The Johnsons
Chris & Michele, Malachi, Josiah, Levi, & Isaac
Friday, November 26, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
LOVED BEFORE THE DAWN OF TIME,
Chosen by my Maker,
Hidden in my Saviour:
I am His and He is mine,
Cherished for eternity.
When I'm stained with guilt and sin,
He is there to lift me,
Heal me and forgive me;
Gives me strength to stand again,
Stronger than I was before.
So with every breath that I am given
I will sing salvation's song;
And I'll join the chorus of creation
Giving praise to Christ alone.
All the chains of Satan's curse
Lifted through His offering,
Satisfied through suffering;
All the blessings He deserves
Poured on my unworthy soul.
So with every breath that I am given
I will sing salvation's song;
And I'll join the chorus of creation
Giving praise to Christ alone.
Singing glory, honour, wisdom, power
To the Lamb upon the throne.
Hallelujah, I will lift Him high.
Singing glory, honour, wisdom, power
To the Lamb upon the throne.
Hallelujah I will sing with every breath that I am given
I will sing salvation's song;
And I'll join the chorus of creation
Giving praise to Christ alone.
Stars will fade and mountains fall;
Christ will shine forever,
Love's unfading splendour.
Earth and heaven will bow in awe,
Joining in salvation's song.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Back from Mexico
Hey everyone!
Thank you so much for all your prayers and love! We returned yesterday, Friday, from our two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico. We went into the mountains in Western Oaxaca where our team is at. We brought in two doctors and a nurse and well as a dentist and all of the students this year that learned how to find, clean and fill cavities. It was a VERY busy time! We saw over 500 people from 6 villages in this area. I was able to help the dentist with training the students and assisting them as they did their first hands on dental work on the people. Gerry, the dentist, spent most of the time extracting teeth. Michele helped at the sign in table with writing down information and helping to send the people to the doctor or to the dental area. It was busy seeing those 500 + people and hearing what they needed.
Please pray for the team that is down in that area (Chris Berger, Jim Blomstrand and Reuben & Debbie Ibanez and their two kids). They are hoping to get into this village to live regularly and help teach English as well as live and preach the Gospel to this dark area! Pray they get in soon. The village leader and President has given the team an invitation to come live and teach English to the village. This is the first step!
Please continue to pray for us. Michele and I really enjoyed the time in the village and being back in Mexico. Please pray for a team to be formed with us to go down to Oaxaca and for wisdom and direction and how to work in the village in that area as well as looking for another area that is unreached to begin working with. We will be heading down for a week Dec 27-Jan 7 as well as 4-5 weeks in February - March.
Thank you again for all your love and prayers and support!
Seeking His Face
Chris
Thank you so much for all your prayers and love! We returned yesterday, Friday, from our two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico. We went into the mountains in Western Oaxaca where our team is at. We brought in two doctors and a nurse and well as a dentist and all of the students this year that learned how to find, clean and fill cavities. It was a VERY busy time! We saw over 500 people from 6 villages in this area. I was able to help the dentist with training the students and assisting them as they did their first hands on dental work on the people. Gerry, the dentist, spent most of the time extracting teeth. Michele helped at the sign in table with writing down information and helping to send the people to the doctor or to the dental area. It was busy seeing those 500 + people and hearing what they needed.
Please pray for the team that is down in that area (Chris Berger, Jim Blomstrand and Reuben & Debbie Ibanez and their two kids). They are hoping to get into this village to live regularly and help teach English as well as live and preach the Gospel to this dark area! Pray they get in soon. The village leader and President has given the team an invitation to come live and teach English to the village. This is the first step!
Please continue to pray for us. Michele and I really enjoyed the time in the village and being back in Mexico. Please pray for a team to be formed with us to go down to Oaxaca and for wisdom and direction and how to work in the village in that area as well as looking for another area that is unreached to begin working with. We will be heading down for a week Dec 27-Jan 7 as well as 4-5 weeks in February - March.
Thank you again for all your love and prayers and support!
Seeking His Face
Chris
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Going to Oaxaca
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for keeping up with us and reading what we are able to put on this post. I am sorry that I do not write as much as I should. I need to be more disciplined on this!
I just wanted to let you know about a trip we will be taking from this Monday, 11/8 to 11/19 into southern Mexico. We will be going to the state of Oaxaca, Mexico to a group of people called the C-O-I-C-O-Y-A-N. I write it with the marks between letters for the safety of the people in that area not searching and finding this post about themselves. It helps keep the team we have on the ground there from being confronted about them being a "work" or any other danger.
