Going Home?

Less than 12 hours from now we will be saying goodbye to a couple whom we have known and worked with for over half our lives. As we will see them again sometime in the future back in Canada (we think), it is not such an emotional drain on us. As we remain here among people we have come to know and love, there is a measure of comfort. However, for them, after having lived and ministered in S.E. Asia since 1976, this is a very traumatic time. Ill health has forced them to return to a country that somehow is no longer their home. Sure, they have friends and family there, but almost certainly most of them have no clue as to all the things this couple will have to process in their hearts and minds as they return to a country that they are now so different from.
Oh that the churches "back home" would try to understand the emotional turmoil that missionaries go through when they leave places and people they love and have gotten to know over the years. Though I know that God will provide for this couple in every way, yet the journey back will not be easy. They have poured their lives into people here for 30 years, and now they are having to walk away from all that. And they are going back to well meaning people who won't be able to understand what is going on in their lives.
Praise God, that He understands and has promised to supply our every need. It will not be an easy transition, but He will be there with them and for them. All along the way, they will be.... In His Strong Arms.
-Henry