“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” John 4:34-38
It's been four months since The Beautiful Feet Project's vision trip to Japan. Since then, God has been moving mountains to prepare for harvest in 2020. I'd like to share some major updates and ways that you can partner in the work both stateside and in Japan 2020.
It's been four months since The Beautiful Feet Project's vision trip to Japan. Since then, God has been moving mountains to prepare for harvest in 2020. I'd like to share some major updates and ways that you can partner in the work both stateside and in Japan 2020.
The Beautiful Feet Project & Converge Ministries
For the last nine months, I've been in connection with Brian Lusky, the lead missionary for Converge's Japan Initiative. Converge is a movement of churches working to help people meet, know and follow Jesus by starting and strengthening churches worldwide. They have partnered with Rengo (Baptist) churches in Japan for the last 70 years. Brian is leading The Japan Initiative (thejapaninitiative.com) which aims to find the next Gospel movement in Japan. He is focused on leveraging church planting, missional communities, and discipleship pathways to see Japan removed from the unreached people groups list in our generation.
The Beautiful Feet Project and The Japan Initiative are aligned in our vision to equip and mobilize leaders to serve vulnerable churches in Japan.
Because of this, I have joined Converge's staff as The Japan Initiative's Pathway Director. The Beautiful Feet Project is now a Converge endorsed ministry, allowing us to be a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization. This is a huge miracle, as it allows us to accept online giving through Converge without having to navigate taxes and legal systems. Additionally, The Beautiful Feet Project is now the official leadership development pipeline for The Japan Initiative.
The Beautiful Feet Project and The Japan Initiative are aligned in our vision to equip and mobilize leaders to serve vulnerable churches in Japan.
Because of this, I have joined Converge's staff as The Japan Initiative's Pathway Director. The Beautiful Feet Project is now a Converge endorsed ministry, allowing us to be a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization. This is a huge miracle, as it allows us to accept online giving through Converge without having to navigate taxes and legal systems. Additionally, The Beautiful Feet Project is now the official leadership development pipeline for The Japan Initiative.
Scalability
Scalability is the idea of building an efficient process that works in a multiplicative manner. This is common in software development, as online tools and apps are built in a way that allows hundreds of thousands of people to use them with the same consistent results.
In years to come, The Beautiful Feet Project will be equipping and mobilizing 100 short term missionaries a year to Japan. Because of this, we need to build scalable tools and a leadership development culture to help us develop the next generation of missionaries to Japan.
This leads to some prayer requests:
Software Development: The Beautiful Feet Project will be developing new software to more effectively reach the Japanese. God has blessed me with three individuals who have the gift of software design and a heart for the people of Japan. Please pray for God to bless the works of their hand, as the software tools they build will reap decades of harvest in Japan.
Financial Process Development: In our last five years of ministry, we have sent 9 people to Japan and raised over $60,000. If we scale up to 100 missionaries a year, our operation cost will be around $400,000 a year to sustain our ministry. These funds will be given $20-$200 at a time which is about 4,000 transactions a year. We need to build a robust accounting structure to prepare for not only our 2020 trip but for the decades to come. Pray for God to provide The Beautiful Feet Project with harvesters who have a heart for Japan and are equipped with the gifts of finance and accounting.
Creative Arts Curriculum: A large portion of our ministry has been focused on children, and we've found that art activities have been a great way to contextualize the Gospel. This past year we were provided with biblical art activities to enrich our ministries. As we scale our ministries we would want to standardize our curriculum to provide consistency in our outreach to Japan. Pray for God to provide The Beautiful Feet Project with a Creative Director who can drive this curriculum development.
English As A Second Language (ESL) Curriculum: Besides the Gospel, English is the greatest need in Japanese communities, particularly in rural areas. Native English speakers are a huge incentive for locals to attend programs in the church. The problem is native English teachers know how to speak English...not how to teach it to the Japanese.
Last year, Felicia developed ESL curriculum and training videos so that our Tokyo/Shingu team could bring excellence in our teaching without a formal degree. Please pray for God to provide additional ESL professionals to drive the curriculum, and someone gifted in videography to develop training videos for the native English speakers.
Bilingual Worship Arts: Worship provides the opportunity for us to be vulnerable with our creator. The Japanese have limited opportunities to listen to worship in their native tongue. There are also expectations from Japanese churches that we provide worship experiences in English as well. This year we are partnering with The Figs Foundation (figsfoundation.org) and Tribe Worship Collective (www.facebook.com/tribeworshipcollective) to develop a bilingual worship experience for future bible camps. Please pray for God to lead this collaboration, so the Japanese can have a powerful encounter with Christ through bilingual worship.
Trip Coordination: A good portion of my time is spent in communication with Japanese churches to find the right ministry opportunities, skills needed, and timing of travel. Summer vacation is different in every region of Japan, and stateside missionaries have different availability for a trip. Coordination of flight itineraries, ministry objectives, and general logistics will require support as we grow. Please pray for God to provide someone with cross-cultural experience who desires to advance the Gospel in Japan by securing cost-effective flights, and choosing optimal itineraries for our trips.
