#missionary problems

Halfway through a science class in grade nine, I found a dead mouse in the bottom of my binder. It was burrowed between the ring and the zipper, and it was awful. Ever since then, my fear of mice/rats has been amplified.

Coming to Madagascar to live in a hut, I knew the reality that I would be sharing my home with many other creatures, and that occasionally that would mean living with mice and rats. Well now that I’m here, it is a reality in my life. The reality is that I wake up most mornings to mouse or rat poop on top of my mosquito net, on my kitchen table and beside my toothbrush. Rats have chewed everything from my favourite spatula, to the screens on my windows, to EIGHT pairs of my underwear. (Yes, I just wrote about my underwear in a blog).

I used to think that when you face your fears, you stop being afraid of them, but I have realized, at least in this case, that is just not true. I face my fear of mice and rats on a daily basis lately- and if anything, I’ve become more scared of them. Some nights have been downright traumatizing. I know logically that it’s really not going to hurt me. My biggest fear is it scampering across my feet. But why is that scary? I have no idea. Because they are gross. Maybe it’s irrational, but that’s how it is.

And honestly, I will continue to be scared every time I hear a random commotion above my bed, or see a little  (or not so little) head pop up from the wall, or when I hear the rustling of a sticky pad that has trapped a mouse. “Is he stuck enough” “Can he get loose” “Should I go look”. Yes, I have done things I never would have done before, and have perhaps become a little more useful. I am able to do more than just stand on the table now, but that is not for lack of fear, it is out of pure necessity.

7am wake up and get ready

8am to 4pm teach

4pm workout and shower

5pm dinner

6pm help with night time cleanup

*Heads up* 

[So now that I’m doing my Global Studies/Mission Internship with Liberty University in Tokyo for college credit this summer, I get forced  to do in-depth intercultural studies that (all jokes aside), truly challenges me to be able look deep inside myself and try to understand, as well as improve my ability to be able work with other cultures, understand other cultures, and eventually be able to contextualize the Gospel of Jesus Christ to cultures outside my own. So You’ll see a lot of my required Journal entries on here, and I think they are pretty thought provoking, insightful,  and pretty awesome…hopefully…well whatever…Here’s week #1]

Journal #1 (Week of 6/2/14) 

It’s just like Miami…Except everyone is Japanese instead of Ethnic (Black, Hispanic, etc.)Sooo….Not Really.

       I am no longer a person who has people who look like me surrounding me on a daily basis… (Well, for at least two months…)

   To be honest though, it’s not like I’ve never been the only African American/Person of Color in a setting before-as a matter of fact, in many of my Government and Global Studies classes at Liberty University, this is the case many of times. But, even though America is culturally diverse, we still have an overarching “American” Culture that connects to a certain degree. But in Japan, that’s not the case. I mean, there are parts of Japanese cultures that I absolutely love and respect (the food, the people, the history,the ANIME!), but it’s not like the culture that I’m accustomed to in Miami, which is a very ethnocentric, diverse, melting pot society where literally 52 people groups have just been recognized and documented in our U.S. census.

And just to show how diverse and rich our culture is in Miami, even among people of similar shades and ethnic origins  for example-you can line up four random Black people (who all to some degree have some form of African Ancestry), and ask all four of them to speak, you can end up hearing a Cuban Spanish dialect out of one person, a Southern Hick/African American Vernacular English dialect out of another, a Haitian Creole/French dialect out of the next person, and a Caribbean Patois Accent out of the last person-and if you’re lucky sometimes you meet a person of Color in Miami, and find out they are from Nigeria and speak in a Igbo dialect, or even that they are Brazilian and they speak Brazilian Portuguese! That’s what I’m leaving, and what’s ending in my life (temporarily). But, since this is my second time around in Tokyo, Japan, I’ve come to realize, that in being a minority among the majority, (and I mean this both ethnic-wise and spiritually since Japan has little Black people and Christians), you must let the Lord use your diversity as a strength. I have to accept the fact that I stick out like a Hershey bar in a marshmallow factory, or a like a Black or Brown bear at a Polar Bear convention.

           Honestly though, that’s been my life since I could remember, and will definitely be the case when I go into full time Missions and Humanitarian Aid work. So, from acknowledging the weird looks and side-eyes I got from Old Japanese women on the train going to work, to seeing Japanese kids my age culturally appropriate all the negative urban stereotypes about Black culture when I would go evangelizing in the City (and trying not to cringe while sharing the Love of Jesus)-it kills that sense of, “Woe is I! I’m the only young black male in a city of Japanese people!” It’s more like, “Yeah, I’m African-American, I am also created in God’s image, and so are you sweet old Japanese woman who is sending shade looks from 2 seats away from me on the Yamanote Train Line…” And when you acknowledge that, the fact that you’re different and you’re going to stick out and people are going to wonder why you are even here…WHEN YOU FINALLY ACCEPT REALITY… I feel it finally gives the Lord the room to do what He wants and needs to do within you.

        People see that you are going with the flow of society in Tokyo, and you’re not freaking about everything, and not having an existential crisis when you find out that can’t watch Pokémon in English…People see a calmness about you, something different (and not just racially-but in a spiritual way), a calmness and difference that comes from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. That’s when you see people ask, “Why are you here?” or “What brings you to Japan?”-and the Lord begins to open doors for relationships to be built, and friendships to be made, and eventually, the Gospel seed will be able to be planted and shared.