Finding Life After Trauma: A Guide for Missioners and Volunteers and Those Who Care for Them

People who live and work in a culture different from their own often have experiences of trauma, including experiences such as natural disasters, interpersonal conflict, violence, grieving, abuse, stress, and generally feeling overwhelmed by poverty and the needs of others. Volunteers and missioners typically face trauma experiences with strength and resiliency, but those who help others sometimes need help themselves. This book offers resources for volunteers and missioners, leaders of mission sending organizations and religious communities, and those at home who want to better support their loved one who has experienced trauma. Including information and learning about trauma, practical suggestions and tip sheets, and emotional and spiritual practices, the guide helps equip those who have experienced trauma with the internal resources they need to heal and thrive. This book is one in a series of five volumes published by From Mission to Mission, an organization serving returning missioners and volunteers since 1980. The guide shares insights from decades of experience with those returning from a time of living and serving in another culture.

About the Author :
Michelle A. Scheidt has worked in the nonprofit sector for 25 years and is currently a program officer at the Fetzer Institute, which is dedicated to helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. She served as a lay volunteer for two years and later co-directed the Claretian Volunteer and Lay Missionary Program in Chicago and served as a board member for From Mission to Mission. Michelle has extensive intercultural experience in inner city Chicago and in Latin America. She holds a BA in English from Marian University, Indianapolis; an MA in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago; and a Doctorate in Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. Michelle and her spouse Barbara Crock live in the woods near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Maureen Rosemary Connors is enjoying her 70s as a gift of time with a ministry as a spiritual director, retreat and workshop facilitator including mission orientations. Head of her own company since 1979, she specializes in transitions and change. After she and her husband, Maury Flood, returned from two years as lay volunteer missioners in apartheid South Africa, she became Executive Director of From Mission to Mission (1995-2002). She has told the story of her own sexual assault while in mission to dozens preparing for and returning from mission. She has an MA and a PhD in educational psychology with a major in counseling from the Catholic University of America. In 2012 she "re-wired" after eight years as Co-Director of Programs at the Franciscan Center in Tampa. She and her husband live in Pinellas Park, Florida.