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Stories from the Field, 1 Oct 2024 Speaker: Daniel Lau Daniel shared about his ministry in Japan over 10 years, serving in church planting with OMF. They returned to Singapore in 2023. In those years, he served in two cities—Hanamaki (actually quite a small rural town of 66,000) and Sendai. As he and his wife, Joy, focused on evangelism, discipleship and church planting, using the heart language of the people was an important part of their ministry. Even though they already knew some Japanese, they first spent a year in OMF’s language school in Sapporo to improve their Japanese. He started by giving a snapshot of Christianity in Japan. Evangelical Christians are estimated at about 0.3% of the population, which makes the Japanese an unreached people group. As many Japanese pastors are elderly and there are few younger pastors, eventually many churches will be forced to close. Hanamaki After language school, Daniel and his wife were sent to work in a church plant in Hanamaki. They and their German co-workers ran all kinds of activities such as English classes, German classes and German cookery. They also ran children's clubs, mom's clubs, arts and crafts, culture nights… and at the end of each activity they would give a short gospel talk. By God's grace, the church grew. The Sunday worship congregation increased from five to 25 over the six years they spent there, and they were able to buy a church building instead of renting. Eventually, they hope the church will be financially able to support a Japanese pastor to take over the work there so the missionaries can move on to work elsewhere. He told of one lady, Ashino, whom they led to Christ. She had been quite active in the church activities for over 5 years, but it was only after a crisis in her life that she began to study the Bible with his wife. After 6 months of weekly studies, she felt ready to be baptized. It took a lot of relationship building and just sharing their lives with her. Right now, she is also dealing with how the Christian faith ties in with her Japanese culture.   Sendai They then moved to Sendai, a much bigger city with a population of about 1 million. One major reason for the move was for their children to attend international school and be educated in English, in preparation for their eventual return to Singapore. Their ministry in Sendai was among university students, and also in a local church that had been planted by OMF 30 years before. The church ran a kindergarten, and because they had several English-speaking foreign teachers, it was attractive to many Japanese families. They were able to organise events such as picnics and sports, and invite their university student friends to join in. Unlike in Hanamaki, more people already had some knowledge about Christianity because of the work of earlier missionaries, which made evangelism easier. "Soft" persecution Daniel said that one challenge faced by the Japanese believers is “soft” persecution, such as the disapproval of family members, or being marginalised by society. Workers who identify as Christians may be passed over for promotion as they will not participate in company religious practices and are regarded as disloyal. This is an aspect where Singaporeans, being Asian as well, might be of help to new Japanese believers. Many Singaporeans have a similar experience of finding the middle ground between rejecting traditions that have religious roots, or giving in and compromising their faith. For example, they can help new believers plan how they can visit their relatives, help out with certain manual tasks, but gently, politely and respectfully refuse to participate in making the offerings. This may lead to opportunities to share the gospel, which they would not have if they refused to participate at all.   Prayer items: Pray for Japanese Christians to be bold in sharing their faith with their family and colleagues. Pray for the Holy Spirit to open the spiritual eyes and ears of the Japanese to receive the gospel. Pray for Daniel’s family, especially the children, who are still transitioning back to Singapore culture and the education system.

