Re-Entry

Two of my friends recently returned from summer adventures.  One of them took a whirlwind bus tour of Austria, Hungary, and Poland (with a detour to Slovakia), where she and her soon-to-be married sister experienced everything from Hungarian slap-dancing (did you know that different body parts make different sounds when slapped?)  to the somber and horrifying history of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau.  While on the trip, my friend realized that Poland was the thirteenth country she has visited.  Thirteen also happened to be the favorite number of her beloved Polish grandfather, who spent his teenage years in a labor camp, and passed away last year.
My other friend flew across the United States with her roommate, where they rented a car and explored the western part of our country for twenty-five days.  They hiked a trail in Sedona, Arizona, (which was more of a climb than a walk); explored Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and navigated the streets of Los Angeles, where they had booked an Airbnb that turned out to be a luxurious Beverly Hills home.  Along with hundreds of strangers, they watched in silence as dawn's first light crossed the Grand Canyon. They ate turkey sandwiches on the road to save money.  They read and discussed a Bible passage every night, even when they were half awake.
As different as their journeys were, both of my friends experienced the difficulty of "re-entry".  In its instructional materials, the International Mission Board (the Southern Baptist organization that sends missionaries overseas) describes re-entry stress as "precipitated by returning to a setting you presume to be familiar, but which in reality is no longer the same...Something definitely has changed – sometimes it is the environment but often times it is you."* 
Neither of my friends served as missionaries in the traditional sense, but, upon returning, they described feelings of restlessness, anxiety, and even depression. They had not traveled for long, so nothing about their normal environments or day-to-day routines had changed.  However, perhaps the very fact that everything remained the same prompted their emotions.  How, indeed, can one continue in ordinary activities and superficial conversations when the ashes of Jews and political prisoners rest at the bottom of a deceptively serene pond in a green field somewhere in Poland?  How can one interact on a deep spiritual level with acquaintances who have not spent weeks experiencing the splendor of God's creation which reflects the beauty of His character?  
My friends will adjust to normal life again, and in many ways they already have.  But they are changed, and, in hearing their stories, I have changed with them.  Changed to more clearly see God's holiness, creativity, and love.  Changed to see the wonderful reflections of God's image in human beings, and the sickening distortion brought about by sin.  Changed, most of all, to see that, outside my safe little box, the world awaits.
  Re-entry may be painful, but I would much rather experience it than spend the rest of my life writing about other people's adventures.

*Quote taken from Re-Entry Stress:  Definition, Symptoms, Coping Styles, & Tips
International Missions Training Institute Team Leader Training Handbook, Module 11, from the International Mission Board, SBC. Copyright 1997, 1999 by the Macedonian Project, a ministry of Campus Crusade and the Volunteers In Missions Department of the International Mission Board, SBC.