A Leadership Development Culture: As God provides the above, it will provide me the margin to focus on our leadership development culture. I'm currently discipling three team leads for our 2020 trip. I want to build a culture of leaders who make leaders. I'm also building a small group experience for 2020 team members. The hope is that this small group will provide better insight as to why we minister to Japan, what our spiritual gifts are, and how we can leverage them as a team to see the Gospel flourish in Japan. Pray for God to raise up leaders who have the gifts necessary to make an impact in Japan.
Japan 2020: God has provided The Beautiful Feet Project with an aligned vision for 2020. We will send two teams to Japan. One team led by Isaiah and Preston will minister to Tokyo and Shingu for two weeks. The second team lead by myself (Joe) and Felicia will minister to Iwate and Sendai for three weeks. The dates continue to be a challenge based on the Summer Olympics and Obon (a religious celebration of dead ancestors). We are praying for an additional three people to join the Shingu/Tokyo team. For our ministry in Iwate/Sendai, we can have a team of twelve. Pray for wisdom as we build compatible teams that are balanced and focused on partnering with Japanese churches.
If you feel led to join our stateside team, partner with us financially, cover us in prayer, or go with us in 2020, please email us at [email protected].
Let's reap a harvest in Japan, and let's start now.
Thanks!
The Beautiful Feat Project
In years to come, The Beautiful Feet Project will be equipping and mobilizing 100 short term missionaries a year to Japan. Because of this, we need to build scalable tools and a leadership development culture to help us develop the next generation of missionaries to Japan.
This leads to some prayer requests:
Software Development: The Beautiful Feet Project will be developing new software to more effectively reach the Japanese. God has blessed me with three individuals who have the gift of software design and a heart for the people of Japan. Please pray for God to bless the works of their hand, as the software tools they build will reap decades of harvest in Japan.
Financial Process Development: In our last five years of ministry, we have sent 9 people to Japan and raised over $60,000. If we scale up to 100 missionaries a year, our operation cost will be around $400,000 a year to sustain our ministry. These funds will be given $20-$200 at a time which is about 4,000 transactions a year. We need to build a robust accounting structure to prepare for not only our 2020 trip but for the decades to come. Pray for God to provide The Beautiful Feet Project with harvesters who have a heart for Japan and are equipped with the gifts of finance and accounting.
Creative Arts Curriculum: A large portion of our ministry has been focused on children, and we've found that art activities have been a great way to contextualize the Gospel. This past year we were provided with biblical art activities to enrich our ministries. As we scale our ministries we would want to standardize our curriculum to provide consistency in our outreach to Japan. Pray for God to provide The Beautiful Feet Project with a Creative Director who can drive this curriculum development.
English As A Second Language (ESL) Curriculum: Besides the Gospel, English is the greatest need in Japanese communities, particularly in rural areas. Native English speakers are a huge incentive for locals to attend programs in the church. The problem is native English teachers know how to speak English...not how to teach it to the Japanese.
Last year, Felicia developed ESL curriculum and training videos so that our Tokyo/Shingu team could bring excellence in our teaching without a formal degree. Please pray for God to provide additional ESL professionals to drive the curriculum, and someone gifted in videography to develop training videos for the native English speakers.
Bilingual Worship Arts: Worship provides the opportunity for us to be vulnerable with our creator. The Japanese have limited opportunities to listen to worship in their native tongue. There are also expectations from Japanese churches that we provide worship experiences in English as well. This year we are partnering with The Figs Foundation (figsfoundation.org) and Tribe Worship Collective (www.facebook.com/tribeworshipcollective) to develop a bilingual worship experience for future bible camps. Please pray for God to lead this collaboration, so the Japanese can have a powerful encounter with Christ through bilingual worship.
Trip Coordination: A good portion of my time is spent in communication with Japanese churches to find the right ministry opportunities, skills needed, and timing of travel. Summer vacation is different in every region of Japan, and stateside missionaries have different availability for a trip. Coordination of flight itineraries, ministry objectives, and general logistics will require support as we grow. Please pray for God to provide someone with cross-cultural experience who desires to advance the Gospel in Japan by securing cost-effective flights, and choosing optimal itineraries for our trips.
A Leadership Development Culture: As God provides the above, it will provide me the margin to focus on our leadership development culture. I'm currently discipling three team leads for our 2020 trip. I want to build a culture of leaders who make leaders. I'm also building a small group experience for 2020 team members. The hope is that this small group will provide better insight as to why we minister to Japan, what our spiritual gifts are, and how we can leverage them as a team to see the Gospel flourish in Japan. Pray for God to raise up leaders who have the gifts necessary to make an impact in Japan.
Japan 2020: God has provided The Beautiful Feet Project with an aligned vision for 2020. We will send two teams to Japan. One team led by Isaiah and Preston will minister to Tokyo and Shingu for two weeks. The second team lead by myself (Joe) and Felicia will minister to Iwate and Sendai for three weeks. The dates continue to be a challenge based on the Summer Olympics and Obon (a religious celebration of dead ancestors). We are praying for an additional three people to join the Shingu/Tokyo team. For our ministry in Iwate/Sendai, we can have a team of twelve. Pray for wisdom as we build compatible teams that are balanced and focused on partnering with Japanese churches.
If you feel led to join our stateside team, partner with us financially, cover us in prayer, or go with us in 2020, please email us at [email protected].
Let's reap a harvest in Japan, and let's start now.
Thanks!
The Beautiful Feat Project