Awful Face to Book Communication

In my travels I’ve seen some have a very narrow view of what it takes to be a missionary and embark upon different journeys for the Lord. I understand though. I blogged earlier about how I believe the Australians ride kangaroos. People have told me that is not true.

I stand. But I do not stand corrected.

This is part two of a blog posted yesterday on the unseen behind jobs and missions work that can be found right here…

I do partially blame that entity known as “The Facebook”

Last year in Asia I would occasionally have a talk that went like this

“Hey Jacob, looks like you are having a lot of fun.”

“Uh, yeah, I love Taiwan. (Thinking about how I was sweaty and had just cleaned something up)”

“Do you actually do ANY ministry? All your photos on Facebook look like you just party all day and all night.”

SLICE…

Words like that would paper cut my soul. If I dwelled on them it would become infected with bitterness and frustration. To be really honest, some of what people said used to really bother me.

Perhaps in some regard I am to blame for the occasional misdirected question. Facebook photos often have me dressed up as a pirate, my knee bleeding from some adventure at karaoke, standing at a beautiful temple of unseen evil. Yet… I didn’t take five hundred Facebook photos of me teaching every week.

Why you ask? Well…

It looks boring.

Well usually boring…

Interesting fact!

It’s repetitive. A new picture of an old thing often tells the same story.

Poll-time!

Do you take photos of your job every week? What do you do? If you feed bears, please do. I would also like a copy of any action shots you get.

Onetime I explained why I don’t have a ton of teaching photos to someone in America and they told me I was wrong to not post teaching photos every single week.

They said I shouldn’t post fun things on the Internet all the time. It looks like I’m having too much fun and nobody will like my missions work.

Obviously I left my family, friends, and the girl I wanted to marry to live an exotic love story with the road. It wasn’t hard or anything. Right?

All About Us – He Is We

Note: The tone of the article is happy grinning. There is no passive-aggressive undertone. I love life. I love Taiwan. I love everyone. Including my cat, my other cat, my ferret, and that angry bird that will not cuddle with me. Nothing will cuddle with me.

I usually just thought… What is this?!?! Victorian England?!?!

Admittedly I will gladly wear a powder wig and serve in the common wealth if it’s the call of God. They are as stylish as ever since Assassins Creed 3 showed them off.  It begged the question though, do I not have the right to take on a stylish and fun Facebook like the other apostles and Peter?

Oh that kidder and his confused view of my social media! I told him that in general people support me because they love me and value my ministry and God has lead them to support me…

I’m more than the photos they see. Yet often in the eyes of people. I was merely the sum of the photo’s they see.

Facebook gives us such a strange view into the lives of those around us. Sometimes we need to unplug and just engage each other in the real world.

While my heart SHATTERED to see the Taiwanese worship Buddha, in western culture a photograph of a temple only makes most people say, “Cool! Good art Bro!” because westerners don’t usually see the dark spiritual oppression behind it.

I would start to feel guilty when people asked why I enjoy life so much. Those words stung a little bit. Taiwan isn’t like most other countries. It doesn’t have huge “felt” needs. There are not enough orphans to put in my profile picture to look like a compassionate individual. Often I was just photographed eating. And usually if they photographed me eating it was not anything I would like to see again. The Taiwanese students usually had more money than I did. Nobody was poor and dying of dysentery in my apartment complex. We had running water, all my students had IPhones, TV and sleep was oxygen to most students, and I could get fatter if I wasn’t careful just based on the average diet.

In short I was in a really advanced first world society. Much like America.

Yet so many of these Taiwanese are so lovely, valuable, giving, kind, and absolutely need Jesus! That’s what we were offering. To be accused of not working was offensive at first. It’s funny looking back at the things that wound us.

I was working all the time! My boss and his wife had given up everything and traveled 12,000 miles from home to start a school. I had given up my life in America to come and serve. Dale had given up the comfort of home before I had and came alone to Taiwan!

