The Weirdness Studies

missionary, disciple of Jesus

Sasha Ingle

+I think youre weird. Tell us a little about yourself and what you do. My name is Sasha Ingle, and I am a disciple of Jesus. I am 28 years old, and I have been a follower of Christ for 10 years. And Jesus asked me to follow him to Japan. I came to Japan on a one year internship in October 2007, and I have been here ever since. I now work as a missionary for Mito Church of Christ with the full-time Japanese minister, another missionary from Canada and a Japanese lady who works parttime as a secretary for the church. We have the privilege and responsibility of serving with a leadership of 4 others to guide the church family as we all walk through life together following the Holy Spirit and trying to grow closer to God as we live and work and serve and play. Mito church is a diverse community, and one of my main responsibilities is supporting the native English speakers, most of whom work in the citys public school system and worship with Mito church. It is such a blessing to have them here with us, and so wonderful to see them living as the light of Jesus in their schools and neighborhoods, but it is also a challenge to grow in unity across cultural and language barriers. I get to work to build opportunities to bridge that gap, and help them find ways to fit in, grow, serve and flourish in our church community. I also get to spend lots of time with the Japanese young people (Christians and others seeking faith) who come to our church. The best part of my job is getting to walk along with people as God reveals himself to them. +What made you choose your weird path? After my sophomore year of college I went on a summer mission trip. I spent two months working with kids in an inner city shelter in a major city in Europe. I was way outside of my comfort zone, and in many ways I was not sure that the work we did was very helpful or purposeful, but by the end of the summer, I knew that God was calling me to mission work. The next summer, I went on a 6 week mission trip to Sendai, Japan to teach English using the Bible. That was a

place where I felt like God was using my talents and stretching me too. It was a great experience, and after I returned to the States, my heart was full of Japan. Though it would have made a lot of sense for me to go to Europe -- I had lived there for a few years as a child, and I could speak some German -- I was longing to be with the people in Japan. I felt like God had placed that longing in my heart, so I asked if I could serve as an intern with the missionaries in Sendai. And, as they say, the rest is history. +What kind of resistance did you face, and how did you overcome it? It is surprising how easy it is to forget what God communicated to you once you get into the mess of louder voices saying that you have lost your marbles. My family was not really on board with the whole plan to become a missionary. Being not particularly committed to or involved in a church community or living passionate lives of faith, the very idea of becoming a missionary seemed strange and risky and dangerous and a little crazy to them. They were afraid that it would not be possible for me to raise enough support. They were afraid that I would be living in poverty for the rest of my life (they probably still have this worry). They were worried that they were watching any possibility of a successful future slip away. They were worried that I wouldnt be safe. They were worried that I would be homesick. They were worried that I hadnt thought things through. They were worried that I would fail. One thing that they were right about was that I did not really know what I was getting myself into, but that is the way it goes when you follow Jesus. None of us really know what we are getting ourselves into. So I just clung to the fact that God called me to Japan. There were times that I doubted it would ever happen, but I just tried to hang onto the hope that he was still going to send me. I guess the key to overcoming resistance to the weird in your life is to be really sure of it at some point, and never ever forget that moment of certainty. The pressure to be normal can be immense, but theres not a lot of joy in giving up a calling.

+Did you have people doubt your path? How did you deal with those who doubted you? I mentioned that my family doubted my path. Some of their doubt and the pressure to change direction was pretty strong. It was especially difficult to choose a path that caused stress to the people who had supported me while I was growing and studying. And it was really hard to face the first time I really disagreed with my mom on a major decision. I wanted to show them love and respect, but I couldnt deny that God had asked me to go to Japan. I think that probably I just came across as stubborn. But that was a starting point for learning that as we stand firm in what we have been called to do, it is so important to do our best to preserve, as much as possible, the relationships we have with our family and friends, even when they dont understand or support our choices. +How has being a weirdo changed your life? This question is impossible to answer thoroughly without writing a book of my own, so I will do my best to boil it down to a few significant things. One thing is that it made me a little bit weirdo-centric at first. I became a pretty big fan of other weirdos, especially the ones who looked like me. And, though I dont think that I carried it to any particularly terrible extremes, that way of thinking can make one a little prejudiced. More recently, a fuller acceptance of my own weirdness and some stinging lessons in humility has me thinking that if normal (or traditional or conventional or whatever) and weird, in whatever circumstance we are found together, are going to live in some kind of harmony, we need respect for each other. Living in another culture has taught me that there are all different shapes of things like normal and common sense, which means that if you travel to enough places you are bound to find a place where you are normal and many more places where you are weird. But the joy really is in finding an enjoyment of the diversity that God has created in this world -- in people, in cultures, in nature, etc. I am blessed to be part of and work with a church family that, on our good days, really has a love for one another despite the fact that

we come from many different countries, backgrounds and versions of weird. And that is one place where real beauty is found. +How have you been able to affect other peoples lives? This is really hard to say, but I went from being normal-ish and lonely to being weird and surrounded by other weirdos in varying stages of accepting their own weirdness. So I would imagine that just being together puts me in their stories. My hope is that I am in the parts where they are growing or rejoicing or resting peacefully or finding support in the midst of difficulty. Have you ever lived someone elses life conformed to what other people expected of you? How did that work out for you? Basically, I feel like I can usually say that I embrace the way that I am, and I try to do that in a way that glorifies God. But there is this chunk of my personality that likes very much to fly below the radar. I dont like to make mistakes, especially public ones, and I dont like to find myself in situations where the attention of many is focused on me. One of the best ways to avoid those types of situations is to blend in, and blending is done best by the people who are just like everyone else. Especially in Japanese culture, there is a high social premium on conforming to the group. So it is easy for me to fall into the trap of succumbing to the pressure to be like everyone else. In my first couple of years in Japan, I really struggled with this. I felt like I was losing who I was as I adjusted to the new culture. Part of that was just normal cultural adjustment, but another part was learning where it was necessary to conform and where there was more flexibility to be freely weird. I learned that there are parts of me that it was ok to part with -- pieces of my uniqueness that could be changed without altering my identity or challenging my calling. And those small changes sometimes made me better and certainly earned me more acceptance and flexibility with my new friends and coworkers for the other parts that wouldnt be changing.

Anything else you would like to share with wannabe weirdos? God made us in his image, so that means that God is weird too. And he also made us to live in community like he does. So I say that as long as your weirdness is not isolating yourself or stomping on anyone elses weirdness, live it! There are so many good, sweet, beautiful things in this world, and being a weirdo is definitely one of them. And being one weirdo in the company of many weirdos is what makes life an adventure.

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