Imagine going out for your regular morning walk as dozens of people stare at you and occasionally try to get your attention with comments in broken English. Picture yourself in a zoo, at an animal show, sitting on the bleachers waiting for the program to start when suddenly someone taps you on the shoulder. It’s a stranger—a girl with big, brown eyes wearing a school uniform. She sits next to you and gestures, asking to take a picture with you. A few moments later, the rest of her classmates are clustering around you for a group photo! Apparently, seeing you here with your farang (foreigner) friends is a momentous occasion for them.
Some people might enjoy all this celebrity-status interest. However, I don’t love being the center of attention, so being an exotic farang in Thailand isn’t exactly my dream come true. “What is it?” I often want to ask. “Do I look like an alien or an endangered species, or do I have some sort of neon sign flashing LOOK HERE?” This has been one of the hardest cultural adjustments for me. And it makes me wonder, if I’m so foreign and strange to them, what makes me think they are going to consider my equally foreign religious beliefs? This is a question that I believe many missionaries have asked in the past and continue to struggle with today, especially here in Thailand where people’s culture and identity are wrapped up in a superstitious type of Buddhism that is almost completely opposite of Western Christianity.
In all honesty though, the struggle is usually more internal than external. We are actually called to be different, as it says in 1 Pet. 2:9. And if you think about it, Jesus was really the ultimate farang. While on earth, He may not have looked different from the average Galilean, but you can’t read your Bible and tell me He didn’t come across as radically different, strange and foreign to the locals—even in His hometown. Because His true home was not this world, people could feel the atmosphere change as soon as He walked into the room, and they would say, “No man ever spoke like this man” (John 7:46). To me, the moral of the story is, maybe it’s not so bad to be different. Maybe it’s possible to take what seems like an annoyance and turn it into an amazing opportunity for ministry. I have already seen how, despite the language and culture barrier, God has worked through these slightly uncomfortable circumstances to give me opportunities to share about Him with those I meet.
I need to be reminded that no matter where I go, I will be different, because I am a committed follower of Christ. Light is shocking to someone who lives in darkness, and God is light (1 John 1:5). So if God’s light is in my heart, I shouldn’t expect to feel normal on this dark earth. But just as Jesus lived outside the norm in order to draw people to Himself, I pray that God will give me courage to embrace the extra attention I receive from Thai people and live to proclaim the praises of Him who called this farang out of darkness into His marvelous light.
