Growing up in the church, I thought I knew missionaries. They were distant relatives, Sunday morning guest speakers, and youth returning from short-term programs. Their experiences were backdropped by beautiful mountains, deserts, and jungles. They ate exciting food. They led daily healings that led multitudes

The year was 2006. Rosedale Network of Churches’ annual conference was scheduled to take place in Plain City, Ohio, and Merlin Miller of Middlebury, Indiana, had recently taken up biking. “I thought, Rosedale’s not that far away. Maybe I should bike to conference,” he remembers.

Our REACH teams returned from overseas outreach in mid-May and are back in their home communities, after completing two weeks of re-entry at the Rosedale International Center (RIC). The following reflections were published during re-entry; in some cases, names and locations have been changed or

In a hot and bustling market in a South Asian border city, Santanu spends his day making and repairing leather shoes. He is remarkably cheerful, earning the nickname “happy, smiling man” from his neighbors. His background, however, is far from happy. Santanu’s mother died when