Crossings: Lament and New Mercies in Cross-Cultural Calling

You told everyone you're fine. And you meant it - mostly.But you cry at strange times, or can't. You stand in the grocery store unable to make a small decision. You stay busy enough that you never have to sit down. And underneath it all is a weight you cannot quite locate.Nothing is wrong with you. You are grieving - and no one, including you, has given the grief its name.Crossings is a debriefing you can read: a pastoral companion for cross-cultural servants coming home from the field, for a season or for good. Drawing on more than thirty years of behavioral health experience and a decade devoted to missionary care, Dr. Russell Semon walks you through the grief that other resources skip - the ambiguous losses of leaving a country, a people, a language, and a version of yourself - and then, gently, toward the mercies that are new every morning.The road runs in three movements: Grieve. Name the losses no one named - the grief tangled with your calling, the story your body has been keeping, and the honest prayer you stopped praying somewhere along the way.Listen. Rebuild trust the way it was built the first time - by evidence, one received mercy at a time - before you, behind you, beside you, and beneath you.Abide. Find the address that cannot be left behind at a border, the pruning that is not punishment, the fruit you cannot manufacture, and the joy that was the point all along.Every chapter ends with a simple practice - a list, a walk, a prayer, a table - that turns the reading into an actual debriefing. Appendices guide you through telling your whole story, debriefing as a family, and knowing when a season needs more than a book, with a closing note for member care providers and agencies.Written for the missionary on home assignment, the worker between terms, and the servant who has come home for good - and for the churches, families, and care teams who love them.Your grief is the size of the gift that preceded it. It deserves to be named. And on the other side of the naming, there is a feast.