
.02.
.16.
?.01**
.08.
.34**
.15.
.07.
.10.
?.15**
?.00**
.27*
?.08**
?.04**
.03.
.07.
?.04**
?.41**
.04.
?.17**
?.06**
.20.
.40**
?.12**
Disappointment
Instability
Supportive
Community
Called Home
From the Field
t-value
.29
.59
2.71
?1.25
?.62
1.66
.19
1.47
?.18
.77
3.22
1.44
.66
.92
?1.41
?.00
2.59
?.84
?.39
.35
.74
?.39
?4.02
.45
?1.73
?.61
2.14
4.17
?1.27
*p < .05, ** p < .01
the need for community support in all stages of the
overseas experience (Furuya et al., 2007; Werkman,
1986). More recent studies among faith-based agencies
have found a relationship between organizational support and perceived support from God (Eriksson et al.,
2009).
Missionaries who feel called by God to return to
their home country also report a greater degree of
preparedness to return to their home country. Sojourner studies have emphasized the need for reentry
training and realistic expectations about the reentry experience (Grove & Torbiorn, 1985; Krapels & Davis,
2005; Rogers & Ward, 1993; Wang, 1997). Addition-
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ally, preparation for reentry has been found to reduce
the effects of reentry distress (Forster, 1994; Sussman,
2001). This finding suggests an important link between the missionary?s sense of calling and preparing
for the transition from host country to home country.
There are several limitations that must be considered in generalizing the findings to a larger population.
First, while a 54% total response rate and a 44% usable
response rate is somewhat typical for sojourner studies,
the percentages are such that the findings may be limited in their generalizability. Second, there is need for
cautious and limited acceptance of findings related to
researcher-designed questions. Questions 114 to 118
in the survey were developed from the theological
study as part of this research. Each of these correlates a
single question with an entire scale. In the cases where
the findings were significant, they must be accepted
with appropriate caution. Further research could explore each of these variables more fully. Third, because
of the particular sample demographics, the findings
may not necessarily generalize to other populations.
Implications for Missionaries
Missionaries who report a greater awareness of
God?s presence and security in that relationship also reported a greater awareness of the changes that had occurred in themselves during the sojourn and reentry experience. This study found significant relationships
between practicing spiritual disciplines and feeling secure in relationship with God during the reentry transition. Andrews (1999) found that a vital spiritual life
among missionaries was nurtured through the regular
practice of spiritual disciplines and the awareness of
their calling from God. The consistent practice of spiritual disciplines, including prayer, Bible reading, fasting, worship, retreat, solitude, silence, etc., may enhance one?s awareness of God?s presence throughout
the sojourn and reentry transition, thereby providing
much-needed stability during a potentially turbulent
time.
Missionaries who reported feeling called home
from the mission field also reported a higher degree of
preparedness for the reentry transition. This suggests
the importance for missionaries to assess their reasons
for making such a transition. It may be helpful to further investigate how prayer, silence, solitude, reading
God?s Word, spiritual direction, and counseling play a
role in discerning God?s leading. Preparation for reentry transition has been found to alleviate reentry distress, while lack of preparation has been found to exacerbate difficulties in reentry (Forster, 1994; Sussman,
2001). Therefore, prior to reentry it is helpful for mis-
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sionaries to intentionally cultivate an awareness of
God?s presence through regular practice of spiritual
disciplines including prayer, meditation, and spiritual
direction, in order to discern God?s particular leading
in the reentry transition.
Implications for Mission Agencies
The implications for mission agencies suggest the
need to provide adequate support throughout the sojourn and reentry transition. Mission agencies frequently provide specialized training to prepare the missionary for a life of service and ministry in a foreign
context, as well as on-going training and support while
on the field. The findings of this study suggest the importance of providing additional training that familiarizes the returning missionary with the unique challenges of reentering their home culture. Training topics
should include the practical, cultural, and psychological challenges of reentry as well as the importance of
growing in one?s awareness of God and deepening in
one?s relationship with God throughout the reentry
transition. If possible, it is best if some aspects of training could be covered before the mission
