Life Happens

It seems I have been praying for a lot of people this week; not that I usually do not, but this week I have had a ton of specific things to pray about:
* A friend is going through training at Avant
* An extended family members father is sick
* A couple that got the news they were hoping to not hear
* A family member of mine that is sick
* Our pastor was in the hospital - stroke (doing okay)
* A co-worker that has had a rough couple of weeks

It is during times like these that I wonder "how much more can life happen". Why is everything always so hard? Shouldn't God, who loves all of these people, make life easier for His followers?

The fact is we live in a sinful and fallen world; and Jesus himself said "while you are in this world you WILL have trouble; but take heart for I have overcome the world!" God in His perfect will uses our imperfect circumstance to show His Glory and perfection. He is our refuge and shelter and has promised to not leave us. But most days Life happens, when we can give God our praise when times are hardest is when we see the most growth in our relationship with Him; that is how I see Him work in my life!

So pray with me that my friends and family can give God all of their praise, even through tear soaked eyes!

New Year, New challenges!

Dear Friends,

It has been a while since we have chatted. During the holidays I just didn't have a lot of time to write, and for that I am sorry! We did have a great time spending time with family and friends trying to soak up every moment that we had with them, knowing that this season is quickly coming to an end as we look to go on our mission soon.

It was also an eventful 1st week to 2011 for our team. We were informed that one of the other couples that had been comissioned to serve with us was going to step away from our team; in order to accomplish some other personal goals before going overseas. This has brought up a mix of emotions for Renee and I. We were nervous, sad, dissapointed, and concerned for our friends and co-laborors. I had a chance to talk with the rest of our team mates, inculding the couple leaving; we were all working through similar feelings.

As I contemplated all these events, I began to pray a read scripture. I began asking God what He was planing. I was taken to a familar passage in Romans (coincedentaly) 5:3-5 says:
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

I love that we can rejoice or have glory in our sufferings, and while the loss of our team member is not what most would consider "suffering" it is never the less a loss for our team. And God is building into our team perseverance, character, and hope. So while I am saddend by this trial (as some texts translate suffering) I still have hope that God is building us up for His perfect will for our team. We can take joy in the fact that He is perfecting us and while that process can be painful, it is always for the better!

Christmas Letter!

December 2010

 Merry Christmas from the Johnson Family!

Even as I write those words to all of you who we love and care for, it occurs to me that we soon be an ocean away from all of you during this special time of the year. 2010 proved to be an exciting year and brought many changes for our family.  The biggest change came as we accepted a position with Avant Ministries to be Team Leaders for a Short Cycle Church Plant mission in Italy. We are in the process of fundraising and God has truly blessed this ministry for us; we are just over 30% pledged of our total need with a large matching donation that is under consideration; which will put us over the 50% threshold. We are very excited about where The Lord is leading us and cannot wait to start ministering to the lost in Italy in 2012!

Caleb and Faith are both in a new school this year, Lincoln Christian, which has also been a great blessing for our family. Caleb (13 and in 8^th grade) was instantly recognized as a leader amongst his classmates and was elected to serve in Student Council. He has also been very busy with extra curricular activities including; drama, basketball, and pep band where he plays both the French horn and percussion. Faith (11 and in 6^th grade) has integrated into her new class as well. She has been a top academic performer, enjoys art and music. We recently went to her Christmas concert where she sang, had a speaking part, and played the trumpet. Even though she disliked the red bow tie and cumber bun she had to wear, she and the whole school were excellent.

Renee has done a fantastic job turning our new apartment into our home. She has an eye and passion for interior design that make our home comfy and beautiful. She has also been busy blogging about our journey into missions; www.paxromanaiv.blogspot.com and has developed a good following, I highly recommend you look into it if you haven’t yet.

I am still working full time at Target and wow, this Christmas season sure keeps me busy!  Also, I have been volunteering in ministry at Crete Berean Church. I co-lead the Oasis ministry with my brother in law Kirk and have been blessed to do most of the large group teaching. This has given me an opportunity to refine my preaching / teaching skills and I am truly appreciative. I also enjoyed volunteering to help with Caleb’s drama performances working with lights, make-up and teenagers; drama is still something I love. I have a good bit of training at Avant in February and March of next year, I will be away for three out of seven weeks, please pray that my time away from work and my family will go smoothly.

As we look forward to the upcoming year we are praying for each of you too. We are praying that God will use you to accomplish His purpose for your life. We pray that this season will be a blessing to each of you and your families. May the God of the universe remind you of the blessing poured out on the earth through His Son, Jesus Christ and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Johnson’s

Michael, Renee, Caleb, and Faith!

