Rusty Rueff: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. You know, sharing food, you know, sharing food is a powerful way to bring people together. We know that. We do it all the time, right? We share a meal. Well, Feast World Kitchen enables refugees and immigrants to serve their traditional recipes to local residents who get to learn about and enjoy authentic international cuisine without ever having to leave town. This food business incubator is building bridges between cultures and knitting its local community together. Executive Director Ross Carper is partly responsible for making this idea a reality in Spokane, Washington. Ross got the idea for a permanent kitchen that would feature a rotation of international cooks. After meeting an immigrant chef who wanted to rent out her food truck so that she could expand her own catering business, feast World Kitchen also provides an opportunity to bring people together over a love for food in an effort to chip away at the mistrust and the fear directed at immigrants and refugees. Today, we get to hear Ross’s story and also hear how God has uniquely called him to welcome the foreigner among us. Let’s listen in.
Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast here with Rusty and William. Brothers, good morning.
Rusty Rueff: Good morning. It is a good morning. It is. It’s a beautiful day where I am today. I don’t know how it is. We’re unusually hot today, so I’m trying to be quiet where I am in my little office. But I’m also sweating down the sides of my underarms. So, yeah. So it’s just all gel.
Henry Kaestner: Just to let it go. Just come into our lives in our worlds right now. More than you may even want to think about. That rusty shirt.
Speaker 3: Is in the video podcast.
Henry Kaestner: That’s a very good thing. Is that.
Rusty Rueff: Video. Get it out there. Get it out. Exactly.
Henry Kaestner: Exactly. I’ve been looking forward to this guest for a while. I watched Ross’s video. There’s so much about Ross. Ross is not sure he’s loving on refugees. And by the way, just in preparing for this, I looked up just key Bible verses on loving on refugees. And there are a lot there being 80 people who are listeners podcast going to be all over the refugee debate. Let’s get more in. Let’s not let any of them and a whole bunch of things. So we need to acknowledge that. And yet you cannot get away from what the Bible says about loving on the foreigner and the refugee in our midst. So we’re going to go into that on this podcast, and if you don’t believe me, just go and Google top verses on refugees, love and on refugees. And it’s really compelling actually to walk it through. And in reading these passages, you can’t help but to think that actually I’m a refugee, I’m somebody living in a foreign land, so maybe we’ll go into that a little bit. But the other mash up is that Ross is really involved in food. And if you’re like me, I love ethnic food. And so Ross is thought of a different way to bring ethnic food, changing it up, making it happen, loving on people. It’s all those things all together. And so, Ross, thank you very much for being on the program. Welcome.
Ross Carper: Hey, thank you for having me. I’m so honored to be here. It’s been fun to listen to some episodes of what you all are doing. And yeah, I’m just thankful to be here.
Henry Kaestner: Good. Thank you. So we’d like to do a biographical sketch of every one of our guests. So, who are you? Tell us what brought you up to the current venture that you’re on. Please.
Ross Carper: Yeah. So, you know, I grew up in the city where I live, Spokane, Washington, and I’ve pretty much been a Washingtonian my whole life. For me, I got serious about my faith, like a lot of people as a teenager, through some excellent youth ministries and things that I was involved with relationships, people loving me and embodying God’s love and who Jesus is in my life. And so, you know, that was a huge thing for me. And when I was in college, I studied philosophy. Yes, I have a degree in philosophy and a master’s in creative writing, which are not the most like moneymaking, entrepreneurial, high paying degrees in the world. But, you know, I love thinking about what matters and I love stories about what matters. So I was in a really interesting space in college where I was really serious about following Christ and I was studying philosophy and I was at a university where secular university, you know, state school, western Washington, where half my professors in that program were Christians and the other half were atheists or agnostic. So it was really an interesting thing for me in terms of thinking and learning how to have conversations across some of those philosophical theological boundaries. And the thing that I wrestle with the most is the oldest one in the book. You know, a lot of people think that job is archeologically, the oldest Bible book. So the oldest question of the problem of evil. And so we look at our world and all the things that so many people are going through. And that’s what I was wrestling with. Not necessarily it being evidence that God doesn’t exist, but it being just if you really engage with the suffering in our world and the things that people are going through. You know, I’ve been so blessed and lucky and everything else about my life. But, you know, I started wrestling with this in terms of my faith and in terms of people going through things. And and so I’ve always felt called by God that as we see problems in our world, you know, we’re invited to be part of the answer to the problem of suffering and pain. So long story short, I just I kept wrestling with that and have kept in my life in ministry and the different things I’ve done, you know, trying to be a part of solving problems or addressing things in the communities where I live. And that’s kind of what brought me to, you know, I think entrepreneurs love to solve problems, right? So that’s what brought me to a place of wanting to get into the food world. So I was in the church world for a long time at First Presbyterian Church here in Spokane doing youth ministry and and then more like missional engagement, you know, just at our church, my role as helping us get ourselves out of the pews and actually embody faith in the community through service, you know, things like that, engaging with issues of justice and how we can, you know, just engage with our neighbors, love our neighbors as we’re told. So.