Northern + Northeast Thailand and Mekong, 27–31 May “Join Camp Wycliffe!” That was the response I got when I sought the advice of a ministry staff member from my church on what I should do to find out whether God was calling me to serve Him full-time. I heeded her advice and took the plunge to leave my job and sign up for Camp Wycliffe 2024. This year’s Camp Wycliffe, held in Chiang Mai from 27– 31 May 2024, attracted an overwhelming attendance of about 40 participants from the ages of 15 to 60, hailing from different parts of Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, the USA, and even Mongolia. The Singapore contingent also included 6 members from the missions mobilisation programme Antioch Campus. For the first two days of the camp, missionaries on the field took time off their busy schedules to share with us their work on language learning, phonetics, literacy, and Bible translation in unreached communities. Despite the challenges of cross-cultural missions and having to put in painstaking years of learning a new language, engaging the community, and translating the Bible, one thing that struck me was the unmistakable passion these missionaries had for the work that God had called them to. The last three days of the camp was the main highlight of Camp Wycliffe. We travelled by van and by truck over muddy and bumpy terrain to a village that was off-the-grid. Staying overnight in the home of a village host family without access to electricity, and waking up to roosters crowing and pigs oinking from the wee hours of the morning was an unforgettable experience. This was truly a first-hand taste of what cross-cultural missions may feel and even sound like! The next day, we joined the villagers in building a kitchen facility for the village church. That night at the village, under a clear sky of stars and constellations, we thanked God for blessing us with good weather, safety and protection as well as the kind hospitality of our hosts. We took plenty of photos with our fellow campers, added each other on social media and tarried till late. Clearly, we wished we could savour this precious time just a little longer. Leaving the village marked the end of Camp Wycliffe. But that was not the end of the trip! I joined the energetic Antioch Campus group on their missions exposure trip to Northeast Thailand and the Mekong region. We flew to Northeast Thailand where we met up with another set of inspiring missionaries who shared about their conversion stories and call to be full-time missionaries over Chinese Mala steamboat and, another time, over Mookata. The conversations and stories were so engaging that we would forget about our food that was cooking in the pot and ended up having to eat overcooked food. Though our bellies were not satisfied, our hearts were indeed warm and filled. We also spent some time to prayer walk along the Mekong river, praying that God would be enthroned in this land that is currently filled with shrines and altars at every corner. The last activity of the trip was an English camp at a local Thai primary school. We put up a skit about the creation story and the local pastor shared with the children that God is the creator of heaven and earth. The children were so adorable that we wished we could spend more time with them. Indeed, the annual Camp Wycliffe organised by Wycliffe Thailand did not disappoint in achieving its objectives. The experiential camp truly gave believers a first-hand taste of cross-cultural missions, enabled them to hear from missionaries on field and get to know about Wycliffe’s ministries, and make new friends with fun-loving, passionate Christians from all over the world. If anyone would ask me for advice on seeking God’s calling, without a doubt, I would echo the words of my church’s ministry staff: “Join Camp Wycliffe!” Keen to join Camp Wycliffe in 2025? Find out more and sign up here!

1 June, 9-12 am at Orchard Road Presbyterian Church Kalaam Media: Jim Moore, Dave Fetrow and Paul Johnson Who are the Mobile Masses? They are people who have mobile phones – which is most people on the planet these days. In a previous event ( https://www.wycliffe.sg/post/kalaam-media-feeding-the-mobile-masses ), Jim Moore, the Managing Director of Kalaam Media, shared how they bring Scriptures on mobile phones to speakers of minority languages. At this time, Kalaam has launched over 1,300 websites, developed over 4,100 apps, and trained over 200 web managers. All their apps are uploaded to Google Play Store. This workshop showed how it is actually done. The 12 participants brought along their own computers and phones (Android only). They installed the Scripture App Builder and some associated software, then were led step-by-step through the process of loading Scriptures into the Scripture App Builder, then compiling it into an APK file that could be uploaded to the Google Play Store. Although Kalaam’s work is with languages that are not widely spoken, often using non-Roman scripts, they used the World English Bible for demonstration purposes. After installing the text, the audio readings were installed and synchronised. Other media such as the Jesus Film, and background photos for sharing verses as images, can also be installed. Participants enjoyed creating a real mobile app on their computers, then configuring their phones to receive the upload. There was a moment when, after tapping seven times on an obscure setting, Android informed them, “You are now a developer!” Once installed, the Scripture app was able to find verses, read verses out loud, show Jesus’ words in red, and share verses. The participants felt a sense of wonder that, with the help of the dedicated people on the Kalaam team, even a small people group can receive their own Scripture app that has all the same bells and whistles that big languages like English and Mandarin enjoy. Nearly half of them expressed interest in helping to keep the Scripture apps updated. Perhaps you would like to join them? Jim Moore shared two ways that volunteers can be involved in the ministry of Kalaam Media: 1. Join a corps of volunteers, each giving 2–3 hours a week (enough to update a single app) so that apps can continue to be downloadable and usable. 2. Travel to a workshop with a Kalaam team to build websites and mobile apps for a group of language projects. These workshops are held near the language projects and usually last 8–10 working days. If you are interested to help in these ways, please visit this page on our website: https://www.wycliffe.sg/find-my-fit . Submit your details and state that you wish to serve with Kalaam Media, and we will get back to you.

