What is Home Assignment Anyway?

So I still don’t totally know what other missionaries do on their home assignments. Home assignment or “furlough” as it is sometimes called is this strange time where you get to return home from the mission field. My Malagasy colleagues frequently ask how my “holiday” is going? I feel like I need to correct them because it really feels like anything but a holiday most days.

I thought it would be a time to get refreshed, recharged and maybe get a book or two read.

Julie and I strategically (or not) have supporters, friends and family spanning the entirety of Canada (over 5000km). Having driven across Canada twice on our last home assignment, we decided to fly across Canada this time and visit 2 provinces instead of 5. But despite the immense generosity of many people, we still have had to move close to 8 times. It will be closer to 12 by the time we are done. What this means, is I have lost any motivation to put my clothes in anything but my suitcase. I think this feeling is also shared by my kids as well. Julie is in a perpetual state of planning meals while adapting this to whatever housing situation we are in. 

Thankfully, Julie and I have an almost perfect marriage and almost perfect children so we don’t EVER have disagreements... haha... this makes it easy to live with others:-)

Getting around to see people and visit various churches and organizations is always easier with a vehicle. We were thankful to have my mom’s vehicle for half of our stay. For the other half, I spent a week just shopping to buy for our current minivan which I will need to sell not even two months later. Lots of work, but financially better than renting even for a short time.

Along with sharing about our work and lives, Julie is planning and stockpiling school materials for the next two years. We are replacing our electronics which are on the verge of dying or outdated and we also need to get everyone into a dentist with some of us needing multiple appointments due to the unavailability of a reliable dentist where we live and work.

I am also ordering surgical supplies and equipment mostly from around the world to bring back with me. This involves lots of research to ensure the equipment will fit our existing OR and will do what we need it to do. 

Then there is the reverse culture shock of coming back to the land of everything. There is ensuring our kids don’t feel homeless and managing the emotions associated with continuous hellos and good-byes all the while, trying to reconnect in brief meetings with friends and family after being away for two years and knowing you won't see them for another two. 

And yet while Julie and I look at each other some days and ask how do we make this life happen, we see God’s provision over and over again. Like the houses, basements, cottages & boats we have been offered so Julie and I can enjoy incredible views and our kids can fish and swim and enjoy nature. Like friends who come to us with food and who drive to where we are at so we don’t have to. Like the the generosity of people who continue to support our mission and work. 

Sometimes reflecting on all this, I ask myself who does this life?

This month, I travelled to North Carolina to speak to 11 physicians including 7 surgeons and their spouses preparing to serve long-term in mission hospitals around the world with the World Medical Mission Post Residency Program. For them, it will be the same path Julie and I took almost 5 years ago. I was so encouraged by these young doctors because after so much studying and sacrifice, they are willing to give of their time and talents to serve the world’s poor and to provide compassionate and quality medical and surgical care and doing so because of the hope we all share.