Jackie's Journey "Who's the Boss?"

Here in California, we are experiencing high winds, wildfires, loss of property and wide-spread devastation.  Everyone knows someone who has been adversely affected in one way or another.  The South and Eastern United States, at the same time, are experiencing a cold-snap bringing rare wide-spread snow!  People everywhere are stressed and struggling with life situations, confronting impossible decisions.  As a Christian, there is a confidence that God has it all at hand and it has divine purpose even though it currently appears “invisible” to see.

 Though unexpected and uncommon, these phenomena are great teachers and reminders of how small we are and how little control we have in life. In “Princess Grace and the Little Lost Kitten”, Grace finds herself in harm’s way with everything out of control in the Black Forest.  In her distress, she stops and simply accepts the reality of how important she is to God and that His love, direction and protection would be her companions, regardless of her current circumstances.

 If the Lord be with us, we have no cause to fear.  His eye is on us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer…His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable. (John Newton)  In His will is our peace…’

 “The sea was beating against the rocks in huge dashing waves.  The lightning was flashing, the thunder was roaring, the wind was blowing; but the little bird was asleep in the crevice of the rock, its head serenely tucked under its wing, sound asleep.  This is peace…to be able to sleep in the storm!  In Christ, we are relaxed and at peace in the midst of the confusions, bewilderments, and perplexities of this life.  The storm rages, but our hearts are at rest.  We have found peace…at last!” (Billy Graham)

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Lost and Alone?"

“Princess Grace and the Little Lost Kitten”

In the Princess Parable Series, Princess Grace is faced with her fear and we see through the eyes of a little princess her sense of anxiety at the loss of something she loves and cherishes. And ultimately, through understanding she is not alone, her faith is realized.

The Hillsong worship band has a song entitled, “Another in the Fire.” It speaks of the story of the three Hebrew children who after refusing to worship King Nebuchadnezzar were thrown into a fiery furnace. But as the King peers into those flames, he declares, “Look I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed.”

At a great moment of stress and fear, God showed up. There was “another in the fire.”  They were not alone!  When Princess Grace was lost in the dark forest looking for her favorite kitten, her heart was encouraged when she reached out in prayer and knew she was not alone. There was another there with her in her search.

One of the stanzas of that song says, “And I can see the light in the darkness as the darkness bows to Him. I can hear the roar in the heavens as the space between wears thin…”

This is referring to those special moments where we meet with God in our turmoil.  They are, personal and very real. Princess Grace found that moment and space. One writer suggested that they are a kind of “skywalk between heaven and earth.” They facilitate real connection between the Lord and His kids. Little princesses need this assurance.

The song was suggesting that sometimes that “space” is so thin that we can actually hear the worship in Heaven. Another author suggested that the “veil between heaven and earth becomes transparent and there is a peace and presence from God that is almost tangible.”  I think Princess Grace experienced this peace. That’s what He promises if we lay it all at the foot of the cross and trust Him for the rest …and she did.

Sitting in a “thin place,” sensing the very presence of God, “hearing” the Heavenly host worship Him, remembering how His love and grace have been extended to us was life-altering to Grace.   It is the school we are in as believers. Princess Grace found that “thin space”.  His using adversity to teach her to accept with joy His drawing her toward Himself…

He is all we need…Princess Grace let Him work out the rest

 and in trusting Him, she found her lost kitten hiding in the shadowy woodland.

 And you are in that “thin space” this morning?

Remember…He is “in the fire” with you…

You are not alone…

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "What Does Your Future Hold?"

Life had become routine in the Darien jungles of Panama. The sounds of Howler monkeys, the screeching of magnificent multicolored parrots and the beauty of the bright colored Toucan had become commonplace.  One morning we woke up to find two little spider monkeys on the front porch crawling on the girls’ bikes!

I still could not reconcile with the colossal hairy spiders, the over-sized scorpions, the copious species of slithering snakes, the blood-sucking vampire bats or the jungle army ants!  Nor would I ever find harmony with the dripping humidity and the ever-present roaches, chiggers and mosquitos!  However, I did learn to appreciate the large Iguanas for their tasty eggs.

 Daily, the Kuna’s would greet us, early, looking for sugar or oil and a morning visit.  We had become part of the community and they had begun to accept us.  We had brought healing medicine, oil, and sugar after all!

 The Indians had, somewhere along the line, become part of our family and we had become attached to them and their way of life.  We had learned so much from them and were amazed at their physical strength compared to their small stature.  Their ability to take one bullet and return with a deer or two bullets and return with two deer was uncanny.  We, also, learned much from their survival skills in the dense jungle.  But their openness to listen to the truth of God’s Word after a year and a half of total mistrust and resistance was the most astounding of all! 

 Watching the young mothers with their babies and the respect and trust these women had for the older women in the village was heart-warming  We had grown to love these very special people and had developed a mutually fulfilling relationship.  As they came to know Christ, our hearts were full of gratitude for the privilege of serving the King in such a rugged and remote region.

 The women swept the village once a week during dry season and it was an opportunity for Sue Gunsteen and I to listen to the women chatter and hear the community gossip.  You didn’t want to miss the sweeping because you would then become the object of their conversation that day!  