40th Anniversary Celebration, 7 October 2023, Bartley Christian Church Wycliffe Bible Translators (Singapore) Limited was registered as a company limited by guarantee in 1983. Over the past 40 years, Wycliffe Singapore’s members have served overseas in language projects all over Asia as well as Africa and North America. Office staff and volunteers in Singapore have provided administrative and member care support to members, and have also engaged with churches and individuals in Singapore to mobilise and recruit workers and supporters for missions. Beyond these, Wycliffe Singapore actively participates in collaborative initiatives with other entities locally, in the Asia-Pacific as well as globally. Our distinguished keynote speaker was Bishop Emeritus Dr Robert Solomon who shared about the importance of providing Scripture in the “heart language” to all people, including the weak and marginalised. He also movingly recounted how even he, highly educated in English as he is, feels the warmth of God’s Word in a deeper way when he hears Scripture in Tamil, his own “heart language”. Other highlights: A panel discussion where three experienced Wycliffe Singapore members answered questions from the floor. L-R: Facilitator Patrick Lee (Board member), Daniel Jesudason, Tony Chan, Kwan Poh San. The launch of Called by Grace, Led by Grace , a memoir by Kwan Poh San, who served in Bible translation for 45 years until her recent retirement. With Poh San, L-R: James Wong (Board Chair), Charles Ho (Executive Director), Simon Wan (Associate Director, Church Engagement). Watch the full video here: Life In Translation - The Story of Kwan Poh San A member, Pearle, also shared that after 10 years of service in promoting literacy and education, she likens her role to a “bridge”: linking minority communities to the wider society, enabling other missionaries engaged in Bible translation and literacy to enter these communities, and bringing these communities closer to seeking God. In her current role, she focuses on building up more national workers to be bridges for their own communities and neighbouring ones. And no anniversary celebration would be complete without a shared meal! To God Be the Glory!

Missions for Everyone, 7 Sep 2024 Speakers: David & Sharon Learning a language can be a difficult process. There is a whole new set of grammar rules and vocabulary to learn, not to mention the confidence required to speak the language. If it is already difficult to pick up a ‘known’ language, how much more difficult it is to learn an ‘unknown’ language! Where does one begin? In this workshop, David and Sharon gave us a sense of how one can grow to learn and understand another language—whether known or unknown. Drawing from their experiences translating an unknown language on the mission field, they went through several language learning principles: Start with your motivation.  Why do you want to learn this language? When will you get to use it, and how will it help yourself or others? Learn like a child. A child is able to learn language intuitively from his or her parents – so pay attention to how he or she does so! Essentially, you should listen a lot first before trying to speak. Focus on meaning association. Rather than thinking of an English word and translating that, connect the object in your mind to the word directly. Learn culture. Learning a language also entails learning more about the culture that uses it. Listen more than you speak.  Don’t jump straight into speaking. Make sure you’re practising the right thing! Do extreme mimicry. Focus on getting the pronunciation, tones (if any) and intonation right! Know your learning style. Make use of your natural learning style, whether visual, auditory, or the like. Practice makes perfect. Learning a language isn’t complicated, but it is hard work and it takes time. So keep at it! Use Google and technology . Hardly any language is totally ‘unknown’ nowadays, and there will usually be information about similar or related languages available. There are also various language learning apps available. We went through some helpful techniques. One thing that struck me was how it should not be dry academic activity, but rather an embodied, contextualised process. We tried Total Physical Response (TPR), in which we acted out the words David spoke in a different language. By the end, we understood what word referred to what action—even without him translating it for us! He also demonstrated how to make use of flashcard and language learning apps such as Vocabulary Manager  to accelerate learning words and utterances. In a similar vein, working with Language Helpers—native speakers who are willing to help you learn their language—should be a highly involved process. Rather than simply sitting down and drilling the information into us, we can learn more effectively by engaging with experiences and real-life scenarios. Or, as he put it, we need to engage both our creative ‘right brains’ as well as our analytical ‘left brains’. In so doing, we got a small taste of language learning, a precursor to translation work—intensified as Sharon shared some of the more technical linguistic elements! One trap new speakers of a language tend to fall into is pronouncing words as they would in their native language. By paying close attention instead to the kind of sounds a language uses, we can more accurately speak another language in that language, and not in our native tongues. At the end, David shared the heart of learning a new language, particularly for Bible translators: that all may hear the good news of Jesus in their heart language. He read from Revelation 7:9–10: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” May this vision drive us in our endeavours to learn other languages, and may we strive to do so with excellence! About the speakers: David and Sharon started a translation project among an unreached people group. David has a background in Physics and Maths, and Sharon in Law and Librarianship. Neither were linguists before joining Wycliffe! Link to Vocabulary Manager: https://software.sil.org/vocabulary-manager/

