Strangers & Aliens

By Rodney J. Osborne

Have you ever felt like a stranger, even in your own country? Rodney was born in Japan and at the age of seven, came to Australia. He was in for a shock. A culture shock. To say he wasn't coping with the many changes in culture would be an understatement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9780987254948

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Introduction

Aliens? I don’t mean creatures from another planet. It is the term that I find best describes how I feel at times. I am an Australian, born in Japan with an Irish born father. I picked up an American accent while attending an English speaking school in Japan. I don’t look like a Japanese, nor sound like an Australian, American or an Irishman. So what and who am I?

When I have to fill out forms for the taxation department, social security, insurance applications, electoral rolls and even license applications and the like, I always get a strange look and then get asked more questions. You will know the parts – ‘Place of birth’. I have to write Japan. Further to that, once I speak, they can’t quite place the accent and I have to tell the story and it goes like this: I was born in Japan, my parents were missionaries and while I was there I went to an American school. Then I came to Australia (over 40 years ago) and that is why I talk the way I do.

This book is firstly for me. It is a research project to answer questions about myself. It is an attempt to understand better who I am as well as what my purpose is. I am a firm believer in the God who created me with a unique plan that requires fulfillment. I have a contribution to make to this world and the people that live on it, that is ordained and pre-destined. Those circumstances and events, such as my ‘milkshake’ of a cultural background, that have shaped my life so far are preparation for and the working out of that mission.

Speaking of contribution, the first reason I am putting this together as a book is because I believe other missionary kids (MK’s) like myself, will benefit from it. This book is for those MK’s that have had some difficulty in assimilating into another culture. This book states, and for me clarifies and puts in one place the knowledge I have gained about myself and the subject. Bruce Lee said ‘knowledge is power, understanding is potency’. Putting this knowledge into book form helps me understand and then live the powerful life that is what I suspect, I was born for. For me, as well as other MK’s, the purpose is to gain some insight or understanding to ourselves and our perceptions, which will empower us to accept who we are as well.

This book is also for missionaries and soon to be missionaries, to help prepare themselves and their kids for some of the same cultural changes they will experience. Missionaries walk and live, big time, by faith. Their children’s up-bringing is usually a big part of that faith – but like the prophet Jeremiah found (see chapter 20:7), it doesn’t always work out. Things can appear to go wrong when we answer God’s call and we can find ourselves saying to God, You have deceived me! Let us not confuse faith with ignorance. Yes, God has called you and part of that call means He will provide for the MK’s. That however does not mean that parents don’t give the important issues another thought.

Lastly, and more generally, this book is for all Christians. From the moment of becoming a ‘born again Christian’ we are no longer part of this world. We are citizens of heaven – the real ‘God’s country’. I know – those who live in Wollongong, NSW Australia, as I do, believe they are already in God’s country. So does anyone who likes where they live. It doesn’t take long to find though, that our culture, wherever it might be, is a long way from God’s culture.

Let me get back to ‘all Christians’. The MK’s experience is not that much different to any other believer. While we are here, we are in-fact aliens – to this world. Or could it be the other way around? – We are the citizens and the rest of the world’s population is the alien life forms.

Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,

Eph 2:19

1. My story

Iam a Missionary Kid (MK). I was born in Tokyo, Japan in March 1963. Both my older brother and sister were also born in Japan and my younger brother was born in the USA. The last time I left Japan was by a ship called, the S.S. Cathay, when I was seven years old. I had been back to Australia a couple of times before that, but only for a short stay, and then we were back to Japan.

On these visits to and from Japan, my father would spend a great deal of time doing ‘deputation’ work. That meant traveling around churches, speaking and preaching in order to raise financial support for our next stay in Japan.

Sometimes, we would be dressed in our Sunday best suit and presented to churches as a ‘look good family’. We probably were the best looking family there anyway, but putting on appearances was a never thing I was comfortable with. Especially when what was starting to happen within my family was not the same as how we presented.

Part of the preparation for the next term of missionary work we would do was get a professional photo taken and have them printed on a card so that those supporting us could see who they were supporting and praying for. As it turned out, there was a lot more prayer than support. We were to see God’s provision through other means time and time again.

One of the things I disliked doing the most was standing up in front of a church, as a family, and singing a song in Japanese. That was just embarrassing for me, but to everyone else, it was ‘cute’. If only I could be seen now. The only song I remember now in Japanese is a jingle off an advertisement for a beer company.

why are they laughing at me? Have I said something foolish or stupid?

It was only with the last trip to Australia that I recall experiencing some cultural adjustments. Perhaps before that, on the visits, there was a sense that it was just a visit and also being younger I looked at the world as a child and just accepted what was around me. I was still a child, but there was a more permanent sense to that last trip.

