Canadian Alliance International Workers (IWs) return to Canada on a regular basis (usually every four years) for Home Assignment to share their stories among Canadian churches and help raise funds for their ministry.

It is a time for personal refreshment, renewing home ties, reporting on how the Lord is building his Church overseas, retooling and preparing for further cross-cultural service.

For many IWs, especially those with young children, returning to Canada for this one-year assignment can be a challenging experience. All kinds of changes have occurred in their home church and home town. They have also changed, having absorbed a new culture and now seeing things from a different perspective than most Canadians.

Some of our workers are confronted by difficult family situations?aging parents, ill health, and education for their children. Some may struggle with finding accommodations or vehicles and they may wonder how to squeeze so many visits into their year. And Third Culture Kids are often apprehensive about relocating?some of them having never lived in Canada or gone to school here.

These workers attend a Home Ministries Seminar, hosted each year by our Global Ministries Department, which provides them with debriefing and counsel on re-entry to Canada. Alliance church members can also help make the transition easier by giving a warm welcome so these IWs feel accepted and appreciated.

By loving and caring for your International Worker, Home Assignment can be a time of rich friendship and learning together. Enhancing personal relationships between the sender and the sent is essential if we are to maintain our and the sent is essential if we are to maintain our focus on world evangelization into the next generation.