Choices, choices, choices!!!??!!??

Being a missionary and have also been to All Nations Christian College (for those not in the know, it is a Bible College with mission as the main focus), we have heard many a story about missionary life abroad, what to expect during transition and how things will change when you finally go back to your passport culture.

One of the examples that we have been told, by lecturers, mission sending agents and missionaries who have come back home, is the culture shock of walking into a supermarket after years of buying your food from a market stall or a small corner shop. Your choice was limited to what they had in stock that day/week/month. For a lot of missionaries, things like butter, cheese, bacon and chocolate are luxuries that, either you can't buy or were just too expensive on such a limited wage. Then, on returning to a 'First World Culture', you are faced with SO much choice. 

Have you ever counted how many different brands of butter/margarine there are in your local store? Now imagine that your only choice for the last X number of years was a margarine that is so nasty, even the ants won't go near it, and now you find yourself faced with a chiller full of choice and you are left trying to remember what it was you had all those years ago. Then you still have the rest of the supermarket to look through. We have heard of people just standing in front of the chiller section crying or they have had to walk out with nothing before they have a panic attack.

This was not the case for me (Mark) when we moved from Tanzania to Australia. Even though we are still on the 'mission field' and are in a different culture, I found that food shopping at the local supermarket has not been too bad, even a pleasure to have access to different options again. So why am I writing this? As a bloke, my panic attack happened when I went to the local hardware store (which isn't big by any stretch of the imagination!) to buy a few things to work on the house we are renting. It was just simple things like a padlock, some screws, nuts & bolts, a few tools (to replace those that I had left behind or were still in transit) and a garden sprinkler. Simple yes ... no. 

There was just too much choice. So many brands (most of which I didn't recognise) with so many variations, that it got too much. In the end I left with only half of the things on my list and most of those had to be taken back because they ended up being the wrong anyway.

Things have now calmed down a bit since we first arrived, but I still feel a lot of pressure often when purchasing something quite simple. So I just want to finish off by saying ... be aware of those who are returning from the mission field (either short term or for good), that sometimes the choices that you find so simple and easy, could possibly be the 'straw-that-breaks-the-camels-back' for them. Help them out, recommend things or brands that you use and just be there for them when it all gets a bit too much.