106: Returning Well (with Melissa Chaplin)

Are you or someone you know going through the process of transitioning back to your passport country? Or, perhaps you are on the receiving end of welcoming someone into your community. Melissa Chaplin, master coach and author of Returning Well, shares helpful guidance for debriefing and unpacking baggage, as well as offering a supportive listening presence to others. Tune in to discover how to return well and help others do the same.






  • Returning Well by Melissa Chaplin
  • Acts 14
  • “Debriefing is like saying, ‘I’m not going to just drop my bags in the middle of the living room and just try to exist around them and not trip over them. I’m going to unpack them.’”
  • “The way you end one season is how you’ll enter the next.”
  • “When you’re able to name it and label it, it allows you to step back and say, ‘Okay, now that I know that, how do I want to interact with that? How do I want to move forward from that?’”
  • “There’s a sense that I should fit here, but I don’t.”
  • Suggested questions:
    • How are you doing today?
    • What are the things you miss the most?
    • What are the questions that you wish people would ask you right now?
    • What are you finding hard?
    • What’s confusing to you about this culture?
    • Where have you noticed the most change?
  • “Create a presence of really good listening and being able to really hear them.”
  • “Lord, You know what I need to process. Will you lead me to the questions?”
  • Learn more and connect with Melissa!

Check out the book mentioned in the Story from the Field, The Giver: Living Out the Life of Jesus in Giving, Serving, and Construction Missions by Renée Burkette.

What’s changing our lives:

  • Keane: Large paper map
  • Heather: Physical therapy
  • Melissa: Experiencing the power of partnership

Weekly Spotlight: Puebla Christian School

We’d love to hear from you! podcast@teachbeyond.org
Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast
Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

15 Dec 25

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