Henry Kaestner: So you didn’t have.
Ross Carper: A problem with the food?
Henry Kaestner: Yeah. So you didn’t start off in the food business with your current iteration. You start off with something called the compass breakfast wagon. Yeah. What’s that? How are you going to youth ministry? Your philosophy, creative writing. You know, it’s food truck time.
Ross Carper: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I like to joke about my career having a lot of winding roads, but yeah, as I was in this role in my church, we really love to support missionaries and people a long ways away, but we got real focused on neighborhood transformation right in our very neighborhood. And for me, I live in the neighborhood where my church is, you know, Lower South Hills, Spokane. Nobody knows what I’m talking about around the country, but that’s my neighborhood and I love it. And I thought, what better way to connect with people outside of the walls of the church than in a walkable little food spot? And I kind of wanted to create space where some of those connections can happen because to be honest, you know, in the church world, you know, there’s just a lot of folks in our communities and neighborhoods that are not going in there. You know, maybe they have baggage, bad things that happen to them. Maybe they’re just not there with their beliefs or whatever. But as church becomes less of an expected thing for people to show up at in our communities, we’re still called to love our neighbors, right? So we don’t just sit around and wait for them to come to us. We need to be creatively thinking about what are those spaces, what are those third places where we can interact with neighbors and, you know, not with some big agenda like I was. I wasn’t in my food truck trying to convert people to Christianity or something, but more just as a space for relationship. So yeah, I love breakfast, I love cooking, and I’ve worked in restaurants and things in the past. And so I just, you know, kind of got the crazy dream of trying to figure out how to do the hard thing of converting a 1972 camping trailer into a health department certified food truck. So.
William Norvell: Okay, now I got two questions. Okay. One, do you still have a camping trailer? And two, if there is a meal that Ross makes better than anyone else that, you know, the neighborhood kind of here is white. Ross is doing that tonight. What is it?
Ross Carper: Right. Yeah. So I actually sold the business and the trailer to one of my former youth group guys who is working with me as an employee. He is also has always wanted to be an entrepreneur, have his own business. And he actually bought the business from me and operates it now because I got so involved with the Beast World’s Kitchen project and we were definitely known for biscuits and gravy. You know, we used, you know, locally farmed sausage, you know, scratch made biscuits. You know, it was none of this stuff out of a can or anything like that. So Biscuits and Gravy is my favorite thing to cook for my friends.
William Norvell: All right. Well, we have on location. We know what we’re hitting you up for. We haven’t done it yet, but it’s going to happen. One, if.
Henry Kaestner: You do that, though, we’re all kind of foodies, right? Rusty owns restaurants. We should go on tour where she doing should tour and the eating features and eating you are you.
Rusty Rueff: Yes, exactly. And do our podcast right there from these different restaurants.
William Norvell: And we know we’re I’m going to throw out as the first one. But one of our guests, John Marsh, has been revitalizing Opelika Auburn. And if you want me to go to Auburn, you know, this is a big deal. But he has started numerous restaurants and so it’s a stop just saying.
Rusty Rueff: And in your own state. Ross we had marked. And listen. That’s right. Seattle. Right. So he’s been on the podcast. So we’re accumulating an itinerary here. I love it.
William Norvell: I love it. Well.
Ross Carper: It’s just a touch fancier than my things, so that.
William Norvell: Doesn’t mean it’s better. Fancy doesn’t always mean better, but. Okay, so we’re going to get into P’s World Kitchen for sure here in a little bit. But I want to start somewhere else. We want to start at I also think of the time you’re now working with your local church and organizing some good neighbor teams where you’ve really just befriended international children and families. And, you know, something we haven’t talked about a lot, but obviously is happening around the world. I’d love to just take us into some of these experiences. What are some of the stories about people, you know, moving here for the first time? You know, I mean, I think the three of us, at least on this podcast, we were born here in Mali, travel abroad. We’ve always lived here. But what are some of these experiences you’re hearing about people that are coming to the US for the first time and don’t really know much about this world?
