December Update

Dear friends and family,

We hope many of you had a chance to see family members and friends during the Christmas and New Year's season. This is what we've been up to:

Looking back - Christmas day was spent visiting the assembly at Lugunga for the closing meeting of their conference. The choirs sang enthusiastically and Luke preached a message from Matthew 1.

We welcomed the new year with a night of fun and fellowship with other missionaries in Kigoma. On the first Sunday of the year 4 believers from the local church were baptized. Please pray that these believers will continue to grow in maturity and be a witness for Christ.

Looking forward - we will all be going for a week-long evangelistic campaign on the 11th of this month to the villages of Kazilamihunda and Kasanda (where we lived for 8 months last year). The two vehicles are filling up fast with people, film equipment, generator, and boxes of Bibles. There will be seminars every morning, open air meetings in the afternoons, a visiting choir, and Christian films in the evenings. The days will be busy and full of activities. Please pray that this effort would draw many to Christ and strengthen the 2 local churches in that area.

Esther celebrated her 4th birthday with some friends and Emily is now 4 months old. Please pray that Emily's birth certificate will be issued so we can get her US passport.

We are grateful for your continued prayers and hope you have a blessed 2011.

In His Service,

Luke, Gina, Esther and Emily Johnson

Guess who?

The girls at 3 months old. Which one is Esther and which one is Emily?

God's protection

(note to my mom -- Don't read this)

-- (Sept. 2010) Driving from Keza to Kigoma we met a small truck on a turn in the road. Neither of us were completely on our side of the road so we quickly moved to our left (the side we were supposed to be on) only to skid on the lose gravel that sits on the compact red soil. In trying to stay on the road and not go in the ditch the vehicle over-corrected and went to the other side making a U turn in the dust of the passing truck. The small truck halted to a stop and the many passengers in the back jumped off to come help us assuming we had flipped. We drove up to meet them and assure them that we (including Esther 3, Emily 2 weeks) were OK. Thank you Lord for your protection!

-- (Oct. 2010) The plug to our toaster was beginning to smoke while plugged into the kitchen socket. Oblivious to any of this, I (Gina) decided to unplug it on my way out to hang laundry while leaving Emily in her bouncy seat. I could not pull the plug out, the plastic was melted and the 'tronic' multi-plug was beginning to deform from the heat. The Lord protected us from a possible fire by making me check on the plug at that exact moment.

-- (Dec. 2010) I (Gina) walked into the kitchen and immediately smelled the overpowering fumes of propane gas. The milk that had been left to reach a boiling point had instead boiled over and extinguished the flame leaving the burner 'on' to allow the gas to continually leak. I had been in the bedroom down the hall nursing Emily and talking with Esther for some 20 minutes while the fumes filled the kitchen. Thankfully there was no other flame on in the entire house to start an unwanted fire. The Lord protected our family once again!

Highlights from November

The boat thus far...

Grandparents with Emily and Elliot Johnson

Peter and Naomi on their wedding day

when visiting a village...

You gotta wait

and wait for your lunch

except for Emily.

December Update

Hello dear family and praying friends. 

As Christmas approaches I have been thinking about Matthew's account of Christ's birth. "God with us" was born as King of the Jews and deserves to be worshipped by all men, even powerful men from the East (the Magi). This Christmas let's remember to truly worship the One who was born to rule this world and seek to make His name known to others. Wise men still recognize this Jesus to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

This past month we attended the wedding of Peter and Naomi, a young couple at our church. This event was delayed due to a heavy rain but when it started it was celebrated with much joy, singing and dancing, and gift giving. We pray that God will continue to use them, now together, to build up His church.

We also got to go to the village of Bukuba, where I had taught a young people's seminar last month. This time the whole family was able to go and the believers were delighted to meet Gina, Esther and Emily. We went up on Saturday for a youth leader meeting and returned to Kigoma the next day, after the Sunday service. Again, we took a box of Bibles to sell at discounted price and not one was left by the time we returned. 

Lately I have been working on the sailing boat (a gaff-rigged ketch) that my father has been building for ministry on the lake. The roof structure for the cabin is finished and ready to be planked. We pray that this boat will be used to encourage the believers in the village churches along the lake.

We also had a family visit. Jesse and Joy Johnson and their 3 boys Zach, Micah, and Elliot came down from Burundi for a week so we spent time with them. 

Pray for:

- Christmas conference in the town of Lugunga that we plan to attend.

- The work that still needs to be done to finish the boat.

Thank you all, especially for your prayers. We appreciate the part that each of you plays in the work that God is doing.

In Christ,

Luke Johnson, for the rest of the family.

Ladies from the chapel visiting Gina

Emily at 7 weeks

Esther practicing her letters

November Update

Hello dear friends and family,

We are thankful to the Lord for the new life that we have in Him. I have been recently thinking of the privilege that we as believers have been given, namely to manifest the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ in EVERY place. (2 Cor. 2:14) Do I smell of Christ through my attitude, words and actions to the people I come in contact with every day? 

As I mentioned in our last newsletter there was a young people's seminar in the village of Bukuba on Oct. 15-17. The good hand of the Lord was with us and I taught a course on Sexual Purity which was well received. On the second day the things we talked about generated many questions and much discussion. Even the girls were asking questions, which is quite unusual for this culture, so I think it was well received. While there we also chose some leaders for the young people for the 5 churches in the north of our region. Their job is to help start youth groups in the churches and organize young people's events, seminars and activities. We hope that this will help the young people's work to go forward and that more youth will begin to attend our churches.

