James Buonocore sits down with Beautiful Feet

Get to know the newest member of the 60 Days Walking team in this recent interview with Beautiful Feet.

“In order to capture a city, first capture the heart of the people.”  A crumbled; fading slip of paper from a fortune cookie is the host of these words. James Buonocore has been carrying this little gem in his wallet for the past couple of years. “It’s a great reminder, one of my prized processions,” he states while reflecting upon its message. “I love how the back teaches you to say New Year’s Eve in Chinese. New Year’s Eve is such a profound day, as an entire world we’re on the brink of something new, we’re gearing up for change and embracing it, bundling up the past year in neat little packages of memories and anticipating all that’s ahead of us. I believe we should always take the disposition of New Year’s Eve, especially in regards to how we look at other people. Everyone hopes for a brighter future, capture that desire and encourage them to that place; the world would be a different one if we lived liked that.”

So what are your other prized possessions? A wooden Mallard duck that my grandpa gave me briefly before his passing. It has a lot of sentiment and a long story but mainly it serves as a reminder that the future is always left unwritten it can still be changed.

Your story on how you joined 60DW stemmed from a pretty big change, can you tell us about that? That it did. I was working for the City of Cape Coral in a job that I wasn’t enjoying, all for the sake of a retirement plan. Since graduating from the University of Central Florida last December I have been battling the desire to chase God’s call on my life and the reality that we live in a world that requires us to pay for stuff. Eventually I came to a place where I decided that now was the time to chase God and if I’m going to fail then 22 is the best age to do that. So, I went into work about four weeks ago, with nothing more than the belief that God wouldn’t let me drown in my attempt to obey His voice, and gave my resignation effective for January Third. Jump to a week and a half later and somehow a conversation with Joey turned into him, Alex, and me praying about me joining the team. God confirmed it all pretty quickly and we started moving forward from there.

That’s awesome, what about your conversation with Joey sparked your interest in 60DW? It was really serendipitous. I had known for a while that Joey and Alex were planning this trip but it never seemed like anything more than a cool adventure to me. When I quit my job I knew I was done traveling for the sake of traveling, I wanted to spend this time taking steps towards gaining experience in international development. During that conversation though Joey began to tell me the vision for 60 Days Walking. The more he spoke the more excited I became. Everything I want my life to be consumed with- Jesus, encouraging people in love, and helping others implement long-term sustainable development solutions to transform communities and nations- was being exposed as the heart of 60 Days. My interest was caught but I was still hesitant to commit, so we agreed to pray and meet. As I said before, God confirmed it pretty quick after that point.

So have you always had a heart for missions? Not at all, it wasn’t until the summer of 2010 after a trip to Africa in March when I was lying on the floor of my bedroom praying that the thought of mission work as a major part of my life ever crossed me. As I was praying God spoke the words “reckless abandonment” to me and gave me the vision of doing nomadic mission work to encourage long-term missionaries. I took that word, not completely understanding it, and changed my course of studies to international relations and nonprofit management. During my studies God started to put a passion for international development in me. I began to see how we have done more harm than good out of a good desire to help others. I want to see that changed. I want to see the face of missions and international development radically changed. I believe that can be done by encouraging and empowering those in need through proper equipping and then taking our hands off the work but continuing the relationships as mentors and friends. That’s what really excites me about this trip, about getting to work with Beautiful Feet, that their vision of international work is one I can stand behind and that we will be getting to help lay the foundation for that kind of work to be done.

Is there one thing you would like to leave our readers with? Let’s love together. As we all walk together in this journey we do this as a family, far and near. Let’s keep in touch, send us messages. Encouragement is a powerful tool of love and we want to be just as much a part of your walking, as we want you to be a part of our walking. Also, please pray for discernment and knowledge, that we will see opportunity but most importantly solutions everywhere we go. And if there’s anyway I can be praying for anyone out there, let me know! Peace&Jesus, friends.