Speck or Log?

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus says:


“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?  How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?  Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye."

It is hard for me to live these words most days. I usually fall short of the standard the God has set for His followers to reach. It is often all to easy to rationalize ways and reasons to tear down my fellow man. I like to try to make myself look better at the expense of those around me; if I compare myself to "X" I am doing better than them. I find some sort of satisfaction in that fact. 


But the truth if the matter is I cannot cover my inequities by saying that "X" is worse than me, for that is not the way that God's judgement works. Anything less than perfection is missing His standard. That my dear friends is called sin; missing the standard set by God. Yet I like to use that word as a weapon; "SIN" an easy word to be brandished as a scarlet letter for any who offend me. It is so much easier to focus on other's sin than to admit my own. 


This all stems from my work; I work retail and it is 9 days before Christmas. I see the amount of "peace on earth and goodwill to men" there actually is amongst people "discussing" who saw the last Wii first and therefore should be entitled to it. I look in disgust at people who berate my co-worker or even me for being out of the one item that would make a perfect gift for so and so. I think in the smuggest voice I know "Merry Christmas". I judge these people! 


How much more enjoyable could my job be right now if I weren't "sinning" based on the attitude of these people? What am I doing that is causing fellow man sin by giving them an opportunity to judge me? Even worse, in my eyes, what sins am I committing through omission, that is to say not doing the things that God is telling me to do? As I have grown in my koinonia with God I find that this is the log I am more apt to miss, the log I desperately need to get rid of! 

Holiday 2010 Update

Hello from The Johnson’s. We wanted to send all of supporters and prayer partners an update over the past few months. God has been leading us on this missionary journey and it has been exciting to see that affirmed over and over again as He has blessed us during this process called deputation.

The first update has to do with the leadership of our team. On October 28^th, 2010 I received an e-mail from Avant Leadership saying that Renee and I have been officially confirmed as the leaders for Avant Team Italy IV.  All I can say is that God is so great, we were not looking for this as we came into the process of becoming missionaries; but now that we are, we will lead as best we can in the model of Jesus Christ. Michael will be attending Team Leader training at Avant’s campus in Kansas City in February or March of 2011. The entire team is scheduled to go through team training in March of 2011 if all goes according to plan. Michael, as team leader, is also to be included in a survey trip to the field with Avant leadership to locate and finalize the area that we will be ministering to, also scheduled for early spring of 2011! That is up to four weeks off that Michael will need from work and away from family; please be praying for this as it looks like a big financial obstacle right now! 

We also took a trip to Chicago Illinois in October to do some team building and fund raising. We were able to stay with some of dearest friends and had a wonderful time with them. We took a trip into the city with most of our team, where we had a chance to spend the day together laughing, shopping, and touring Moody Bible College. We also had a chance to Skype with Emily, our team member in Virginia who was unable to make the trip.  While there we also had one of our members say that she was not able to commit to going with us, so we now have an opening on our team. We are praying that God will fill this void quickly and that just the right person will feel called to venture forward with us. We know what a huge step of faith going through this process is and we are in prayer for a smooth process for our newest team member.

Finally, an update on the financial side of the mission. We have been blessed to have established about a dozen commitments for financial and prayer partnership. We are at approximately 20% of our total monthly need pledged. Several of our donors have not committed a firm number as they are praying for God’s leading in partnering with us.  We also have our a request for a large matching donation, we are praying that when we hear back from all of these partners we will be at or over 50%! We ask that you would join in praying with us that God would make this happen! We will be sending out prayer cards with our Christmas cards in early December.

Lastly you can reach us by facebook, e-mail, paxromanaiv@blogspot.com or telephone if you have any questions or just want to catch up. We would also love to hear from you all if you have any prayer requests, as we are committed to praying for each and everyone who receives this letter. Thank you for your heart for the lost in Italy and seeing God’s fame being spread throughout all nations!

In Christ’s Peace,

Michael & Renee Johnson

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

What is that title all about?

koinonia: it is an ancient Greek word that means fellowship. At least if you translate word for word but that doesn't quite capture the essence of koinonia. It is a word that has action implied fellowship, but also participation in a common effort or goal. Further more it means that people are communicating on a deep level. That is the desire of my blog: to have fellowship, participate, and communicate with those that are interested in the journey that I am on. I find it some what ironic that this will happen through the anonymity of a computer but as my family, my team, and I go on our missionary journey it will be one of the best ways for us to experience koinonia with you!

It is also important for me to express that this is not just my journey, but you who are reading and praying for us are participating in the journey God has placed us on.