Ross Carper: Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve had the honor of partnering closely through my job at the church with this organization called World Relief. It’s a Christian humanitarian organization that is one of maybe a dozen or so contractors in the US that resettle refugees. So it’s kind of cool. It was at the time the only resettlement agency in Spokane, Washington. And, you know, their mission is to empower the local church to stand with the vulnerable. And so I got the joy of being along for the ride for that. And it truly was and is continues to be a joy. I was leading a college group and several of us formed one of these good neighbor teams, which is just what it sounds like. You know, you’re just trying to welcome a neighbor to the city and it’s just a team of maybe eight or so adults who are background checks committed, ready to go. And all you are is a supportive friend to a newly arriving former refugee family because, you know, the caseworkers need to work on housing and jobs and clothing and but there’s all kinds of stuff when you’re in a new culture that you just need friends to help you with, like getting a cell phone, getting a driver’s license, learning, you know, where’s the best grocery store nearby, where I’m going to be able to afford the food and get what I need, you know? And these meetings were so fun. And, you know, I can remember we got placed with one of the first families from Syria to be resettled in the whole United States. And, you know, you’re reading about this conflict in Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people losing their lives, fleeing violence because of this civil war and all this strife. And here we are sitting in this little tiny apartment with this family, with several children. And it’s a guy that, you know, they just want to like anyone else. They just want to flourish and raise their families and have peace. And I think he owned a barbershop back in Syria. And, you know, when the bombs are falling or all around them, it’s like any of us would do. He got his kids and wife and got out of there, you know, and and so that story with that family is one of several where the Americans are sitting there. And then about 2 hours into one of our meetings, you know, just kind of being friends, we’re like, okay, it’s time to go. You know, a lot of cultures around the world, you might have noticed, like church is a little longer gathering. You know, when you visit with someone, you’re not just in and out. So that’s when at about that two hour mark, that’s when like the tea and the food starts coming out of the kitchen. And we noticed that that kind of receiving hospitality was just as important as us extending hospitality, you know, to sit and eat a meal around the table with a family from Iraq or Syria or the Congo or wherever. That was really a powerful experience. And so my love of food and, you know, I’m running this food truck and doing these things sort of started to intertwine with the work I was doing with former refugees.
William Norvell: Automating such a interesting counter-cultural thought. I mean, you know, receiving hospitality. I’ve never heard that phrase before. It’s a really interesting one. And, you know, we’ll we’ll talk about this the way we, like, talk about it throughout the episode. You know, God’s word is always alive and moving. And, you know, the brilliance of it is you can learn something new and God calls people to different things with age old scriptures that have been there for years and years and years. And then you read them and they take on a new light. Yeah, right. And so then we probably haven’t spent time on, as I would love to give you a little space to talk about what motivates you right from God’s word to welcome people in and how should others maybe seek that out for themselves through Scripture to see if God may be calling them to do something similar in their neighborhood?
Ross Carper: Yeah. Thank you. The two big scriptures for me are really in Luke ten when Jesus responds to the question about who is my neighbor. The story He tells is, of course, the Good Samaritan story. And the Good Samaritan is not the one that’s in a place of cultural prestige and power. And the Samaritans, as we know, studied our Bibles. The audience that Jesus was speaking to wouldn’t have been impressed by a Samaritan. Offhand, they were other. And so that’s not only is the person who is other, your neighbor who you need to serve, but like I said, with receiving hospitality in that story, the other is actually the hero of the story, the one who is when you wouldn’t expect it. He’s the one who is truly embodying the teachings of Christ, you know, the great commander. And so that and of course, Matthew 25, when I was a stranger, you welcomed me again. And I think in these interactions with people whose experiences are way different than mine. Whose culture? Even religion is just way different than mine. I cannot help but feel like and I do feel like this is from God. I feel like I know God better when I know more of God’s people. And that’s because each person is an image bearer, right? From Scripture all the way back to Genesis. And when Jesus says, Hey, when I was a stranger, you know, whatever, you did this for the least of these. You did it to me when I was a stranger. You welcomed me. I really believe that in the interactions we have with our new neighbors from around the world, we can see Jesus in those folks. So he said he’s going to be there and he’s right where he said he was going to be. And then those are the scriptures that I, I mean, there are many, many, many. Sure. But those are the ones that are real seminal for me.
William Norvell: I’m curious how food can bridge this gap, right? I mean, such a novel concept, something we eat often during the day. And, you know, you said, you know, experiencing God’s people, I live in a place you know, I lived in San Francisco for ten years. And I’ve always remarked that, you know, experiences are what San Francisco is all about. Like, no one knows what car people drive. No wonder it’s all about like what have you done and what have you experienced? And that was new for me when I moved out here. And food’s a big part of that, right? The new restaurant or the new thing. And, you know, and of course, there’s so many different types of cuisines to experience. And you and you kind of learn, hey, you know, that sounded interesting, but not my style, you know? But also, I’m curious how you’ve seen, you know, when immigrants come over, how can going out and sharing someone’s traditional meal or going to a restaurant, a different global cuisine, how can that bridge the gap of getting to know people and understanding who they are and exactly what you should understand them as image bearers of God and actually not different and more alike than different.
