Preparing Returnees to Go Home Well

Returnee Handbook for Chinese Christians, a joint project of Overseas Campus and ReFrame Ministries, available at the website of ReFrame Ministries.

When I asked international student ministry colleagues what they did for international students returning to their home countries, they gave me three answers: we give them a goodbye party; we present them with gifts; and we pray for them. Great responses, but inadequate.

That was 42 years ago!

But look what we have now. The fourth edition of the Returnee Handbook for Chinese Christians, in Chinese and English! Once you read and use this resource you will understand why there is more to reentry than the three answers I received.

Back then we were thoughtful, generous, and trusting God for the welfare and future of our returning international students. Today we continue to be thoughtful and generous and exercise faith in God to take care of our returnees. But our thoughtfulness has led us to serve them better with more practical resources in their hands, like this handbook. It is filled with scriptural, historical, cultural insights, current data and services, a list of other resources, and thoughtful reflection questions designed for a culture-specific context. Now we have a variety of reentry resources for different countries, including adaptations or translations of Think Home: Reentry Guide for Christian International Students Returning Home, available from InterVarsity/ISM in the United States, and in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, and Europe from International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.¹

Providing reentry resources for our international students and those who minister among them excites me. This handbook is a needed addition to the growing body of reentry literature. Forty-two years ago, I wrote notes on a cafeteria napkin after my colleagues gave me their three responses mentioned above. I had returned to the dining room of the conference center with my active toddler in my arms and a mind racing with reentry questions and ideas. The result was Think Home, a reentry workbook with over 300 questions. It was initially published by International Students Inc. to help future Christian returnees prepare for their return home. It was a watershed publication that helped catapult the awareness for reentry preparation in the international student ministry world.

In the past it has been difficult to obtain data on how many Chinese students return to China. But as this handbook points out, through the latest data from the Ministry of Education of China, the number of returned Chinese students consistently exceeded the number of Chinese overseas students, from 2020-2023. Previously, from 2008-2019, the number of overseas Chinese students outnumbered those who have returned.²

According to this handbook,

More than seven million have returned to China over the past 40 years. There are no accurate statistics on how many Chinese students and scholars made decisions for Christ and how many returned to China as Christians. However, if we take a conservative estimate of 5% returning as Christians, tens of thousands return to China every year as Christians. We estimate that at least 350,000 Christians may have returned to China in the past 40 years!

This number is staggering. But this handbook also acknowledges the sobering reality of a high number of Chinese Christians returning to China who did not continue in their faith and reports that the estimate of evangelical and missionary organizations is that 80% or even 90% of Chinese Christian returnees have fallen away from the faith.

Is it possible that one of the factors contributing to this trend has been insufficient or lack of reentry preparation? I believe it is.

We have a responsibility to provide our returning Chinese Christians with a full service that includes a more comprehensive reentry transition resource or publication. We know that our love for God, for his kingdom in China, and for returning Chinese Christians demands that we equip our returnees with all that they need to remain faithful to Jesus.

Overseas campus ministries have taken this responsibility to heart in the publication of the Returnee Handbook.

Any reader will appreciate the handbook’s two-prong approach of addressing what to prepare for (pre-departure) and what adjustments would look like after returning to China (post-return). Returning Chinese Christians will also value the practical suggestions on how to relate with the house church and the Three-Self Church in China. And who would not like to hear stories of actual returnees that embody the challenges and victories of the reentry transition? Those stories are in this handbook too.

What is also notable in this edition are the critical chapters devoted to how both churches in China and overseas can help in the ministry to returnees. This publication reports about the Returnee Care Network (RCN), a network of overseas churches devoted to assisting in returnee care and support. This group is a testament to the ongoing commitment to the strategic role Chinese Christian returnees have in the life and future of the church in China and the need to provide them with all the necessary support to thrive as God’s ambassadors back home. It does take a village to have a robust reentry service. The more people and resources we can enlist to join in this endeavor, the better we can serve our returnees.

If there is anything missing in this handbook? A chapter devoted to the subject of suffering would enhance the relevance of this resource.  What does the Bible say about it? How does one respond to persecution and suffering? How does God use suffering in a person’s life? What does Peter say about the normalcy of suffering in a Christian’s life?

International student ministry workers globally are better equipped by having this resource at their disposal.

Returnees still appreciate a goodbye party. Prayers for them are indispensable.  For a gift, I recommend offering this handbook, in whatever format is applicable. It is a present they can use for themselves or share and work on with others on a similar journey. They will forever thank you for it.

1. Lisa Espineli Chinn, Thinking Home: A Reentry Guide for Christian International Students (Lisle, IL, Intervarsity/ISM, 2011). Available at: https://store.intervarsity.org/think-home-a-reentry-guide-for-christian-international-students/.
2. Plotted using data from ”2023 Survey Report on Returnees Employment” (in Chinese), Human Resources and Social Security Information Network, (2023 中国海归就业调查报告（2024年3月26日）, https://www.hrssit.cn/info/3208.html,  March 24, 2024, accessed December 3, 2024.