We weren’t just sipping tea and wandering around. Well, at least vocationally. I did drink tea and wander in my free time.

Many missionaries put so much effort into seeing lives changed. Yet it was sometimes hard to express that to those who had not walked our journey with us. While mission work is incredibly rewarding, The glam shots of National Geographic are in between the real everyday life.

Every field is so different.

Realistically much of the time I was in an office. I worked a 9-5. Sometimes more than a 9-5.

I taught English, I went to meetings, I prepared for classes. I taught all week for hours and… you get the drift.

Every day Jesus showed up so much in our lives. I had so many incredible life changing stories that just didn’t fit into the stereotypical missionary work.

I LOVED IT. I think about it everyday. Yet it wasn’t always running from police and smashing idols. I will not feign innocence in certain matters though.

Misunderstood – Robbie Williams

Still it was so hard to portray the daily grind to people long distance. The exoticness of being a missionary wears off in the immigration office or when you go to the store for the third time to find out that they don’t have what you need. It wears off on Saturday when you watch an English movie in your home, eat dinner at 7/11, and read a book.

After awhile though I stopped taking the weird misdirected pot shots so personally.

We are all human. We all say things that just aren’t the most wonderful or encouraging. Or educated. I just started to laugh about things.

These days I actually find it quite hilarious what people say…

Friends argue with me about Taiwan because they watched a documentary and probably know more now then I do. As much as I want to say “Just because you saw it on discovery channel it doesn’t trump two years of my life.”

Do I not believe strange things from TV and spew them off like facts I have personally tested?

Most people have actually asked me how Thailand is and told me that they are praying for my ministry in Thailand. Or Korea. Or Japan. Or China. Or Vietnam. Or Cambodia. Or Laos. Or pretty much everywhere but Taiwan now that I reflect on it… Maybe one in six gets the right country. I’m not talking about strange relations too. My dad was wondering how Thailand was for quite awhile and would call me during natural disasters.

I don’t correct anyone anymore. I’m just grateful they remember anything of that sort!

I secretly wonder with so many people praying for my ministry in Thailand if God is doing great things there unbeknownst to me through some random connection. Or maybe a Jacob Smith is revolutionizing ministry in Thailand all thanks to the wonderful prayers of the many people who believe that I live there.  I hope to meet the Dale Nolan that is in Thailand changing the country for God. I know many people have prayed for that guy too.

I suppose now looking forward I am actually going to Thailand next year.

Maybe then I will cash in hundreds of prayers for back pay.

At first my foolishness and selfishness made me feel like…

“DOES ANYONE CARE WHERE I AM?!?!?”

Now I just laugh. It’s really comical in the end. Ask any missionary from Thailand. Most people think they are in Taiwan.

As God grew me though a much gentler and happier joy began to fill areas like that in my life. Honestly I am SOOOO Grateful that people pray for me, regardless of what country. God knows, right everyone?

It starts to ask the question though. How do we know people? How do we get to understand people deeper? How do we not assume so much in this culture?

Last year when Thailand flooded people would call and ask if I’m safe. I do ever appreciate that. I would let them know I am and that the flood season isn’t as bad as western media makes it out to be.

Then one-day Taiwan flooded and nobody really cared. I suppose that is the flip side of the coin. Nobody lost hard drives in Taiwan and honestly the Taiwanese handled it like a champ.

 

Some friends thought I lived in a rice paddy with a monk and learned the ways of Wushu while meticulously doing farm chores that really held a much deeper meaning rooted in ancient fighting styles. This is only half-true.

Some thought, in a well-meaning way, that I had no worries. From time to time I heard…

“It’s been so hard Jake, being here and having to pay my bills and get everything in on time. You wouldn’t know how hard it is though in the real world Jake.”

I guess the hilarious assumption was that as a missionary I lived in free housing, ate off other people’s dime, and in general lived a rather communist existence.