Ross Carper: Yeah, well, I think one thing I’ve reflected on is the table is the ultimate level surface, you know, and when you’re sitting around the table together, it really, it truly does level the playing field. You know, like often because I’m from here and I kind of know how to interact well and succeed in my context. That can come with a lot of privilege and a lot of power dynamics in the relationship where it’s like, I’m the person who has it all figured out and I’m here to help you. And like I said, with giving and receiving hospitality, it’s actually more comfortable for everyone when we all have something to contribute. And that’s why the church potluck is like the ultimate embodiment of all of God’s love is because people bring something to the table, literally. But in this case, sitting at a table with folks who are sharing what they love and what they love to do and what they love to serve, that kind of encapsulates their culture. There’s pride in that. And I think the good kind of pride where it’s like, Hey, this is how we do it. From where I am, I’m kind of like my biscuits and gravy. A lot of your listeners in the South are probably ridiculing me that I like to make biscuits and gravy. Up in the Pacific Northwest. But, you know, I’d love to show you what I got. And so it’s true. That’s true for our friends from around the world, too, is there’s something pretty simple about it. But I also think there’s something really radically spiritual. You know, the Lord’s Supper, you know, we have this physical thing of eating together that is embedded in our faith as Christians and that flows out of things like the Passover meal in the Hebrew Jewish tradition, too. So, you know, food is such a everyday thing, but that’s why it’s so spiritual. At the same time, it’s our daily bread.
Rusty Rueff: You know, Ross, I think we’ve all had the experience of maybe not trusting or, you know, a little apprehension about those we don’t know. Right. Or cultures that we don’t know. How are you seeing what you do? You know, chip away at that mistrust or maybe even the fear that sometimes directed at immigrants. Do you see that chipping away?
Ross Carper: Yeah. You know, little by little, I think it does. One of our taglines is less fear, more falafel. Yeah. And that, you know, it’s just a funny thing. But what isn’t funny is when fear leads to, you know, mistrust and ultimately racism. And sometimes that can go both ways, right? We fear people who are maybe coming to us who don’t speak the same way or believe the same things or look like us, because, you know, there’s just sort of an inherent human thing to fear the unknown. Right. And then obviously that can go both ways to where, you know, people are afraid that they’ll be targeted because of how they look or what they wear. And what we’d love is for communities to be have spaces where people can maybe get to know each other a little bit. Because I think we’ve all experienced like, you know, once you get to know the guy down the street whose politics are different from you, particularly if you’ve shared a meal with them, you know, maybe you tailgate around on the same football team or whatever it is. It kind of it just softens it a little bit. So I think we get so on our screens and on our talk radio or whatever it is about, Oh, this is what we need to believe about people from the Middle East or whatever it is. And I just think we need to spend at least as much time trying to interact with real people instead of thinking of.
William Norvell: Sorry Rusty super quick. There’s an amazing video we should link to our to find it. I think it might have been a Heineken commercial or something where they bring two people in and they have some props. And so you signed up clearly before to get to know each other and you talk to each other. And prior to that, they had filmed each person talking about a hot button issue that they seemingly disagreed with. Right. So they get to know each other, I think, over high tech and of course, gets the commercial. And then at the end of it they show the videos. And so this person is saying something very negative about the other person’s point of view and vice versa. Right. But they’ve already got to know each other. And at the end, the prompt is, do you want to stay and have a beer with this person and get to know them more? And it’s about an eight or ten minute video and it is amazing, as you might imagine, everyone stay is. But there are some people that have some real you can tell they’re really struggling with should I stay or should I go? But they already had that connection before they heard their point of view. And it’s a really profound video I found. I’ve seen it. I’ve watched a couple times.
Rusty Rueff: It’s good. Hey, you know, Ross used the word community a number of times here, and we’re trying to build our community with our faith driven entrepreneurs. We’ve got these small groups that are how many, Henry, do we have now that are running?
Henry Kaestner: We’ve got right in the January cohort alone, we’ve got 135 or so representing 88 different countries.
Rusty Rueff: That’s amazing. Russia and these groups are 10 to 15. You know, folks that are coming together, entrepreneurs searching for, you know, sort of life, giving friendships with people that are like them. But I’d be interested, you know, you’re creating community around food. Are there other elements that you could share with our listeners and with us to help us even be better at building community? What are some of the elements that you’ve seen?
Ross Carper: You know, I think purpose, you know, we like to talk about, you know, people need something to do, you know, something like a movement to be a part of. And I think, you know, for this World Kitchen, it is a community that includes people coming at it from all different angles. Maybe you’re a former refugee who’s cooking and sharing their food and culture learning, job skills, small business skills, earning income. That’s life changing for your family. But maybe you’re a volunteer and maybe you’ve helped us, you know, knock out the old seventies popcorn ceiling that was in this terrible restaurant that we got control of. Yes.
