As many doors as God has opened for me in South America, there were actually a few that I was unable to step through. One involved an invitation to visit the ministry among Japanese in Ecuador. The invitation was offered through the then ministry of Rev Kazuo Ozaki of the HCJB radio ministry, "Voice of the Andes" in Quito.
I originally met Pastor Ozaki while serving as a pastor in the San Gabriel Valley. I would later meet him and his family while serving in Brazil in 1995. If I am not mistaken, the invitation to visit Quito, Ecuador came around the moment this photo was taken!
[Japanese/Nikkei population statistics provided at right, courtesy 2012 JEMS South America training manual.]
The second was an invitation to consider visiting Japanese immigrants in Bolivia. As of 2010, there were 2,828 Japanese nationals living in that country and 11,350 Bolivians of Japanese descent. Most of the Japanese Bolivians work in agriculture, principally in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and the colonia Okinawa. In my visit, I would have accompanied a Japanese speaking Brazilian Nikkei pastor. But that trip never came to fruition.
The reminder of the trip to Bolivia comes to me as I study the immigration crisis that is facing Brazil. According to 2010 census report, there are more than 200,000 Bolivians working illegally in the city of São Paulo alone.
This reality struck me personally on a past mission trip. I am pictured (left) having dinner with friends in a suburb of São Paulo city.
Almost unnoticed in the background is a worker (pictured both left and below in detail), who upon being questioned in Portuguese, responded in a mixture of Spanish-sounding Portuguese. It was clear that he was not Brazilian. My subsequent effort to speak with him in Spanish resulted in a broad smile on his face.
He is likely one of hundreds of thousands of Bolivians, Peruvians, Paraguayans and others who are there working at the most menial tasks. Most are undocumented. And most do not receive a living wage.
What was even more surprising to me was the time it had taken me to notice them at all. It says really more about me than anything else.
It brings to mind an incident in the life of Jesus. In John chapter 9, we read, "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Jesus saw a man."
It's a familiar story, and yet the most poignant moment of this scene is often overlooked. That first verse includes four significant words, "he saw a man."
How about my Bolivian dishwasher? How about the person who takes your order at the local fast food joint? Or the fellow who cleans your school or your office? There are literally hundreds of unseen, unnoticed people all around us. We need the constant reminder of Jesus who "saw a man."
We have unfinished business as well. All around us, we are afforded the opportunity to introduce others to the One who enabled the blind man to see. Won't you step through that door?