I can understand why we think things like this.

We just haven’t experienced what it is like to live on the mission field. I don’t know what it’s like to have children. They are cute from a distance, but I am sure they are not nearly as easy as appear in public.

Most didn’t know that I had rent to pay out of a paycheck I earned to pay for food and toiletries. I needed to pay rent on time like everyone else. To be fair though it is definitely different while I earned very little I actually lived really well because food was cheap and I don’t buy many things. Taiwan has such a GREAT quality of life. I go to the store now and panic… too many options and they all cost a fortune! No buses or trains… It’s hard to travel by taxi…

It’s hard to compare our perceptions of mission work to the real deal without experiencing it. I was always provided for in the end.

At the same time though I was sometimes thinking, “Man, it’s going to take a miracle to replace this pair of jeans.”

That was part of the beauty of serving overseas, learning to live on little, and yet living such a quality life because of relationships, food, and bedding. Those are the things that matter. Plus Jesus always did miracle me new pants. While it could be exciting, often I lived a normal style life.

I was a normal American living a normal existence in Taiwan. Why? Because that is life. Not everything is glamor and glitz. Shiny diamonds and big skydiving trips. I didn’t make bank. I didn’t party every weekend. I had meetings and deadlines.

I also did have a ton of fun.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I did trade a lot to be a missionary but it was so worth it.

Truth is IT ROCKED.

My Facebook photos SHOULD make you jealous.

That’s fine. Sniff a little and ask yourself if you’d like to live in Asia. It really can be a healthy thing after all. Many people gave up good careers and jobs to do ministry overseas and it started with that little heart-string tug. If you feel it now, you should probably keep feeling it and sell your house or something.

I had GREAT adventures. I did sing karaoke with wonderful students until wee hours of the night. I did see parts of the world that most will only see on television or read about in books. None of that is false! It was INCREDIBLE! Yet it had paperwork and hard days as well.

We live in a world of assumptions crafted by media, our worldview, bits of information, and the occasional letter. That’s life. It’s by no means wrong or even something we should be offended about. I am so guilty of this too. Every day I like the proverbial bull in the china shop, break the good china.

I have stuck my foot into my mouth more often then I think I have put food in. Disinformation is a huge part of living. A big reason God gave us a mind and brain is to sift through these crazy lies. Work out ideas when they are tough.

You know what solved a multitude of these misconceptions in my life?

Talking face to face, without “The Facebook.”

When I sat down with people we started to carve out our stories. Our lives intertwined, as we looked deeper into how each of us got here. It’s an important thing. It’s so easy to go to church and watch the same friends we grew up with do the daily grind. We have close friends, yes. Yet how often do we just say to someone we have known for years…

“What’s your story? Tell me your story again, how did you get here?”

God equips those He calls. He will give us all the grace to handle EVERYTHING that happens this next year. Yet, I took a step back and thought about how sometimes it can be so easy to glide over the work and hard parts that go into making something happen.

I was reminded that there are hardworking people everywhere to encourage. Be it missionaries giving up friends and family, a grueling process mind you, to serve in the hard parts of the world. A local pastor who works day and night to serve others for little fruit. A McDonalds employee who speaks English as a second language and everyday has a knot on the stomach from a stressful job and snide under the breath comments about “Learning English.”

How often have you just sat down with a missionary and talked through life? Take it a step further, when was the last time you learned something new about your mother and father? Your best friend? When was the last time you sat with someone who you don’t know from church? Or how bout taking it even further, someone you are intimidated by, annoyed by, or don’t know?

When we sit down and listen. A lot of times all of those things we feel are replaced by much greater love for the people around us. Deeper relationships. And yes, that word I tell everyone, everyday, community.

With that, if you find yourself in a group of people, and don’t know everybody’s story. Maybe… it is time to finally take that first step. And ask.

Plus also this song is stuck in my head…

Zombies Ate my Neighbors – Schoolboy