Rusty Rueff: We can see it. It’s stained up there next to the air ventilation. Yeah, I know that restaurant.
Ross Carper: Yeah, exactly. So there is a lot of deferred maintenance. And so that has led to volunteers, you know, doing all kinds of stuff. And so it could be, you know, an older gentleman from my church again, maybe he’s not the most multicultural person in the world, but boy, he loves to put the tool belt on on a Saturday morning and get some stuff done. And everybody has a part to play, you know, and nine times out of ten, they’re going to walk away with a meal as well and an interaction with someone, you know, from a real different background. And so when it comes to volunteer staff, donors, customers, of course, you know, we are a restaurant and catering company. There’s just kind of this multifaceted community that’s popped up and I’ve been really thankful for it, man. How we can build communities. I think also in helping launch this and now serving as the executive director, I’ve gotten to, you know, make connections with other people who are leading nonprofits in my city and in my state and in my, let’s say, in my denomination and presbytery, there are people doing innovative neighborhood things. And so it’s been fun, kind of like what you do on a bigger scale. It’s been fun on a local scale to connect with other people who are trying to, you know, get out in the neighborhoods and have some new expressions of faith that aren’t necessarily church plants but are community spaces. So it’s been a pleasure.
Rusty Rueff: Yeah, that’s great. You know, so many times we talk about doing community and consumers. Our customers are in our neighborhoods. But, you know, you can build community inside of a company, too. Right. And it really does feel like community where people are helping each other. And so I appreciate you sharing what you did about that and what you’re doing. And we definitely all should learn from the way that you’re building community. You know, you also serve as an incubator, if you will, for empowering immigrant chefs. And I’m really curious and interested in that, because that means you’re training and you’re developing and, you know, you’re spotting talent and then you’re helping people get to the place that they should be. And I’m sure there are some that shouldn’t be chefs and they learn along the way. And, you know, that’s the entrepreneurial journey, too, right? We go out and we we find talent and we try to develop and bring them in. So take us through some of the challenges you’ve had about incubating these immigrant chefs and what have been, you know, some of the real learnings that you’ve had along the way.
Ross Carper: Yeah. Oh, man, it’s fun. And, you know, small business incubation is one of the things that we do. And I say that because I think most of us know how hard it is to start a business, let alone a restaurant. You know, a lot of people are familiar with the statistics and the failure rates on that particular project. But we are in a day where small food entrepreneurs, people doing pop ups and, you know, catering events by renting ghost kitchen space. Maybe you have a cart, maybe you have a small mobile food unit like my trailer or a food truck. You know, a lot of the folks that we work with, we’re already catering out of their little apartments. You know, under the radar, international students who want a taste of home will come pick up 15 plates on a Saturday night or something, you know, so that kind of stuff is going on. But also, immigrants have always flourished in this country when it comes to owning restaurants, and that’s because they have something to offer that’s truly unique. You know, you got to be able to bring something novel to the table. But we walk alongside folks who want to start things, whether it’s a restaurant, food truck, catering company. And what we love is that that includes English language. That includes, you know, we partner with an English language school that’s housed in our church across the street, and that’s been going for 50 years. You know, and English language development is a big part of business development because you have to understand the regulations in order to follow them. Financial training. We have a Zoom call coming up with our accountant just talking about small business finance. And so each month we have meetings with our chefs about these sorts of things. And it’s really a holistic how can you flourish and thrive in Spokane? Because not everyone is going to start a restaurant or even a business. But if you cook at least once every couple of months as a side hustle, well, guess what? Side hustles are actually a pretty legitimate part of our economy and the way people live their lives these days. And that’s there’s nothing wrong with that. If you do it to share your culture and that kind of thing, that’s great. But a lot of people are doing it to pay for school because they’re going to be a nurse practitioner, or maybe they already were in their home country and they have to start all over in our education system. So failing fast is a good thing too. We all kind of you know, your listeners probably are familiar with that concept of like, hey, let’s not find out when you’re 100,000 bucks in debt, you really don’t want to run a restaurant because it’s really hard and time consuming. Let’s find out when you cooked in our cooperative nonprofit restaurant a couple of times that you really want to do something else. And that’s a great thing. It’s a total win when people say no and they say, I’m not going to start a business. I’m going to interact with fees in a different way. But we do. Yeah, we do these incubation types of things as well.
Rusty Rueff: Yeah. I always say with the folks that tell me they want to be in the restaurant business and want to open a restaurant themselves, you know, I said, you remember, it’s all fun until it’s 2:00 in the morning on Saturday and you’re emptying out the garbage, you know, and trying to, you know, clean the place up so it’s ready to go tomorrow. And do you want to do that week after week and day after day and month after month? And well, to that point, what’s next? What’s next for First World Kitchen and what’s next for you? What’s next for Ross?
