• What was hard or challenging for you about the culture when you first arrived? (It may not be easy for you to remember, but try to come up with several examples….)

• Are those things still difficult for you in some way? How?

• What are ways you have adjusted well to the culture?

• Identify three ways or more ways you think and/or act differently because of living in your adopted country. How have you changed most significantly?

• Brainstorm three to five aspects of your adopted culture that you enjoy, appreciate and/or value. What, if anything, can you learn about yourself through the enjoyment and appreciation you have for these cultural dynamics?

• What would you like to retain from this culture and take with you (such as values, holidays, or customs)? How might you be able to do this?

• In contrast, what are three aspects of your adopted culture that you find challenging? What have you learned about yourself through how you have responded to these challenges?

• How has your adopted culture changed your attitudes about your culture of origin?

• What will you miss most from your adopted culture? What do you think you will not miss at all?

• How long have you worked with your company? Your co-workers?

• Working together for a number of years means there may have been different “eras” in your time together, and the work in which you have been engaged will have changed. People may come and go; circumstances will certainly have changed.

  • Can you identify different “eras” in your work and relationships?

• What has it been like for you in each of these eras?

List: the good, the challenges, the difficulties, or the pain or _____________(choose your own adjectives) of each era.

• Can you create or assign a symbol to represent each era?

• Do you see any common themes in the different eras?

• What were your most satisfying times vocationally?

Who and what stand out to you?

• What have been your most challenging times vocationally? What made them so?

• What have you learned about yourself from your work here?

• List gifts, weaknesses, needs and limitations you have become more aware of during the years you have spent in your present location.

• What contributed to your greater understanding of your gifts, weaknesses, needs and limitations?

• What have you learned about God…and how have you experienced God…through your stewardship of your vocation?

• What have you learned about spiritual conflict as it relates to your vocation?

• What changes are you aware of in yourself? (See below for other questions that may help you explore this question.)

How may these impact your relationships and the way you desire to live after your upcoming move?

• How have you changed physically?

• What kinds of emotional changes have you undergone?

• Do any of these changes affect your ability to plan at this time?

• Do these changes affect your attitudes toward the next stage of your life journey? If so, how?

• Will the changes you have experienced be difficult for your family and friends in your country of origin to accept?

• Perhaps your capacity is different in some way, if you are experiencing a change in your health, or have been through traumatic circumstances.

  • • 1. 1. • • How do you want to present these changes to your loved ones?

              • What help might you need from family and friends?

              • How, and to whom, can you communicate your need?

• How has your host culture, or other influences during your time here, helped shape values you once had and/or given you new values?

• How will this shift in values differentiate you from people in your passport culture or wherever you are going? (You will probably learn a lot more about this after your move, but it is worth beginning to consider now.)

• What has changed in your country of origin? Possibilities: political/societal shifts and developments; the presence and impact of natural disasters; relational transitions brought about by engagements, marriages, divorces, separations, births and deaths, etc.

• Is there anything you need to consider or do in order to prepare yourself for the changes that have taken place?

• As you think back over these past years, how has God made himself known to you?

• What do you remember as significant “happenings” or developments in your relationship with God?

• What are some of the ways you are responding differently to God as you compare this past year [or term] with the years before?

Note: you may perceive these changes as negative or positive, or even as changes that you do not understand or know how to categorize. Seek to notice them here, not to critique them.

• What about being in an overseas setting has had a beneficial impact on your relationship with God during this past year [or term]?

• What, if anything, is hindering your relationship with God?

  • • • • • • • Are there any blockages in your soul that you are struggling with?

              • Is there anything that you fear to confront in God's Presence?

• What is God’s invitation to you presently? How is God making this known to you?

• As you think about moving onto a new phase of life, are there ways that you want to make yourself more open and available to God? What are they?

• As you think about what is to come after you leave, who would you like to walk with you to help you process your relationship with God? (This could be a friend, a spiritual director, a leader in your home community, etc.)