Of the approximately 2000 missionaries in Japan, Kyushu has around 200 missionaries working among 13 million people, and Miyazaki prefecture is unreached even within Kyushu, with less than 10 missionaries and only a handful of healthy churches. In obedience to the mission and vision God has given our team, we left Fukuoka City in 2020 and moved to Miyazaki to begin planting churches among the unreached of the unreached.
Where are we?
Miyazaki Prefecture is home to 1.07 million, and our team is in its largest city, Miyazaki City, which has a population of about 400,000. We hope to start here and eventually send out teams to even less reached areas.
Miyazaki City is a beautiful coastal locale in the Southeastern corner of Kyushu, known for its fresh produce, blue skies, and perfect waves for surfing.
Team Ministries
House Church
Through Discovery Bible Studies, a couple neighbors accepted Christ as Savior and began to gather at the Tom house for Sunday worship. Several more people have joined since then, and the team is now discipling each person so that they know how to lead gatherings of their own, share the gospel in their own circles, and use their unique skills and gifts to love one another so that they can bear fruit and multiply.
Prayer
Each week, our team spends time to pray. On some days, we’ll use a list to pray for our friends who don’t know Jesus yet. On other weeks—when it isn’t rainy or too hot!—we’ll keep our eyes open and prayer walk for the people and things we see as we wind our way through a neighborhood. Once a month, we join Nozomi’s home church’s prayer meeting.
Sports & Hobbies
Many people in Miyazaki are a part of hobby groups and sports activities—we have found them to be great ways to connect with people on a regular basis. The Toms have gone to the gym, opened their house for board games, and often go to their neighborhood park to meet people. Sean has coached American football at the local university, and has joined volleyball, basketball, running, and tennis groups to connect with people.
Team Mission & Vision
Our mission is to nurture people into becoming mature disciples of Jesus that gather as healthy, multiplying churches in Miyazaki.
Our vision is to send out church planting teams that raise up vibrant churches in every Kyushu prefecture.
Multiplying disciples
Jesus taught that all of God’s commands from the Old Testament can be summarized in these two things: Love God and love people. He also commanded his followers to make disciples and teach them to obey all that He commanded. Therefore, we want to make—and be—followers of Jesus who love God, love people, and are equipped to make more disciples.
Multiplying churches
We believe that quality discipleship will naturally result in vibrant, gospel-transformed communities that gather regularly as churches. Our goal is to leave behind healthy churches. This includes pastoral leadership, a biblical structure that includes elders and deacons/deaconesses, a culture that affirms each believer’s spiritual gifts in church ministry and the local community, a local church planting effort of its own, and an active role in supporting and sending out Japanese missionaries who serve cross-culturally.
Multiplying teams
We hope to send out church planting teams to each Kyushu prefecture (6 remaining). These teams will be the first to enter a prefecture before additional teams arrive, and with the help of the Japan Area, its goal will be to search for strategic cities within that prefecture, find new church planting partner possibilities, and recruit new teams once it has settled. With Launch focused on mobilization and training, our focus will be on finding and developing partnerships as well as researching and promoting new potential areas.
What we do, in one simple sentence
If grandma called, asked me what I was doing in Japan, and I only had a minute to chat with her, this is what I’d say: Hey grandma, “We share the gospel with our community and mentor those who believe to become fruitful followers of Jesus.“
Team Values
We abide in God
We meditate on and obey God’s Word and bring everything to him in prayer.
We rely on him for all of our needs to accomplish the mission he has given us.
We prioritize God’s Word above any other authority, God’s Kingdom above any other culture, and God’s plans above the wisdom of man.
We make opportunities for evangelism
We invest in personal relationships, taking the gospel to where we live, work, and play.
We encourage those we disciple to make disciples in their own circles.
We endeavor to understand the needs specific to our community and work toward meeting them.
We live with transparency, readily inviting others into our lives and homes to show what a life with Christ is like.
We equip ourselves and others with simple discipleship methods
We prefer ministries that can be reproduced by the people around us.
We seek ministries that people can easily join in, enjoy, and add as a part of their daily lives.
We move quickly into coaching roles, walking alongside Japanese believers as they live out their faith.
We aim for JLPT N2 Japanese proficiency and study Japanese culture.
We organize short term mission trips and plan Edge and Venture programs.
Team Members
Brian and Nozomi
Brian grew up in San Francisco, studied graphic design, and took his first trip to Japan through Edge in 2007 right out of college. He fell in love with his host family, came back in 2010 through Venture to Fukuoka, and felt God’s leading toward long term missions. He partnered with Fukuoka Bible Church from 2013 to 2020 and with KGK from 2017 to 2023. After moving to Miyazaki in 2021, he started a house church with his team in 2022.
Nozomi is from Miyazaki and is a 4th generation Christian. She moved to Fukuoka to work as a music teacher at a Christian junior high school called Seinan. Brian and Nozomi met at Fukuoka Bible Church, got to know each other on the worship team, and got married in 2013. They have three daughters who love to eat and be silly.
Sean
Sean is from a small town in Southern New Jersey. He loves the simple things in life: cheesesteaks and rooting for the Eagles. Although he started in research, God brought him to Japan in 2013, and again a year later to Yamaguchi. God was calling him out of science and into His fields of harvest here in Japan. He enjoys connecting with people through hobbies, sports, and food. He’s praying that the forgiveness, joy, and grace that only God offers become what the believers in this country are known for; and that those very same qualities become a transformative blessing for this nation.
Hailey
Hailey was born in Hong Kong and grew up in sunny Brisbane, Australia. She fell in love with Japan and Japanese at a young age and didn’t exactly set out wanting to be a missionary. Life took a turn after the 2011 tsunami. God answered prayers, doors to mission were opened and it took five short term mission trips before she finally got the message (and courage!) to go long term. She spent four years serving as a missionary in northern Japan, working in three towns with local Japanese churches. She lives to see God glorified, one step at a time in Japan, and is passionate about taking Jesus to the lesser reached groups in the community.
Get in touch if you’re curious about any of these programs or have questions for our team. We’d love to hear from you.