By Elder James Wong, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Singapore By God’s grace, the Harum Bible Dedication went well with joyous celebrations and heartfelt testimonies of God’s goodness and love for the Harum people. A total of 80 Harum believers, 20 foreign guests, 50 pastors from the local area and another 50 pastors from churches elsewhere in Indonesia attended the Bible dedication. A few Singaporeans from Wycliffe Singapore and Covenant Presbyterian Church (CPC) also attended too. CPC has supported the Harum project since 2018.   H, the translator, testified to God's faithfulness in leading them through challenging times. The Harum Bible Translation Team had begun with 11 team members, but numbers dwindled to 6 over the years due to three deaths, and two more left due to marriage (to spouses from a different faith). However, nothing could stop God’s work on the Bible translation, not even Covid-19! By God’s grace, the team persevered and pressed on, fixing their eyes on Jesus until the translation work was completed.   The Bible dedication began with music, dancing and singing to celebrate this joyous event. A very touching moment during the dedication was when young men and women carrying copies of the translated NT Bible processed into the church. They carried Bibles in rice baskets slung over their shoulders and in their hands symbolising that the Bible is their bread of life. Tears of joy overflowed as the Harum people received the Living Word in the language they understand best!   Elder Ho Chung Tat from CPC was invited to share a reflection at the Bible dedication ceremony. He said: “The completion of NT Bible in Harum is a testament of our Oneness in Christ and the love of God for the Harum community.”   CPC is grateful to God for the opportunity to be involved in giving, praying and going on yearly trips to visit the Harum team. During those trips, they were able to participate in engaging the local churches through organising programmes to reach out to village children, ministering to the local congregations, and conducting workshops for church leaders and pastors. They have seen God’s hand in leading the translation team through the years they have participated in the Harum project. Praise be to God! Photos from the Bible dedication:

Stories from the Field, 3 Sep 2024 Speaker: Roce Madinger Roce began by explaining the term “ethnoarts” in the context of missions – a way of empowering local language communities to create art forms which help them connect with scripture in a culturally relevant way. This could be through expressions such as music, dance, visual arts and more. She commented that many people from minority groups have low self-esteem because these groups are often looked down on. When they discover that they can communicate with God through their own culture and arts, and they realise that their language, musical instruments, baskets, bracelets, songs and dances matter to God, His love becomes more real to them and they experience joy and hope. Referring to the vision of John in Revelation 7:9, a believer from the Matigsalug tribe in the Philippines said: “The tribes in heaven who are praising God will not be complete if we, the Matigsalug, are not there.” Roce gave examples from the Bible to illustrate how art forms are gifts from God, providing avenues to dialogue with God, to express what everyday language finds difficult to articulate, and helping to make sense of emotions too deep to comprehend. Bazalel in Exodus 31 was given “all kinds of skills” for decorating the tabernacle; in Deuteronomy 31, Moses was instructed to write a song to teach the Israelites what God had done for them; Jesus crafted and told stories; and the Psalms are a collection of songs, laments, and worship. All through the Bible there are accounts of God’s people being encouraged to reflect the Creator’s creativity through art forms. She encouraged those wishing to reach out cross-culturally to engage with the arts of the people group as it is a good way to learn language, build relationships and understand the worldview. She acknowledged that there are certainly challenges in using the arts in missions: some art forms or instruments may have negative spiritual associations and might need to be avoided to prevent confusing new believers. She explained the approach known as “critical contextualisation”, a term used by Paul Hiebert, a Christian anthropologist. This requires that the believers themselves, as cultural insiders, should make the decisions about how elements of their culture can be used in their new faith. This often takes time and scriptural study. In response to a question, Roce described the process of helping the first believers of an unreached group to develop worship songs. This is a common challenge, and missionaries usually begin by translating existing hymns and songs from another language, even though they are not of the people’s cultural style. As the believers grow in number and maturity, they are then encouraged to use their own musical styles, perhaps beginning with translated psalms. Gradually the people group will develop their own worship songs with their own styles and sound. She ended with a story about B, a Matigsalug believer who had attended an ethnoarts workshop. After that workshop, he was inspired to explore his own culture in depth and use his skill in playing the kuglung  (a kind of lute) for God’s glory. His greatest challenge now is to convince his father, also a believer, that his skill in playing the kuglung  does not come from an indigenous spirit in him but from the Holy Spirit! He is now encouraging tree-planting projects so that more kuglung  can be made, and the Matigsalug believers can use them to worship God. For a thousand kuglung and a thousand gongs, a thousand colors and a thousand tongues cannot begin to declare the goodness and the greatness of God! About the speaker: Roce Anog-Madinger was a music teacher for 15 years, then trained in Ethnomusicology and the Arts at Payap University, Thailand. Since then, she has served many minority communities in Asia. She is currently pursuing a PhD in indigenous studies with arts as the methodology so that she can be herself a supervisor of PhD students who wish to serve in this area.