Ross Carper: Yeah, well, we are you know, speaking of incubation, there’s many folks in our community who, you know, some of our chefs are more ready than others and market tested, particularly a couple Syrian families who people really love those shawarma wraps with fries. It’s basically like the Mediterranean Middle Eastern version of the cheeseburger. You know, it’s like it’s just that good. And you just you want it, you crave it. So we are looking at there are a couple who have the permitting to start their own thing. And so we’re working with them on that. There’s people in the community who have commercial space that we’re thinking about developing in terms of maybe not a second location for us, but maybe one of these places where our graduates can have a lunch counter or something or whatever it is. So yeah, we’re kind of expanding our catering and events. You know, as we continue to emerge back into public events from the pandemic, we’ll be doing a lot more farmer’s markets and things. And, and this is great because it gives people experiences as kind of that small food pop up startup. We’re also working on that right now. We have the application and to to sell some of our products in stores and grocery stores here in town who have already committed to running some of those products like hummus, baklava, flatbreads, different sauces, desserts, stuff that will be good on a shelf. So we’re excited for our brand to expand in that way in order to provide more opportunities with the families that cook with us. You know, there’s one family like I’ll share just something. You know, we do some casework, too, and we’re thankful to be in those settings where we can affect people’s lives. And in one case, you know, my Issa, our chef program director, helped a woman get a protective order to get out of a physically abusive marriage and relationship. That was just and now this woman, she cooks with us and she’s a single mom of several kids. And, you know, it’s kind of the community is mobilizing to help her thrive, you know, in this new season that has all kinds of challenges. So so there’s some of that where we’re a network of support and we’re trying to get better at making sure that we’re not just a restaurant or catering company. We are a network of support systems and relationships that is about people flourishing, about the shalom, you know, that the peace of God being in people’s lives, especially people who have been through a ton of violence, persecution, ethnic cleansing, trauma, abuse, lived in a refugee camp for ten years. You know, it’s a holy privilege to be a part of trying to help this community come alongside people and so that they can thrive.
Rusty Rueff: Bless you for what you’re doing.
Ross Carper: For your.
Rusty Rueff: Pleasure.
Ross Carper: Thank you.
William Norvell: Thank you. Exactly. Rusty ready to take my intro, but thank you so much for all you’re doing and. Amazing, amazing story. And you know something we can all relate to? Write food and stories on the table and and people and image bearers of God. So just grateful for your story and where you are. And one of the things we love to close with, because we love to invite our guests to share where God has them in his word and just love seeing how that transcends. And it could be something you read this morning or right before you jumped on the podcast that struck you. Or it could be something you’ve been studying lately, but we just want to invite you to share where God has you in His Scripture and how He may be encouraging you these days or challenging you.
Ross Carper: Yeah. Yeah. You know, my church has gone through Philippians and I think it’s Philippians two. Where it breaks into verse, you know, it’s a song or a poem about the character of Christ, you know, and about how he even though he was God, he still humbled himself. And, you know, when you. I love being on podcasts and things like that. You know, we get a lot of accolades and pats on the back for the work that we’re doing, and that’s great. But humility is something that we all need to come back to because that’s the character of Christ. That’s the very nature of God’s incarnation of being becoming human and even not a very prominent or well-regarded human, but someone who was humble, even humbled themself, even to death on a cross. So yeah, it’s just been good to be reflecting on humility, looking at Philippians and just how can we humbly serve and be the type of servant leader that reflects God’s character?
William Norvell: I mean, I meant.
Rusty Rueff: You know, I always leave our podcasts hungry for more. But today I’m actually hungry.
William Norvell: I’m hungry. He did it. He did.
Henry Kaestner: It. Had nothing to do with the fact that we’ve been doing podcasts nonstop and it’s now 1:00 pm Pacific Time or that he’s been staring at an apple on the wall for the last hour or so.
Ross Carper: You just.
Henry Kaestner: Mentioned ten times, but.
Rusty Rueff: Had that looked good. So that’s good to hear that.
Henry Kaestner: What do you do for exercise?
Ross Carper: Yeah, exactly. I’ve put on a few pounds since starting this Beast World Kitchen thing, but yeah, I’m about to eat this lunch prepared by a family from Darfur, Sudan, who cooked in the restaurant yesterday and they had some extra. Ibrahim, God bless him. He’s just such a kind person. He brought a bunch of food to my house yesterday after they closed up the restaurant and just wanted to share some plates with my family. And so I’m about to eat some leftovers from that. But yeah, I definitely have to set my Strava to run more miles per week because of how much that happens in my life. That’s cool. That little calorie meal.
William Norvell: I want that problem. I don’t have that right now.