Michele and I will be helping to lead the school down to this area to help the team on the ground already. We will be having 4 days of Medical and dental clinics. Please pray for the doctors and nurses as well as the students using their skills learned in the dental training. Please pray for safety on the roads as well as unity in our team!
Pray for the salvation of the people in the village we will be going and the surrounding villages. May God be Glorified in this area. He WILL be great among the nations and in this village, God promises that!
Malachi 1:11 "For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts"
We go to the unreached people because they have no understanding of the Gospel and ability to know of our one true God. We Go for God's Glory and for the people. If we have this great hope of salvation, this great gift from God, how can we keep it to ourselves? If we truly are Christians, we can't! We do this for God's Glory and so that the people can find joy in our great God and praise Him and worship Him as they were created to do! Jesus came to serve and make known to the people about the way to the Father and we are called to follow and do the same. God has people in every Nation and we go to be used by Him.
John 10:16 - "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd"
Please keep praying for the work in Mexico and specifically for this trip into Oaxaca to help this team and help the people!
For His Glory!
Chris
I just wanted to let you know about a trip we will be taking from this Monday, 11/8 to 11/19 into southern Mexico. We will be going to the state of Oaxaca, Mexico to a group of people called the C-O-I-C-O-Y-A-N. I write it with the marks between letters for the safety of the people in that area not searching and finding this post about themselves. It helps keep the team we have on the ground there from being confronted about them being a "work" or any other danger.
Michele and I will be helping to lead the school down to this area to help the team on the ground already. We will be having 4 days of Medical and dental clinics. Please pray for the doctors and nurses as well as the students using their skills learned in the dental training. Please pray for safety on the roads as well as unity in our team!
Pray for the salvation of the people in the village we will be going and the surrounding villages. May God be Glorified in this area. He WILL be great among the nations and in this village, God promises that!
Malachi 1:11 "For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts"
We go to the unreached people because they have no understanding of the Gospel and ability to know of our one true God. We Go for God's Glory and for the people. If we have this great hope of salvation, this great gift from God, how can we keep it to ourselves? If we truly are Christians, we can't! We do this for God's Glory and so that the people can find joy in our great God and praise Him and worship Him as they were created to do! Jesus came to serve and make known to the people about the way to the Father and we are called to follow and do the same. God has people in every Nation and we go to be used by Him.
John 10:16 - "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd"
Please keep praying for the work in Mexico and specifically for this trip into Oaxaca to help this team and help the people!
For His Glory!
Chris
Monday, November 1, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Weeping for North Korea
I just read this and wanted to share it with ya'll. Do we weep for the lost? Do we count Jesus as worth it to go and tell them? Or to be financial martyrs to send many to go and tell them?
JESUS IS WORTH IT!
Here is the article by Michael Oh:
Tonight for the first time in my life I wept for North Korea.
On the second night of the Third Lausanne Congress taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, an 18 year-old girl from North Korea shared her story.
She was born into a wealthy family, her father an assistant to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong II. Eventually her father’s political fortunes shifted, and after being politically persecuted by the North Korean government, he, his wife, and his daughter escaped to China.
In China a relative brought her family to church where her parents came to know Jesus Christ. A few months later, however, her pregnant mother died from Leukemia. Her father started to study the Bible with missionaries and eventually the Lord gave him a strong desire to become a missionary to North Korea. But in 2001 he was reported as a Christian, was arrested by the Chinese police, and was returned to North Korea. Forced to leave his daughter behind in China, he spent three years in prison. During this time the girl shared that it only "made my father’s faith stronger” and that he “cried out to God more desperately rather than complain or blame Him.
After three years he was able to return to China where he was briefly reunited with his daughter. Soon after, however, he gathered Bibles having resolved to return to North Korea to share Christ among that hopeless people. He was given the opportunity to go to South Korea, but he turned them down.
In 2006 he was discovered by the North Korean government and was arrested. There has since been no word from him. In all probability he has been shot to death publicly for treason.
In 2007 this girl, who at the time was not a Christian, was given the opportunity to go to South Korea. While still in China waiting at the Korean Consulate in Beijing to go to South Korea, she saw Jesus in a dream. Jesus, with tears in his eyes, called her by name and said, How much longer are you going to keep me waiting? Walk with me. Yes, you lost your earthly father, but I am your heavenly Father and whatever has happened to you is because I love you.
She knelt and prayed to God for the first time and realized that “God my Father loves and cares for me so very much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for me.” She prayed, “God here I am. I just lay down everything and give you my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Please use me as you will.”