On Tuesday (Nov. 2) the ladies from church came to visit Gina to officially welcome us to our new house and congratulate her on the birth of Emily. It was a good time of praising the Lord for what he has done. They brought gifts (mostly fruit and vegetables) and prayed for our family and then they enjoyed some refreshments together before going home. We are thankful for their loving and joyful support. 

Tomorrow we will go with my parents to a small village church about 1 hour away. You can pray for this church in Kizenga as it has been struggling for many years and has not grown at all. There is only one elder and the church members consist mostly of his extended family.

Esther is learning her letters and enjoys practicing her Swahili at church and with 'mama Gracie' that comes to clean twice a week. Emily is now 2 months old and gracing us with her smiles and longer nights. =)

We thank the Lord for all you who faithfully support us in prayer. We know that our Great God delights to work through your petitions on our behalf.

You can specifically pray for:

- The youth work in the churches. That it would move forward through the efforts

 of the newly chosen leaders.

- The small struggling church of Kizenga; that it would grow.

- Spiritual discernment for us. That we would focus our efforts on what 

  God wants us to be doing, and not our own plans.

In His service,

Luke, Gina, Esther, and Emily Johnson

October Update

Hello dear family and praying friends. We hope you are all doing well. 

The Lord continues to give us opportunities to minister. Last weekend (Oct. 1-3) I, Luke, attended a Seminar/Evangelistic Conference in a village called Munzeze, about 2 hours North-East of Kigoma. On the way there I picked up 2 Tanzania brothers who were going to be the evangelistic speakers. I taught a seminar on the book of Galatians Friday and Saturday mornings, and in the 

afternoons and at night we had evangelistic meetings outside.

What does an evangelistic meeting look like here? I thought you'd ask, so if you'll allow me, I'll try and give you a little picture of one. It means a long introduction where each special guest must be recognized and welcomed personally, as well as given the chance to greet everyone. This is followed by a LOT of singing. Each church choir that was invited to the conference (3 in this case) gets to sing a total of 4 songs each during the service, and then of course there is a lot of congregational singing of choruses and a few songs out of the songbook. And finally you have an evangelistic message that could be anywhere from 1-2 hours long. Then you have an altar call followed by announcements, and finally the closing prayer.

This is what the afternoon services looked like, and then you have a slightly shortened version of the same thing at the night services beginning at 8PM and ending anytime between 11PM and midnight. Needless to say I was pretty tired after the weekend, but in spite of this, the Tanzanians always seem to enjoy the fellowship, and especially the choir songs. The choirs are aided by a generator to power their keyboard, 2 electric guitars, and bass guitar. The choir members all do synchronized actions and steps (or should I just say they dance?) to the beat of the music. There always seems to be technical problems during their performances, such as excessive feedback, but they just keep going in spite of the unbearable high pitch squeal from the speakers ...

On Sunday we had a regular service outside and I preached a message on knowing God. During the weekend Gina stayed home with the 2 girls and I was very happy to see them at around 7:30 PM Sunday night after dropping off all the people that had crammed into the car. Was there any lasting fruit from this conference? Only God knows for certain. After one of the evangelistic messages there were a few professions of faith but I don't think there was very good follow-up by the leaders of the local church. One encouraging factor was that the people seemed to be very attentive during the seminar and they had a fair amount of good questions during the question times at the end of each session. Also I took 23 Bibles and was able to sell all of them at a reduced cost. The believer's were very eager to get them so we pray that God's Word will dwell richly in them. Is there a better way of conducting these evangelistic conferences? Probably, but the hard thing is getting them to think outside the box. That's how they have always done them, and that's how everyone else does them so why change now?

These are just some of the questions that we deal with on the mission field so we would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment each day concerning all these issues, and that God would always be glorified through us.

On the home front we continue to adjust to having a newborn baby. Gina of course, cannot get a good night's rest at this stage, so pray for strength for her. And then it is hard to get the housework done with a talkative and active Esther and a hungry or fussy baby who needs a diaper change ...  Meanwhile I am trying to fix the leaky roof before the rains come and keep up with the little problems that the car keeps reminding me of, and administrative things and ... and then I wonder why I don't seem to have enough time to prepare for the next seminar. So this is when we learn to depend on God and draw our strength from Him. The next seminar will be for young people in the village of Bukuba next weekend (Oct. 15-17). Please pray for this young people's seminar as I will be teaching part of it.

We truly are blessed and privileged to serve our Lord and we wish we could do more for Him, but we hope we are faithful in all things including the "small" things. 

In His service,

Luke, Gina, Esther, and Emily Johnson

September Update

Emily Jane born Sept. 5th 2010

Esther

Esther meeting Emily

Family of 4

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

We're headed back to Kigoma after a wonderful time in Moshi, in northern Tanzania. The Rea's have been so good to us during our month-long stay with them, and Esther will miss the fun she's had with Uncle William and Aunt Eunice. We go back with 2 kids this time, making it a new experience for us. 

Luke taught two courses at Berea Bible College: Amos and History of Salvation. The courses went well even though there were only 2 students in the class. At this year's meeting of church leaders the issue of poor attendance was discussed so pray that next year there will be much better attendance at the Bible College.

On our drive down we hope to visit the believers at Kaziramihunda and Kasanda once again (where we lived for 8 months last year). Soon after getting back to Kigoma there will be an Evangelistic conference in one village (Munzeze) and a Young people's meeting planned in another village (Bukuba). You can pray for the ministry that will go on in each of these places.

That's all the news for now. May Christ continue to build His church all over the world.

In His Service, 

Luke, Gina, Esther, and Emily Johnson