Why do many missionaries join agencies?
Why do some missionaries serve independent from an agency?
» more related questionsQ: What if a sending agency turns me down or I fail the psychological evaluation?
A: Ooops!
After 20 years overseas, I decided that the repeated psychological evaluations were to make sure I was still crazy enough to live overseas!
On the serious side, we all have learned certain coping mechanisms for living with the ups and downs of life. When you move overseas, some of those "ways of responding" are no longer available or are not "acceptable" in the culture you moved to. Yet due to the cultural differences, you will feel more stress, and thus need to use those coping mechanisms more to deal with the added stresses.
So I say rejoice that the "evaluation" pointed out something that you can work on to better prepare yourself. Ask questions to better understand what showed up and why it is a problem. And then add some new "tools" to your skill bag. Yes, from personal experience I know that some of the evaluative comments you may hear will feel like a kick in the gut, but don’t let that stop you.
On the serious side, we all have learned certain coping mechanisms for living with the ups and downs of life. When you move overseas, some of those "ways of responding" are no longer available or are not "acceptable" in the culture you moved to. Yet due to the cultural differences, you will feel more stress, and thus need to use those coping mechanisms more to deal with the added stresses.
So I say rejoice that the "evaluation" pointed out something that you can work on to better prepare yourself. Ask questions to better understand what showed up and why it is a problem. And then add some new "tools" to your skill bag. Yes, from personal experience I know that some of the evaluative comments you may hear will feel like a kick in the gut, but don’t let that stop you.
