Yesterday, I announced the launch of a new blog called 365 Japan. The basic premise of the blog is a post about Japan: 1 image (taken by me), 100 words (written by me), every day. It can be subscribed to so people who are really interested in learning more about Japanese culture, food, people or places can get a little tidbit of knowledge everyday.

Those who have been following this blog for a while may sense a bit of a conflict with content of some of the posts I have created here and the content of the new blog. For those of you who might have concerns that this blog will somehow become the ignored older sibling of the new blog, I want to put your fears to rest.

Personal vs. General Content

This blog was always designed primarily to share personal information about our ministry and work here in Japan. The articles I wrote about Japanese culture and events were “hooks” to get people who might not read about our ministry interested in reading our blog once in a while and hopefully engaging with us or adding us to their prayer list. However, one of my good friends who is a business consultant and tentmaker of sorts here in Tokyo suggested that there is real value in the content I am creating about Japan for people who are interested in learning more about Japan or traveling here. The thing is though, we don’t necessarily want those people reading about the details of our ministry work if they aren’t interested or don’t understand the purpose of missions work. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with naysayers, so the best solution is to make the general content available on a different blog so it isn’t intermingled with our ministry work posts.

Blog Posts are Shareable

The beauty of running two separate blogs is that although they are separate, content can easily be shared between the two. That means if I write something for 365 Japan that I think would be interesting to our Fongs For Japan audience, I can easily share it as a post there. So in reality, nothing will be missing from Fongs For Japan and it’s possible you may see more content because I have to post on 365 Japan daily.

Finding Time for 365 Japan

One of the concerns that people may have is that 365 Japan may become a monster to maintain, especially since the premise is that I will have new content available everyday. Nothing could be farther from the truth actually. First, I update Facebook everyday and many of the posts there are similar in content to 365 Japan: a photo and a caption of 100 words or less. It takes just a few minutes to write one. And often, a 365 Japan post will replace a post that I would typically write on Facebook.

Second, the platform I use, WordPress, allows for scheduling of posts far into the future. So I may spend a fraction of an hour writing a half dozen posts and schedule them out for almost an entire week. It isn’t as though I will have to physically write and publish a post in 365 Japan daily.

So…Why Do This?

Frankly speaking, I don’t know if I will be a ministry worker forever. It’s nice to think that way, but we go through different life stages and demands, and God’s plan for certain seasons of our lives are still unknown to us. One of the hardest parts of coming off the field or going from full time to part time is finding work, full-time or supplementary.  My current skills are photography and writing and if I have a platform to demonstrate my skills in both of those areas, I can find work in fields which require them later. 365 Japan is my platform.

We have no intention of coming off the field anytime soon. But it’s never too early to prepare for the possibility that it might need to happen. Establishing an online social media presence is not easy these days and the most powerful asset you have is time. Start early and grow slowly.

And who knows what doors the Lord may open through all of this that relate to our ministry here in Japan? I have ceased to be surprised by the wonders of the way God works, how He coordinates dozen of things beyond our knowledge and brings them all together at the right time.

So enjoy 365 Japan, recommend it to your friends who are interested in Japan and don’t worry about this blog; it’s going to be here as long as we are!