A while back Jen and I were asked to go down to Ecuador to spend some time with a group of global workers (that’s what we call missionaries) who were struggling through the closure of a school where their kids had been attending. Schooling options (or lack thereof) is one of the biggest stressors for cross-cultural workers, so this was a pretty big deal for these families. They were struggling with a number of unpleasant emotions arising from this decision.
As is the norm we arranged a number of private meetings with several of the singles and couples working there. Our main goal for those meetings? Just to listen. Really listen.
And we did so more imperfectly than you might expect for someone who does it for a living. But we did our best to create a safe place, and in response, out poured the stories… pain, confusion, hurt from leadership or teammates, fear, uncertainty, hope, faith… well you probably recognize these things in your own story. These people were in tough situations, with no obvious solutions, and we didn’t have any to give them.
I don’t think we solved a single problem during our time there.
Upon our return to the U.S. I was relating this to a friend who asked, “Isn’t it frustrating to travel somewhere to help people and not be able to do anything to fix the situation?”