 However, I was consistently on guard because of something my Uncle, an orthopedic surgeon, had told me while he was visiting us at Language School.  He spoke quietly: “Jackie, you carry the TB germ from your mother at birth; it lays dormant now but could activate in the right environment or as you get older”.  I was 25 at the time, so I only had to focus on the environmental issue, I thought to myself!  Then, a year or so later, during a Congreso meeting, we knew we had reached a level of tribal acceptance when they offered us a gourd filled with “Chicha” and everyone drank from that one rustic cup!  Needless to say, I did not want to offend by NOT drinking from it! 

 But for me the sweeping and the common drinking gourd became an act of faith because the sweeping stirred up the tuberculosis germs that blew in the village and of course, the tubercular women would contaminate that cup!

 The Lord had given me a promise while we were in missionary training. 

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans

to give you a hope and future”.   Jer.29: 11

 The Lord used these powerful words of promise to banish my fear and sustain me as we swept the village, drank the “sugar cane-sweetened platano (cooking banana) drink” and treated the TB patients in their homes and the clinic. 

 HE knew my future and had it planned. There was, therefore, no reason to be troubled.  My focus was not on my fear but the need to keep in harmony with Him, His assignment and His will.

 Are you ever preoccupied with the future

and what it holds for your life?

 In a world full of uncertainties, it is easy to “roll into” the pattern of helping God design your future, rather than simply submitting to Him and His plan that comes with assurance and hope!

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Ignorance is Bliss!"

The Darién Gap: What to know before you go.

Wait… Maybe don't go…too late…

We went!

Inside the Darién Gap,

one of the world’s most dangerous jungles…!

“Ignorance is bliss”.  I’ve heard that said all my life.  Reality struck this week when reading on line about our location in the jungles of Panama. I am  going to share now, what I am sooo glad I did not know…when we headed up the Pucuro river to our Kuna village near the Colombian border in the Darien Gap!

 It all started the day we drove the Pan-American Highway, which is an epic 19,000-mile route that starts in Alaska and terminates in Argentina.  It’s continuous except for a small section missing along the southern border of Panama, often referred to as one of the most inhospitable places on the planet — this is the Darién Gap.

 It’s 66 roadless miles of dense, mountainous jungle and swamp filled with armed guerillas, drug traffickers, and some of the world’s most deadly creatures covering the border of Panama and Colombia. 

Just to mention few:

·       Fer-de-lance pit vipers (killed regularly)

·       Drug traffickers and FARC armed guerillas ( FARC kidnapped and killed our three missionary men out of our Kuna village homes)

·       Brazilian wandering spiders (pictured above; one made its way onto my sheet hanging on the clothes-line and then was carried into my house!)

·       Black scorpions (it took Ralphs size 14 army boot to kill the one under our bed!)

·       Jungle heat and dirty water (95 degrees and 95% humidity!)

 It brings me great comfort to know that God withheld this information from me. The Gap is most famous for: Things that will kill you.!  Who knew??  The list of deadly things inside the Gap is lengthy, and dehydration and starvation are the least of the obvious concerns. Instead, there were very real threats.

 The lawlessness and lack of residents made the Darién Gap a perfect path for drug traffickers of cocaine, fentanyl  and etc.  They passed through our village, using the  trail about 18’ from our house!  We had no idea who these strangers were and  would  offer food, drink and a place to sleep the night. Always with the intent of presenting Christ in the course of the evening.

Active since 1964, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces) armed guerillas dropped in by helicopter one day to terrorize us into leaving.  A backpacker from Sweden was shot in the head in 2013 and found two years later. Multiple others have been kidnapped for weeks or months after venturing into the Gap.

 Everything in the jungle is giant sized!  Spiders fill the jungles of the Darién Gap, but one of the most threatening is the Brazilian Wandering spider. “You’re going to have a really bad day if this bites you!”. This family of spiders (there are more than one!) has a leg span of five to seven inches. They wander the jungle floor at night and love to hide in people’s hiking boots, logs, sheets(!) and  banana plants. Bites from this spider can cause death in 2 to 6 hours.

Jungle scorpions look like they’re from another planet.  The black scorpion calls the Darién Gap home.  The one I killed under our bed was 9’-11’ long!  They live under rocks and logs and hunt for larvae and cockroaches at night.

The Darien Gap boasts of malaria carrying mosquitos, burrowing Botflies, Chiggars galore, an unreal volume of disease-carrying ticks, blood-sucking vampire bats, flesh-decaying trench foot, even undetonated Cold War bombs!  And let’s not forget the river crocodiles (I never saw one)…and snakes that hide in the massive tree trunks that grow into the river’s edge.

Even the trees teach a lesson to be learned, as the 8” spikes on the Chunga tree demonstrate. One brush against its spiny exterior introduces all kind of infecting bacteria, plus, a wound full of embedded spines.

So, the Darién Gap sounds downright peachy to visit, doesn’t it?

My husband used to talk to me, his “little much afraid”,  before our first trip to Panama,  about Jesus sending out the seventy-two with specific instructions to “count the cost” and then, he reassured me that they were “given authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm (them) you.” Luke 10: 19 

With that promise we went and it was better than “peachy”…

It was the beginning of a journey with God that changed my life…

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.