Every U.S. servicemember in Sasebo who is eligible to live out in town knows about the cho board. It’s basically a board of pamphlets, each pamphlet containing information about a residence that’s available for the taking. Thus begins another story of me not listening to God.
What do I want in an apartment? Good size? A good stove? Nice view? Opportunities to share the Gospel? Wait, hold on to that last one, I’ll get back to it.
One of the available places had the landlord living on the first floor and the tenants live on the second in their own separate apartments. For a short moment, I thought it might be a witnessing opportunity. Imagine having such close dealings with a Japanese family and being able to share the Gospel. I could just give them my Japanese bible if I had to.
Suddenly my “rational” mind kicked in. Why would you want to live just above your landlord; are you crazy? They’ll be mean. They’ll make you turn your music off. You’ll go crazy.
I bypassed the place and set up appointments to look at a couple of others, the latter of which I decided to rent. It was a modest 7th floor apartment right next to the shopping district, which meant that I wouldn’t need a car as I was planning. The paperwork appointment was scheduled for the week after next. I was a little uneasy with that timing, and in that respect I was right. The Friday before the appointment, I got the news that I would have to hit up a school elsewhere in Japan instead. Infuriated that my plan didn’t happen the way I wanted it to, I cancelled the appointment.
During that school though I was given the opportunity to return to The Lighthouse, a Christian hospitality house for U.S. servicemembers. My visit there two years ago had convinced me to get an assignment in Japan, and I had been feeling homesick for a while. God’s plan was working in spite of my rigid resistance.
I still don’t have a place in town, but neither do my junior subordinates. They’re not allowed. Some of them stopped me when I was out in town the other night and asked. To complain at all about not having a place in God’s presence is akin to complaining right in front of them. Meanwhile, once I do get a place, if at all, I’m still going to ask God what He wants to do with it. That is, if I don’t end up getting carried away trusting myself again.
人生行路 › About that landlord thing… | 21-Nov-07 at 10:46 pm | Permalink
[...] that house where the landlord lives under the tenants? I just was able to return to the housing office, and it happens to be available after all this [...]