Missionary Appointment

7.25.2010

Hello from The Johnson’s. We wanted you to be one of the first to know about what God has been doing in our lives over the past year.

Last summer Renee and Caleb took a mission trip to Kansas City and while there serving, had a chance to visit Avant Ministries. It was there, listening to a presentation on Short Cycle Church Planting (a unique vision of missions that is team based and operates on a limited timeframe, usually five years) that a seed was planted.

Also last summer, as you may know, we felt called to place our house in Omaha, NE on the market. We did so in preparation for Michael completing his bachelor’s degree and a possible move out of Nebraska for graduate schooling. This also gave us an opportunity for us to move so that Michael could work on an internship at Crete Berean Church in their youth ministries.  The time at Crete went very well and we saw God building a new movement in the youth of that area. As we began looking for full time youth ministry positions we found little success and felt God beginning to move us in a new direction.

When we stepped back and looked in hindsight at the internship, we realized that we had been on the mission field for the past nine months. We were working in a new city, ministering to a new mindset of people, and it was for a finite time. With this in mind we began to seek God’s leading for our lives and what missions may hold for our family. I filled out an interest form for Avant; several days later I was talking to their recruiter. It was during that conversation that I became convinced of the fact that we had been indeed called to work on the mission field. Only we did not know where.

In early July of 2010, our family traveled to Kansas City and went through Avant’s Candidate Orientation Program. Over two weeks we were equipped and trained in missions and we got to hear about Avant’s heart for winning the lost and some of the countries they are currently preparing teams for. Renee and I clicked instantly with several other candidates that were interested in planting churches in or around Rome, Italy. As we prayed and talked with the leadership with Avant they also felt that our leadership and life experiences were what that group needed. We were asked to pray about leading that particular team.

Upon completion of the program we were appointed as missionaries for Avant Ministries and were placed on the Short Cycle Church Planting team headed near Rome. Our plan is to be in the field in early 2012. We will travel to Avant to complete some team building exercises and a leadership-training seminar. The next twelve months will be a lot of travel to do fundraising and getting all of our affairs in order to move across the ocean. This will be a huge task, but we are confident that The Lord is with us. We are asking for your prayer through this time of transition and we hope that we can sit down to talk with you soon.

In Christ’s Peace,

Michael & Renee Johnson