Stories from the Field, 6 Aug 2024 Speaker: Michael Wan Michael has served in Wycliffe-related organisations for three decades, 15 years in the Philippines, and 15 years (to date) in Malaysia. One of his current roles is Field Security Officer (FSO) for his organisation. Wycliffe missionaries often serve in remote areas, or countries where there are different kinds of risks, such as kidnapping, political instability, dangers to health, etc. The FSO’s role is to monitor the situation in the country and region to ensure that the members serving in that area are aware of the dangers and receive advice on how to stay safe. Of course, every organisation has a policy document that members are made aware of before going to the field. This will spell out the responsibilities of the organisation as well as the individual member in the event of dangers and emergencies such kidnapping, illness or death. However, up-to-date advice on current and rapidly changing situations is still vital. One of his early experiences was a two-week visit to an island in the Philippines with an American colleague. The locals on the island were hostile to Christians, and the area was also a hotbed of insurgents. They knew that they were under scrutiny and also heard rumours that a group was planning to kidnap them. At the end of the two weeks, Michael left but his colleague chose to stay behind. Two days later, Michael heard news that his colleague had been kidnapped by the insurgents! Thankfully, after intervention by the local government, his colleague was released. That was 30 years ago, but many missionaries are still working in places where there are risks of kidnapping! As the FSO, Michael requires all members to have taken contingency training before leaving their home country, and also provides orientation when they arrive on the field. He also has the responsibility to advise people what they should watch out for and what they should and should not do. He tries to get as much information as he can about the area and the situation where they are, and advises the members accordingly. However, decisions are still ultimately the responsibility of each member. Finally, some important pieces of advice from Michael: ·       Never put yourself in a position where you can be a victim ·       Find out about the local situation ·       Listen to advice ·       Take precautions It is not possible to guarantee safety, but following this advice will reduce the risks!

By Sharon Tan Papua New Guinea. Photo: Lisa Vanden Berg, ©Wycliffe Global Alliance From its infancy, the early church faced the issue of contextualisation – how to help new believers apply their Christian faith to their daily lives. Paul’s missionary work among the Gentiles raised the question of whether these non-Jewish believers should be required to conform to Jewish practices and culture. Acts 15 provides an account of how leaders of the New Testament church dealt with this issue. Eventually it was decided that, barring a few issues regarded as crucial, the new believers should not be required keep the Jewish law. Why contextualise? Ultimately, the goal of contextualization is to create indigenous churches which are able to express their worship of God in their own cultures and languages. There has to be an understanding that no culture is either wholly evil or wholly good; every culture will have both positive as well as negative features. The question of how far to contextualise is faced most acutely when Christians seek to communicate the gospel in a culturally relevant way to those from another culture, whether on the mission field or at home. New believers have to be guided in evaluating the customs, rituals and values of their own culture in the light of their new faith. Even those who may have been Christians for years daily face questions of how much of contemporary culture to accept or reject. Like the Pharisees in Acts 15, some missionaries or evangelists choose to import wholesale their own “Christian” culture, replacing much of the new believer’s own culture. This communicates the message to new believers that the only way to be a Christian is to adopt a foreign “Christian” culture. It confuses the outward practices of dress, musical styles, rites of passage, etc. with Christian beliefs and values. Such practices in the past have caused missionaries to be accused of cultural imperialism and destroying ethnic cultures. Failure to contextualise may also drive believers to guiltily practise the old customs and rituals in parallel or in secret. At the other end of the spectrum, simply adding a few “Christian” practices while retaining much of the new believers’ original culture and worldview risks distorting the gospel message by blending it with non-Christian elements, and often results in an unacceptable level of syncretism. So how can Christians communicate the gospel in a culturally sensitive manner, without distorting or undermining the truths of the Christian gospel? Critical contextualisation Paul Hiebert, a missiological anthropologist, recommends the practice of critical contextualization as a way to communicate