Henry Kaestner: You don’t have the problem of what.
William Norvell: Part of that problem of people bringing me awesome food. So I have to run more.
Henry Kaestner: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ross Carper: It’s a good problem that.
Henry Kaestner: God bless your us. Thank you, Heavenly Father, lift up Ross and his family and his ministry and just ask and continue to give him your wisdom and discernment in favor and protection. And he feel your joy as he goes out and made this story of you, one that really encourages and packs lots of people towards loving the refugee and the alien in their midst. Jesus. His name. Amen.
— by Craig Hill
For the last twenty-five years, Jan and I personally and our ministry, Family Foundations International (FFI), have been working together with Jorge and Marcia Nishimura, their extended family, and the ministry they founded, University of the Family (UDF) towards the goal of transforming the nation of Brazil. Over these years of partnership, I have observed what I consider to be a very unique transformational process taking place within the extended Nishimura family, their family-owned company, The Jacto Group, and the small town of 22,000 in which they reside, Pompeia, S.P., Brazil. The result of this process is that this one entrepreneurial family is creating a transformational model impacting all 7 cultural spheres of influence in society within their community that potentially could be duplicated in many towns and cities throughout Brazil—and perhaps in the communities of many other nations as well.
While I have attended many Christian conferences on city transformation, I have found very few Christians who are actually transforming a city by taking leadership and investing resources in the infrastructure of these seven key spheres which impact the entire ecosystem of the city. In Pompeia, Brazil, however, the Nishimura family, in partnership with others, is doing exactly this.
The more common model I have observed among Kingdom-minded entrepreneurial business families is that they operate businesses that generate a profit and then contribute substantial portions of that profit to ministries doing Kingdom work through donor advised funds or other charitable vehicles. This is an awesome model of business that I greatly applaud and encourage!
However, an alternate model that the Nishimura family has chosen is to operate a businessthat generates a profit and then to use substantial portions of that profit to invest directly in the ecosystem of their city, thereby becoming prime influencers in all seven spheres of influence in their city. Their goal is to create the best small city in Brazil by year 2038, the centennial anniversary of the founding of the city. This, then, creates a model that can be easily duplicated in other cities throughout the nation of Brazil.
A unique aspect of the positive impact we are having upon the city of Pompeia, Brazil, in partnership with the Nishimura family, has to do with the Nishimuras’ servant leadership in humility, vulnerability, and a willingness to allow God to do a deep spiritual and emotional work in them individually and as a family first—before they try to impact others in the city.
The first ministry course that we (FFI) brought to Brazil through UDF was a course called “Ancient Paths” (Jeremiah 6:16) through which, in a safe environment, we expose deep emotional childhood wounds in individuals and families that many times result in self-sabotage and relational conflict or tension in adult family, church, and business life. For the first decade, we trained leaders and multiplied this course through UDF to many churches throughout Brazil.
Then in 2007, Jorge Nishimura realized that, while we were helping thousands of families in churches around Brazil through the ministry of UDF, his own extended family, including three generations of about 45 people, was experiencing much emotional wounding and relational conflict themselves, without effective solutions. That was when Jorge asked me if I thought we could bring a similar healing process to the extended Nishimura family as we had been offering to church families through the Ancient Paths course. Part of the concern in our first family meeting was that many of the family members were not yet committed followers of Christ, and our process within the Ancient Paths course entails much prayer and presentation of Bible scriptures and concepts.
However, much to our delight, we discovered that, when presented the opportunities for prayer and repentance without pressure, no one in the family was opposed to prayer and help from God. In that first family meeting in 2007, we saw tremendous personal emotional healing, repentance, apologies to each other, profound forgiveness, and reconciliation of relationship between second generation brothers and also between parents and children.
We began to introduce the concept of generational blessing with profound affect. One deeply moving part of this first meeting was when 97-year-old, first generation patriarch, Shunji Nishimura, was able to give his blessing to his sons in the second generation for the first time in their history. The entire family was then able to bless, thank, and pray for Mr. Nishimura in response. He not long afterwards passed away in 2010.
This first family meeting of this type was so successful that I was invited to continue similar meetings with the extended Nishimura family every couple of years. In each meeting, I have observed the members of this family becoming more open and more vulnerable with each other. In 2013, I introduced the idea of creating a very simple “relational covenant,” detailing how the family members agree to treat each other and the prescribed remedy when someone breaks the relational covenant. This agreement has proven to be very effective in helping the family to deal with any ongoing emotional or relational conflicts that have arisen.
Of course, there have also been many other consultants with other emphases that the Nishimura family has worked with in developing their family and business generational legacy strategy and protocols.