Now God has given her a great love for North Korea. She shared that, Just as my father was used there for God’s kingdom, I now desire to be obedient to God. I want to bring the love of Jesus to North Korea.
She closed with the following words:
I look back over my short life and see God’s hand everywhere. Six years in North Korea, 11 years in China, and a time of being in South Korea. Everything that I experienced and love, I want to give it all to God and use my life for His kingdom. I hope to honor my father and bring glory to my heavenly Father by serving God with my whole heart.
I believe God’s heart cries out for the lost people of North Korea. I humbly ask you, my brothers and sisters, to have the same heart of God. Please pray that the same light of God’s grace and mercy that reached my father and my mother and now me will one day come down upon the people of North Korea… my people.
How many of us so easily choose the path of comfort and safety. The path that is our answer to the question, “What is best for me?” But so many of those whom God has used to make some of the greatest Kingdom impact have been those who have not made decisions based on "what is best for me?" (at least “best” in a worldly sense). They made decisions, or perhaps for some it seemed like there was really no decision to make at all, based on an undeniable, unshakable, "illogical", "foolish" passion for Jesus Christ and for His kingdom glory among the lost.
For this girl's father there was a “safe” path before him. The door was open for him to go to South Korea where there was political freedom and religious freedom, where he and his family could have been safe. No prison, no persecution, no pain. Instead he chose the path of danger that led him, Bibles in hand, back to North Korea, the homeland that he loved.
And now his daughter has determined to follow that same path.
Paul wrote the following words in 2 Corinthians 5:13-21.
If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
May God grant us the grace to serve with undeniable, unshakable, illogical, and foolish passion for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom glory among the lost. And may we discover the joy in knowing that such a life is a part of the glorious answer to the question of what is truly best for me.
Dr. Michael Oh is president of CBI Japan and serves on the board of the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization. Dr. Oh spoke at the 2009 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference on “Missions as Fasting.”
JESUS IS WORTH IT!
Here is the article by Michael Oh:
Tonight for the first time in my life I wept for North Korea.
On the second night of the Third Lausanne Congress taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, an 18 year-old girl from North Korea shared her story.
She was born into a wealthy family, her father an assistant to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong II. Eventually her father’s political fortunes shifted, and after being politically persecuted by the North Korean government, he, his wife, and his daughter escaped to China.
In China a relative brought her family to church where her parents came to know Jesus Christ. A few months later, however, her pregnant mother died from Leukemia. Her father started to study the Bible with missionaries and eventually the Lord gave him a strong desire to become a missionary to North Korea. But in 2001 he was reported as a Christian, was arrested by the Chinese police, and was returned to North Korea. Forced to leave his daughter behind in China, he spent three years in prison. During this time the girl shared that it only "made my father’s faith stronger” and that he “cried out to God more desperately rather than complain or blame Him.
After three years he was able to return to China where he was briefly reunited with his daughter. Soon after, however, he gathered Bibles having resolved to return to North Korea to share Christ among that hopeless people. He was given the opportunity to go to South Korea, but he turned them down.
In 2006 he was discovered by the North Korean government and was arrested. There has since been no word from him. In all probability he has been shot to death publicly for treason.
In 2007 this girl, who at the time was not a Christian, was given the opportunity to go to South Korea. While still in China waiting at the Korean Consulate in Beijing to go to South Korea, she saw Jesus in a dream. Jesus, with tears in his eyes, called her by name and said, How much longer are you going to keep me waiting? Walk with me. Yes, you lost your earthly father, but I am your heavenly Father and whatever has happened to you is because I love you.
She knelt and prayed to God for the first time and realized that “God my Father loves and cares for me so very much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for me.” She prayed, “God here I am. I just lay down everything and give you my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Please use me as you will.”
Now God has given her a great love for North Korea. She shared that, Just as my father was used there for God’s kingdom, I now desire to be obedient to God. I want to bring the love of Jesus to North Korea.
She closed with the following words:
I look back over my short life and see God’s hand everywhere. Six years in North Korea, 11 years in China, and a time of being in South Korea. Everything that I experienced and love, I want to give it all to God and use my life for His kingdom. I hope to honor my father and bring glory to my heavenly Father by serving God with my whole heart.
I believe God’s heart cries out for the lost people of North Korea. I humbly ask you, my brothers and sisters, to have the same heart of God. Please pray that the same light of God’s grace and mercy that reached my father and my mother and now me will one day come down upon the people of North Korea… my people.
