Sasha Ingle

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The Weirdness Studies

Sasha Inglemissionary, disciple of Jesus


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+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 Japanon 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 mis-

sionary from Canada and a Japanese lady who works part-

time 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 diversecommunity, and one of my main responsibilities is support-

ing 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 won-

derful 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 nd ways

to t in, grow, serve and ourish 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 in-ner 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 mis-

sion work. The next summer, I went on a 6 week mission trip

to Sendai, Japan to teach English using the Bible. That was a


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place where I felt like God was using my talents and stretch-

ing 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 Ger-

man -- 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 couldserve 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 communi-

cated 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 wor-

ried 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 wor-

ried 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 wouldever 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.


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+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 difcult to choose a path that

caused stress to the people who had supported me while Iwas growing and studying. And it was really hard to face the

rst 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 prob-

ably I just came across as stubborn. But that was a starting

point for learning that as we stand rm 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 signicant things. One thing is that it made me a

little bit weirdo-centric at rst. 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 preju-

diced. More recently, a fuller acceptance of my own weird-

ness 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 alldifferent shapes of things like normal and common sense,

which means that if you travel to enough places you are

bound to nd a place where you are normal and many more

places where you are weird. But the joy really is in nding

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


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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-ishand 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 re-

joicing or resting peacefully or nding support in the midst of

difculty.

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 glories God. But

there is this chunk of my personality that likes very much to

y below the radar. I dont like to make mistakes, especially

public ones, and I dont like to nd 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 every-

one 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 rst 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 adjust-

ment, but another part was learning where it was necessaryto conform and where there was more exibility 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 cer-

tainly earned me more acceptance and exibility with my

new friends and coworkers for the other parts that wouldnt

be changing.


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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 your-

self or stomping on anyone elses weirdness, live it! There areso many good, sweet, beautiful things in this world, and be-

ing a weirdo is denitely one of them. And being one weirdo

in the company of many weirdos is what makes life an ad-

venture.


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Sasha Ingle