Mission experience doesn’t end when missioners return home

Solidarity in Mission Workshop participants reflect on the challenges they face and
best ways to move forward

By Kateri Mancini
For The Visitor

Kristi Schmidtbauer of Hillman traveled to Brazil in 2011 with a group of Catholic School educators from the diocese.

Marty Roers was a Maryknoll Lay Missioner for seven years in East Africa.

David Mertens of Wadena returned from a diocesan delegation to Homa Bay, Kenya, in March.

Phyllis Ackerman of Sauk Rapids was on a mission trip 20 years ago.

Susan Meyer of St. Joseph has never been on a mission trip herself, although she has watched her daughter journey to Maracay, Venezuela.

These individuals, along with 32 others from throughout the St. Cloud Diocese and Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis gathered April 23 at St. Francis Xavier Church in Sartell for a Solidarity in Mission Workshop.

WEB lupien
Julie Lupien

The workshop, sponsored by the St. Cloud Mission Office, is held every 18 months so those who have been involved in mission can receive continued formation and support.

This year’s gathering, facilitated by Julie Lupien, executive director of From Mission to Mission in Longmont, Colorado, focused on the theme of “Remaining Faithful.”

“Any time you are stepping out of your ‘normal place,’ you will never be the same,” Lupien told participants. “These experiences are hopefully being translated into your life [here].”

Moving forward

All mission experiences include three parts: the before, the during and the after, Lupien explained. But the after, or re-entry, phase is often the most neglected. This is, in part, because parishes and mission-sending organizations do not provide follow-up to the extent they dedicate to the orientation and the experience abroad.

It is also often due to individuals coming back to a culture of busyness, often surrounded by family, friends and a community that don’t understand their experience and the ways it may have changed them, Lupien said.

Regardless of the reasons, workshop participants agreed there is a strong need to focus on the re-entry process and how they may be called as they journey forward in their lives. Discerning what that call may look like takes work.

“Integration doesn’t just happen,” Lupien said. “It begins with reflection.”

Participants had the opportunity to enter into this reflection as Lupien invited them to spend 15 uninterrupted minutes sharing their mission story. Taking turns sharing in groups of three, some said that what they anticipated would be too long to speak went by too quickly.

“It was the first time I could freely talk about what I wanted about my experience,” said Brianda Cediel, a member of St. Paul Parish in St. Cloud.

Joan Miller, a member of St. Augustine Parish in St. Cloud who worked in an inner-city school in Chicago during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, had a similar response regarding the invitation to share. “Until this workshop, I never knew I had a story,” she said.

Afterward, participants were invited to acknowledge the hurts or healings they needed following their mission experience.  This could include anything from seeing deep poverty or injustice, to falling ill and not being able to participate fully, to experiencing trauma.

“From practical to deep, it all impacts the experience, my coming home and possible next times,” Lupien said.

She said the flip side of the hurts are the gifts, and everyone was invited to reflect on what gifts — people, values, culture and learning experiences — they received during their mission experience.

The final step of re-entry is integration, or what missioners will do to remain faithful to the experience they had after their return.

Referring back to the idea that integration begins with reflection, Lupien added, “Then reflect again. [The experience] may not speak to you every day of your life, but it can continue to speak to you.”

Similar experiences

The mission experiences on which participants reflected ranged from spending 35 years in Indonesia to a one-week trip to Guatemala, from traveling to Russia  and to Latin America, from diocesan-sponsored trips to working with Catholic Relief Services. Yet, all drew a similar conclusion: mission experiences are life-changing and do not end when someone returns home.

“I have to work at it, so it doesn’t go on the shelf,” said Joe Bettendorf of St. Augustine Parish in St. Cloud, who was part of the diocesan delegation in March to Homa Bay.

Similarly, Betty Nystrom, director of religious education at St. Anne Parish in Kimball, explained how she hopes to remain faithful to her experiences. “I decided I need to be a louder voice in the parish community.”

Miller, who discovered her story for the first time at the workshop, expressed a new level of impact her mission has had on her life.

“I discovered what my story was, and why I’ve been living the way I have been for the last 60 years,” she said.

“It’s a lifestyle,” Lupien said of mission integration. “It’s the way we are together.”

Participants said they enjoyed the opportunity to delve more deeply into the ways they have been, and can continue to, further togetherness with others around the world.

“We all are so much more the same underneath the surface-differences,” said Father Virgil Petermeier, a St. Rosa native and member of the Crosier Community in Onamia.

“Your partnership isn’t just you and them; it’s really a window to the world,” added Mike Haasl, global solidarity coordinator of the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

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Author: The Visitor

The Visitor is the official newpaper for the Diocese of Saint Cloud.

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