How many of us so easily choose the path of comfort and safety. The path that is our answer to the question, “What is best for me?” But so many of those whom God has used to make some of the greatest Kingdom impact have been those who have not made decisions based on "what is best for me?" (at least “best” in a worldly sense). They made decisions, or perhaps for some it seemed like there was really no decision to make at all, based on an undeniable, unshakable, "illogical", "foolish" passion for Jesus Christ and for His kingdom glory among the lost.
For this girl's father there was a “safe” path before him. The door was open for him to go to South Korea where there was political freedom and religious freedom, where he and his family could have been safe. No prison, no persecution, no pain. Instead he chose the path of danger that led him, Bibles in hand, back to North Korea, the homeland that he loved.
And now his daughter has determined to follow that same path.
Paul wrote the following words in 2 Corinthians 5:13-21.
If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
May God grant us the grace to serve with undeniable, unshakable, illogical, and foolish passion for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom glory among the lost. And may we discover the joy in knowing that such a life is a part of the glorious answer to the question of what is truly best for me.
Dr. Michael Oh is president of CBI Japan and serves on the board of the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization. Dr. Oh spoke at the 2009 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference on “Missions as Fasting.”
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Know the culture and language!
This week there has been a couple speaking about church planting in different cultures. They worked in Chiapas, the state next to Oaxaca in Mexico, for 40 years. It has been a great week so far listening to them and having some time to speak to them alone.
Something To Every Tribe Ministries teaches much on is learning the culture and language before you can go into an area and speak into the lives of the people. If we want to convey the message of the Gospel so they understand, we need to know them well. Michele and I have been growing in understanding of the Spanish language and culture.
The following video is a joke about what it is like to speak in American phrases and how other cultures don't really have translations of our ideas. Enjoy this video but also please pray more and more for Michele and me as we are learning and growing in understanding of the Spanish language and Mexican culture!
Enjoy!
Chris
Something To Every Tribe Ministries teaches much on is learning the culture and language before you can go into an area and speak into the lives of the people. If we want to convey the message of the Gospel so they understand, we need to know them well. Michele and I have been growing in understanding of the Spanish language and culture.
The following video is a joke about what it is like to speak in American phrases and how other cultures don't really have translations of our ideas. Enjoy this video but also please pray more and more for Michele and me as we are learning and growing in understanding of the Spanish language and Mexican culture!
Enjoy!
Chris
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
New Additons
Check out our new Prayer Requests for October and new photos from September that have been added!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
All I Have Is Christ
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to share a song with you that has grown on me more and more. The words are so true and so humbling, while still giving such a great hope in Christ! The song is called "All I have is Christ" and here are the lyrics:
I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.
But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.
Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life
Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.
© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin
I hope the video of this song attaches below this so you can hear the song and SING WITH IT! Praise Our God and King and Savior for their work. We once did HATE God and was running from Him and running to Hell, BUT GOD, with His loving grace and mercy, showed us Himself and brought us to the cross! We saw our sins and His holiness and we fell to our knees and wept....and repented and we now live by grace in giving Him Glory in all of our lives!
Ephesians 2:1-10
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them"
Let us praise God and thank Him for His Great Mercy! Sing this song with me, praise our Savior with me and let us go out and tell all of this great mercy that He has shown us so that they too may know Him and praise Him with us!
For His Glory!
Chris
I just wanted to share a song with you that has grown on me more and more. The words are so true and so humbling, while still giving such a great hope in Christ! The song is called "All I have is Christ" and here are the lyrics:
I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.
But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.
Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life
Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.
© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin
I hope the video of this song attaches below this so you can hear the song and SING WITH IT! Praise Our God and King and Savior for their work. We once did HATE God and was running from Him and running to Hell, BUT GOD, with His loving grace and mercy, showed us Himself and brought us to the cross! We saw our sins and His holiness and we fell to our knees and wept....and repented and we now live by grace in giving Him Glory in all of our lives!
Ephesians 2:1-10
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them"
Let us praise God and thank Him for His Great Mercy! Sing this song with me, praise our Savior with me and let us go out and tell all of this great mercy that He has shown us so that they too may know Him and praise Him with us!
For His Glory!
Chris
Monday, September 6, 2010
Our Apartment
Hey Everyone-
For those of you who are interested, I just posted pictures of our apartment. To view them, click on the "Photos" tab at the top of this page, then the link that says "Click Here" and then choose the album "Our Texas Apartment". Enjoy!
Happy Labor Day!
Michele
For those of you who are interested, I just posted pictures of our apartment. To view them, click on the "Photos" tab at the top of this page, then the link that says "Click Here" and then choose the album "Our Texas Apartment". Enjoy!
Happy Labor Day!
Michele
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