However, three or four years ago, Jorge and his niece Alessandra Nishimura requested that I conduct the same sort of “Ancient Paths” style emotional and relational healing seminar for the Jacto Group top corporate executives and their families. Initially some of these executives were quite skeptical about the potential spiritual nature of this company event, since many of them were not committed believers. However, because of the humility, transparency, and servant leadership of the Nishimura family in having already embraced this process themselves, the corporate executives were willing to attend the weekend retreat with their families.
This retreat was met with tremendous results in reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing within the families of the Jacto Group top executives. In his description below, Jorge has outlined how this same “Ancient Paths” type of ministry has now spread to many levels within the company and then out to the surrounding community through the various vehicles the Nishimura family has created.
I have observed two key transformational principles the members of the Nishimura family have followed that are resulting in their city being truly changed:
1. Allowing God to first heal and transform one’s own life and family first before trying to impact others.
2. Implementing long-term consistency of purpose, vision, and investment.
Proverbs 10:17 in the Amplified Bible tells us: “He who heeds instruction and correction is (not only himself, in the way of life, (but also) is a way of life for others. And he who neglects or refuses reproof (not only himself) goes astray, (but also) causes to err and is a path toward ruin for others.”
Over the last 25 years, the members of the Nishimura family have consistently gone before others to allow the Lord to bring healing and transformation to their own lives and family relationships first. They have not just initiated projects to improve their city and invested money in them, but rather, they have become involved personally in consistently leading through example. In addition, they have continued to lead and perpetuate the initiatives they have begun with consistent effort and investment for over 25 years.
The practical outworking of this one Brazilian entrepreneurial business family working together with a North American Christian ministry to create a culture of blessing, first in their own family and then in the community, is now resulting in a transformational prototype in which all 7 spheres of society are being positively impacted within the ecosystem of the city. This model of transformation may then be duplicated in many cities throughout Brazil and elsewhere.
By Craig Hill, Littleton, Colorado, U.S.A.
——
The remainder of this white paper is written by Jorge Nishimura.
As we move forward with the dream of transforming Pompeia into one of the best small cities in Brazil, we are discovering that there are still extremely relevant areas that were not on our radars. The 7 areas of influence—family, church, business, education, arts and entertainment, media, and government—are evolving, some faster and others slower, but I think we need to improve. And one of the things we are discovering, which was not clearly on our radar, and which strongly impacts people’s growth potential, is what the market calls soft skills.
Craig Hill had previously observed, as a church pastor, that there were members in his congregation who absorbed his teachings and grew spiritually while other members, who received the same teaching, remained stagnant. Why did this happen? In search of understanding, Craig found that the members who were stagnant were those who carried deep conflicts in their inner lives that needed to be addressed. These people, unfortunately, were unable to reach higher levels in their faith, in their professions, and also in their family lives.
People who carry deep conflicts in their inner lives that lead to stagnation need to find emotional/spiritual balance in order to grow again.
There are many fronts that need to be developed in order to transform our small city into an excellent city. But I will focus in this White Paper on the subject of the emotional/spiritual balance that has gradually transformed our community.
What I am going to share can be illustrated by the drop of water that, when falling on the surface of a standing water tank, forms a series of ripples emanating outward from the center.
The first ripple formed reached pastors and leaders of our local church. The impact was so profound that we were encouraged to take this revelational teaching to others.
The second ripple was taken by the University of the Family to thousands of churches across the country. More than 300,000 people have participated in and been blessed by the FFI “Veredas Antigas” or “Ancient Paths” course.
The third ripple was an attempt to bring relationships back to our entrepreneurial family. For a variety of reasons, members of the second generation of the Nishimura family had experienced deep personal conflicts, and through the ministry of Craig Hill, hurts, wounds, and pains were brought to the surface and healed. The family environment has improved a lot, breaking with the emotional/spiritual stagnation that hindered the development of our entrepreneurial family.
The fourth ripple was the desire of our business family to offer employees and their families lessons that had blessed us so much. Through the creation of the Chieko Nishimura Family Development Institute, we started offering free courses and seminars on various topics related to family strengthening. And one of the most sought-after seminars has been about internal conflicts.
The fifth ripple was the identification that our top managers were also in need of checking their emotional/spiritual balance. That’s why we invited executives and their families to spend a weekend at a resort being taught by Craig Hill. According to the testimony of one of the executives, that weekend had been the best gift he had received from the company.
The sixth ripple is starting this year. In February 2021, we signed a partnership agreement between The Family Institute (IDF) and the municipal government of Pompeii to bring the transforming principles of the Word of God to municipal schools, the social and family protection network, and the public health network.
I have a dream to see the transformation of Brazil. And the way that seems most reasonable for me to contribute to this is to develop an experimental laboratory in Pompeia that, if it works, could serve as inspiration for transformation in other cities in our immense country.
By Jorge Nishimura, Pompeia, S.P., Brazil
Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.
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