Learning to Process Transition Well

Every three months, a new group of people arrives in our community, and another group goes home. That cycle repeats all year. On the surface, it sounds like the normal rhythm of a YWAM base. Underneath, it's more than that. It's something I've been thinking about a lot as part of our Wellness Team here at YWAM Perth.

For single staff, we become brothers and sisters in Christ very quickly, and not just on the surface, because we share life. We live in a shared house and eat every meal together. Then three months or two years later, they're on the other side of the world. Still friends, but distant. We can't truly care for that many people across that much distance, even though we feel we should. And we have to start all over again with new people.

For families, many of us are immigrants, so we don't have biological family here. Some families have worked and walked together in ministry for two years, sometimes making other staff part of their family, and losing that person is painful. Slowly, without really deciding to, we begin putting walls up against one another. A lot of different problems start to grow from there.

Some of our students come to us not long after finishing high school, and we trust them as adults and send them out as missionaries. They step into a new culture and live with a family for three months. For some of them, it's the first time they see the massive economic differences between where they were born and where they're serving. None of it was anyone's choice, and some find themselves wrestling with how that can be fair. Different cultures also work differently, so when people work together, conflict can come with it.

Without proper time to look back and process, whether it's three months, four years or ten years into a mission journey, the changes become very real. Body, emotions and spirit all carry it.

That's why the Wellness Team was formed some years ago: to provide mental health resources to our leaders and students. One of the seminars we run is on debriefing and transition. The idea is that our staff understand the effects of transition, so they can disciple people who are coming in and going out better, and help others work through it.

This month we ran that seminar with a guest teacher who has walked through many debriefs over the years. He taught what transition is, what debriefing is, what is actually happening in us, and how we can help others and ourselves go through it in a healthy way. The room was mixed. Some were 19 or 20 years old, and some had been in mission for ten or fifteen years. We all learned a lot. It highlighted again the importance of starting well, transitioning well and finishing well.

What encouraged me most was watching the young people. Some of them are only 19 or 20, still new to ministry, and they sat there listening to an elder of our community, appreciating his experience and wanting to apply it. I think that's quite countercultural. We live in a postmodern world where old is bad and new is good, but in the seminar, we still need to respect one another and listen to the wisdom being passed down and up. Seeing it happen gave me real hope that we won't repeat the mistakes of the generations before us.

Some people have worries about Gen Z and Gen Alpha, but I think the mission in the 21st century can be better than the 20th and any century before. When I look back through church history, each century has carried a little more of the kingdom into the world, like the mustard tree, slowly growing.

On my side, I'm continuing counselling and a life coaching seminar so I can coach the young people around me better. It's been helpful to have a good system and structure, and I'm applying what I'm learning in my own ministry. It's been an amazing journey improving our processes and our mission.

I'm grateful to be part of this, and grateful for the many people who make it possible for me to be.