On this trip back to Australia the ship stopped at Brisbane. We had a couple of days there so Dad decided to take us on a tour. I remember approaching a bus stop and seeing the sign ‘Hail bus here’. I immediately asked about the safety of standing in a place where it hailed buses. This attracted some laughter, but I got even more laughs for the comment about the filthy hospitals named the ‘Body Repair Shop’. I wasn’t trying to be funny. Generally, I don’t see myself as a comedian, so I was left wondering what was so funny. Not understanding what just happened caused me to take it to heart – why are they laughing at me? Have I said something foolish or stupid? My introduction to the ‘Aussie’ humor was and still is somewhat beyond my comprehension. It goes the other way too. Most Aussies don’t get my humor either. I have told more jokes that no-one got than anyone else I know. My best strategy is to laugh heartily at my own jokes. It isn’t just Aussie humor. I have difficulty seeing the humor in most things that others see it in, no matter what part of the world they come from. It isn’t because I lack a sense of humor either. Anyone who knows me will describe my sense of humor as ‘dry.’ For example, once I placed some fried potatoes chips on the bonnet of a friend’s old beat-up car while he was temporarily distracted. What is so funny about that, you might ask. Well, we were parked by the one of the beautiful beaches in Wollongong. Still don’t get it? Chips by the beach attract seagulls by the hundreds. I still laugh about it, even though my colleague doesn’t see the funny side. So I do have one. A sense of humor, that is. It’s just no-one else seems to share in what I find comical.

Moving on from the Brisbane episode, we arrived in Melbourne after a stop in Sydney and set up our home in a suburb called Templestowe. I remember the school and in a recent move to Melbourne when I drove past it, I remembered it straight away. I made a friend there. His name was Myles. He was the ‘slowest’ kid in the class and I found I could help him with his math in exchange for him helping me learn to ride a horse. The only other main memories from that time were the ‘Billy-carts’ we made and raced down the hill, and my father getting very sick from a bleeding ulcer in his stomach.

It wasn’t long and we were packing, on our way to a place called Albury, on the Victorian and NSW border. On the drive there, I was awestruck by how big this country of Australia was. It seemed so flat and it went on as far as the eye could see, and that perception didn’t change as we traveled along at a then seemingly astounding speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

Dad became the minister of a church there and I started in the 5th grade at Albury North Public School. Colin, my younger brother was in 4th grade and Carolyn, my sister and David, my older brother were in High school. Our stay in Albury is probably best remembered as the time where culture shock hit us all with its full force. It had a negative effect on all of us and I could write a book on what we got up to over the next 6 years. I will spare the reader and just summarize them. We were in fights at school and after school. There was too much drinking of alcohol and some experiments with drugs. There was some running away from home, parties that no-one should attend and parties we weren’t even invited to. There was a stabbing or two, as well as a shooting in the knee and the finger, lacerations from broken glass and other sharp objects, to various body parts, visits to the hospital, and visits to the police station, and the local court house. Our ‘look good’ family fell apart.

I finished high school in year 10 and moved ahead of my parents to Newcastle, NSW. There I started the life of work, and stopped getting into trouble. My time in Newcastle represents the times that I met the most important people in my life. First, I met Jesus Christ again through His servant Brian Houston, and got my life sorted out. Second, I met my wife, Elizabeth. We started a family and were involved in a church. My work life, on the other hand was described best by going from job to job and never really finding my purpose. Finally I answered a call to Bible College.

My family and I moved to Sydney to complete my formal Theological studies. Once completed, I went into a church where, I was not readily accepted and then asked for my resignation after 6 months. That was a blow to my spiritual life and I virtually abandoned any hopes of future ministry, so I reentered the workforce doing various jobs.

I don’t want to digress too much from the subject for this book so the rest of the story is in my testimony at the end of this book. My personal journey through life has had one question nagging in the back of my mind, and perhaps I am not alone. In fact, I know, I am not alone because someone categorized us, the MK’s as the ‘third culture kids’. That question is:

Where do I belong?

Am I Japanese, Australian or Irish? What kind of name is ‘Rodney’ anyway? I seem so different from others – my sense of humor, my sense of personal space, morals, values, manners and vocabulary feels like they came from another planet. How do I fit in? How do I make friends?

Because I have traveled the world, I see it differently than those who have never left their own town. I have a mixture of customs. Some of them are from Australia, the United States, and Japan. Some I like and others I dislike. Some I mixed together and some I just made up. So how do I live in this country? What is socially acceptable and what is not? Must I keep learning by trial and error?

Well, there are a lot of questions. Maybe some of them are yours too. Continue with me and let’s see if we can answer them.

2. The cultures of the world

There are around 195 countries on the globe. Each has their own culture and sub-cultures. How many cultures are there