Our Homeside Ministry Teams (HMT) play a very important role in member care that we provide. They are a team of people chosen by the Cross-cultural worker to provide pastoral care and support. Many of the HMT members come from the cross-cultural worker's sending churches, and play a vital role in ensuring their emotional health and well-being.
We have dedicated one of our staff especially to the role of equipping and encouraging the Homeside Ministry Teams of our 130 or so cross-cultural workers. When we served in Thailand we did not have a HMT for the first 10 years, but it would have been wonderful to have had one to see us through the most difficult first few years of initial adjustment. We have certainly appreciated having a HMT for personal support and encouragement during times of stress and transition in leadership.
Adjusting to a new culture and language is really difficult. This year some of our new workers have been going through some tough times making new friends and learning to fit into their new context. This process is normal. What has changed in recent years is the close communication that is possible as our new cross-cultural workers go through their day-to-day adjustment to a new culture.
These days the sending churches are much more aware of what is going on in the life of the workers they support by interacting with them through Facebook, Skype, HMTs and phone calls. This has the benefit of a greater awareness of the pain of cross-cultural adjustment.
As a home side office, we now deal with more queries and assure the sending church that this pain is normal and that there are also good structures in place on the field to help new workers through the early difficult years of adjustment. While we would like to avoid the pain altogether, it is not always possible. We are so thankful that we have a structure in place for our cross cultural workers to receive the encouragement and support that they need.
