First, I want to dedicate this post to anyone who has ever done something culturally wrong and lived to experience just how embarrassing it is. This one’s for you… ☺

The place: Tokyo, Japan. We had begun the day as normal as any other, word time in the morning followed by breaking off into our trek groups to do ministry until lunch. I can’t tell you what trek color I was with that day because after a traumatic incident things usually fade in comparison to what happened.

It was after lunch and we were just finishing up 5ME (5 Minute English). In Japan the trips take part in a ministry called 5 Minute English. Basically you stand on the sidewalk at a train station and sell the fact that you speak English. People love to practice their English in Japan so they come over and just talk. You get a great opportunity to share not only about why you’re there, but the gospel as well.

Anyway, back to” the incident.” It was after 5ME and we were boarding the train to head back to our hostel. The trains in Japan, though very crowded most of the time, are extremely quiet. Most people play games on their cell phones, text, or sleep while riding. After the first five days of riding you too get use to doing one of the three as well. So, after this long day of talking to people and standing on a sidewalk I was so excited when I snagged one of the seats on the train & was able to sit and rest for the ride back. I was between a lady texting and an older man sleeping when IT happened…

I flicked him.

That’s right, I flicked him. I don’t know if you can imagine how intense this moment actually was when I accidently flicked the old sleeping guy sitting next to me! The Japanese are not very touchy/feely people. They don’t hug, they don’t shake hands normally, nothing! So, not only did he jump ten feet into the air, he scooted away from me…no eye contact- just scooted as far away as possible. I was devastated. I tried to apologize, but of course it was no use. Who flicks people on the subway?!

Ok, now a moment to defend myself. This is what happened. While sitting on the subway I had drifted into that ‘after ministry’ daze. You know what I’m talking about. You may get it when you’re sitting at dinner or in your room after the day is over. You just fade out and start thinking through the day or the week or the people you’ve met. So there I was, out of it, and I had my arms crossed – my right hand making the “Okay” symbol, just sitting there. Then one muscle spasm later I had flicked a sleeping man and was the scorn of the train.

Ah well, I guess we all have some sort of cross cultural story that puts us into interesting situations with the locals. Mine forever will be, “I flicked a guy on the train in Tokyo once.” Ridiculous, hilarious, and completely embarrassing, what about you? Do you have a great “shocking the culture” story?

One of the best things I was ever told was, “Sarah, God’s not trying to trick you.”

I sighed in defeat as I scanned the apartment stuffed full of cardboard moving boxes. It was only 8 in the morning and I could already tell that this was going to be a long day. Matt (my husband) and I had made the decision to move to sunny southern California and now here I stood shoulder deep in our belongings crammed into our new miniature apartment.

Why California you ask? For a job? For family? For fame?

To all of these I say no, except for maybe the last one…if we’re lucky. We’ve moved to California for Matt to continue school. Somebody has to be the smart one in this family & I’m just glad God didn’t ask me (I get to be the cool one). Seriously though, with Matt going to school I am left to do the unpacking and so here I stood, in basketball shorts & an old tie dye shirt, surrounded by boxes. As I began to work on the boxes one by one my mind began to work back to how this all began and the faith we never thought would be tested, faith in our call.

Matt and I began to gain a grasp on the fact that God wanted us to move to California for Matt to go to school shortly after we were married. You’d think realizing this was a call God had given us would be enough to spark the courage we lacked, but it wasn’t. Our hearts were too tied to the obstacles that were in front of us to see clearly the faith God desired to build in us. We began to stress and fret. We didn’t see the solutions coming and we were running out of time! We were defeated, or so we felt.

Thinking on all of this I pulled out books and placed them on our bookshelf. About midway through I pulled out a medium sized, blue jean fabric photo album. My pictures from my iGO trip to Ethiopia, Africa. Looking through those photos I began to remember the faith that God had asked of me that summer.

The summer of 2008 I not only traveled to Ethiopia, Africa, but also to Alaska. How stressful it had been to raise funds for two trips. I remember the excitement of wanting to go mixed with the worry of if it was the right decision. Because of this internal conflict I began to question my desire to travel to both places. Did God really want me to go? If he had indeed called me to go this summer why was this so hard and uncomfortable? I began to become defeated.

When I become discouraged or worried I find the best thing I can do for the situation is to ground myself. I take a step back and try to separate how I feel from what I know. I felt like God was distant and because he was distant I was in the wrong place with this decision (Which can be true sometimes, but not always). I needed to know the facts. Facts like, God desires for good to come to me, not harm. (Ps. 23) God wants me to succeed. (2 Tim. 4:17) God is not indecisive, he knows what he wants for me. (Jer. 29:11)

These facts ground me into the thought of, “If all of this is fact (which it is) then I can state as a fact, God wants me to go.” Knowing that God wants me to go makes all the difference. When I knew that I want to go AND God wanted me to go, I turned a corner. I realized that even though it may be a hard, awkward, uncomfortable, faith stretching mess, I was going do it. I was going to work hard to succeed all the way up to the last moment.

So as I closed the scrapbook and looked out over the apartment, reminded of the internal struggle to have faith in God’s decisions for my (our) life. I must continuously balance emotions with facts, struggling to remind myself that God believes in me and so I should believe in myself. I can do this. I can work hard and try every option because he’s proud of me and is in my corner, and when I get there I can do well and be a success.

If God has called you to go this summer and it gets hard, if it seems like it’s not going to work or you don’t think you’re ready for it, remember, He will be with you. He is not trying to trick you.