the gospel message with the minimum of distortion. Under the guidance of the missionary or evangelist, new believers should first seek to understand and analyse both the underlying beliefs of the traditional rituals and customs of their own culture, and also biblical truths. They should then evaluate their cultural practices in the light of Scripture, and decide which may be retained as compatible with their new faith. Other practices may be rejected outright as unbiblical. There will also be some practices that could be adapted or modified. For example, they may decide that most traditional food and clothing are perfectly compatible with their new faith. However, they may conclude that food involved in some rituals should be considered off-limits to Christians, and that they should cease participating in certain practices that have spiritual significance. They may decide that traditional musical styles and instruments can be used in worship, with new lyrics. It may be necessary for the missionary or evangelist to help the new believers devise or adapt new rituals to replace discarded ones, especially those which mark important rites of passage (e.g. marriages or funerals). Hiebert stresses that these decisions should not be simply imposed on new believers by the missionary or evangelist; the new believers should be involved in the process for a number of reasons. First, they are better able than a foreigner to discern the deep and hidden meanings in their cultural practices. On the other hand, an outsider’s perspective can be helpful in highlighting aspects of their own culture they may be blind to. Note that this does require that the missionary spend the time and effort to gain a significant level of understanding of the new believers’ culture. Secondly, it helps new believers grow spiritually and learn discernment as they practise applying Scripture to their own lives. Ideally, this process should be a communal one, so that new Christians can learn to put into practice the priesthood of believers. In any cross-cultural setting, there is always the risk of contextualising too much or too little, or in the wrong way. But by the grace of God and the Spirit’s guidance, these mistakes can be rectified over time. What we must not do is ignore the challenge of contextualization. If we do, the gospel will continue to remain “foreign” to many who are still unreached. Wycliffe Singapore is holding a “Culture Meets Scripture” workshop in March 2020. The workshops will be led by Ms Jo Shetler and Dr Amy West, both of whom have many years of experience in this field. Click here more information about future events.

Date: 23 March 2024 Presenter: Michelle Tan, Member Care and Prayer Coordinator By Grace Tan When someone is going through a tough time, say, a missionary who has recently returned from the field, it really helps for them to be able to share their feelings with a trusted person. Some people who may be called on to do debriefing might be a church leader, a member of the missions committee, or a cell group leader.   In this session, Michelle shared about general debriefing, an important part of missionary care. The debriefer listens to the missionary tell his/her story with a sympathetic ear. This gives the missionary an opportunity for emotional release, promotes connection with others, and helps them to recover. Michelle explained that debriefing is an essential part of “member care” measures that should ideally be in place to help returning missionaries. A good debriefing will help them bring closure to their time overseas, reintegrate into Singaporean society, or retool to go forth again. The main purposes of debriefing are to listen well, understand accurately, and facilitate closure to the person’s experience. The good news is that listening skills can be learned. Much of this workshop was about how to be a good listener. Some characteristics of a good listener: ·       a genuine interest in others ·       a reputation for keeping confidence ·       an accepting, non-judgemental attitude She made it clear that debriefing is not intended to address or deal with deeper or long-standing problems, though these may come to light during the debriefing process. If deeper issues – “bubbles” – surface or are hinted at during a debriefing, the person should be pointed to counsellors and other qualified people for help. Two people shared their stories about debriefing they received when they returned from the field. In both cases, there was initial debriefing, but complete healing did not come until years later, at a Re-entry Retreat for returned missionaries and other Christians who had lived overseas. The attendees were interested in debriefing as well as other aspects of missionary care, and it was a lively and interactive session. Michelle ended the session by sharing some materials on debriefing, as well as further resources. About the speaker: Michelle served in an Asian country for over two decades doing administration, HR, member care and training. Now back in Singapore, she is the Prayer Coordinator and one of the Member Care personnel. Image: ©brgfx, Freepik