During my time in Nepal, I taught at a seminar about the Father Heart of God. It was definitely one of the most difficult, and I'd even venture as far as to say traumatizing days of outreach. I thought about typing out my lesson and posting it here, but I'm reading a book right now called The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henry Nouwen and he sums my whole message up pretty well:

"God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn't move, and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their aberrant behavior, beg for fogiveness, and promise to do better. To the contrary, he leaves the house, ignoring his dignity by running toward them, pays no heed to apologies and promises of change, and bring them to the table richly prepared for them."

This may be what we call reverse culture shock.

It is really difficult to come home from 3 months in a third world country and go to a church that is announcing they're going to have chocolate fountains for Easter! ....with chocolate that most likely exploits people living in a third world country.