Jackie's Journey: Jungle Fire!

Fires can be devastating!  In the jungle there is no 911, no

Fire Department, Fire Fighters or fire hoses and trucks… 

One afternoon the entire village stood on the riverbank and watched across the swift moving waters as a raging fire approached our settlement.  Like a tornado it swept across the forest floor consuming everything in its path.  The entire area was a patchwork quilt of gardens planted with bananas, rice, yucca, corn, and sugarcane…

Many of the new believers had fields laden with produce, as did their unbelieving neighbors.  Shocked at what we were watching, the believers began to pray.  Could that fire jump across the river?  The blaze began to pick its fields to blister as it “zigzagged” toward us.

 To our utter astonishment the fire leapt over the believers’ fields and consumed the others.  Not one field of a believer was touched!  God’s demonstration of Sovereign control over the elements of that wildfire was undeniable. 

God was in that fire!

“And I myself will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord,

and I will be its glory within.” Zechariah 2:5

Since time and memorial the Darien jungle and its unpredictability had ruled!  Whether it was the fluctuating weather, the epicenter earthquake, the remote isolation, the absence of communication to the outside world, the challenge of transportation or the miscellany of wild animals, poisonous insects, army ants, snakes and vampire bats…we were captive to the jungle around us. This was one of those days when my mind concurred with the reality. 

We all stood amazed at God’s presence in that most obscure place.  He had been there all along.  The boldness of His Sovereignty was magnified in that raging fire. The assurance that regardless of the circumstance we were experiencing, we were “…shielded by God’s power…” (I Pet. 1:5) was our pre-eminent thought as we stood “shaking in our boots”.  The promise that “the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover him all day long” was as real that day as it ever would be.  We surely sensed that covering as we surveyed His handiwork!

While buried in the jungle, I often sang a song taken from Psalm 32:7.  “You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and you surround me with songs of deliverance, whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You…”   Delivered and protected, standing on the edge of the Pucuro River, I was reminded of the truth “God makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants”! Psa. 104: 4

Ralph, my husband and God’s servant, teaching in our Kuna house.

We are saved to serve, called to be “flames of fire”.  Alive, dancing through life, consumed with the burden on His heart… controlled by His sovereign will.

“HE makes his ministers a flame of fire…” Psalm 104:4

~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 discipling 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: Snakes!

I have never been a fan of reptiles!

Panama is the home to some of the most frightening snakes on the planet.  Our corner of the dense jungle was full of boa constrictors, pit vipers, fer-de-lance (this snake bears 60 live babies at a time!), etc.  We were cautious not to poke under rocks or fallen branches, always scanning for any slithering menaces.  Behind our house there was a massive tree that extended its immense roots out into the river shoreline where the girls and I bathed and swam.  The thick mangrove swamp harbored snakes that would lie in the hollow places of the trunk of that tree.  

More than once I cried out Psalm 16:1

 “Keep me safe, Oh Lord, for in you I take refuge.”

Fear is no stranger to me.  I am habitually challenged to walk through the door of fear.   I was told during Missionary boot camp that courage was not the absence of fear, but the conquest of it.  Years ago, while reading Hind’s Feet on High Places, I had no difficulty in identifying with “Little Much Afraid”! 

“The highway of fear is the shortest route to defeat”.  William L. Brownell

Ralph had built a screened-in back porch to the house.  It became home for our gasoline-run wringer washing machine.  The Indians thought the machine was the most ridiculous apparatus.  It was noisy, the water had to be carried from the river (or in rainy season, we could utilize the convenience of the rain barrels).   The agitator was a mystery (why would you jerk clothes around in dirty cold water when the river is running and clear!) however; the wringer was another story…it worked really well.  Hand wrung clothes could not match that wringer!  I had to agree with them on all counts!  

While I washed, Kim would play on a blanket or crawl around the porch.  The floor was slightly elevated, lined with wooden planks roughly cut and loosely fit together.  It was not quite finished and as I washed I saw Kim crawling toward something moving under the slats.  I turned off the deafening machine, snatched Kim up into my arms and yelled for Ralph!  Right under our feet, only a few inches away, was a 5’ venomous snake! He had quite possibly been a houseguest for “who knows how long” before we noticed him! Let me repeat…I am not a fan and I intensely dislike reptiles!

Arturo, our nearest neighbor had heard me scream and came running, He quickly surveyed our predicament, raised his machete and removed the head of that reptile with one swift blow.  He held it up like a prized Marlin…its length was above his head and its tail draped to the muddy ground!

This story could have had a much different ending, were it not for our Sovereign God, His plan and the life-lessons He was busy teaching me!  School is always in session if we have eyes to see it. The need to grow and mature will never end on this side of eternity. Fear has been my biggest challenge.  I am to fear the consequence of sin, not snakes.  Easy concept until put to the test!

“Be strong and of a good courage, Fear not, nor be afraid of them (in this case…snakes); for the Lord your God, He it is that does go with me, He will not fail me nor forsake me.”  Deuteronomy 31: 16

“I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 34:4

What do you fear?

~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 discipling 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: Jungle School

Christina’s Early Schooling Interior

“...Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”  Deut. 4:3

Good-morning, Moms!  I have two princesses who have lived to tell the story of their educational process as tribal missionary daughters.  From Home Schooling to graduating from college, they have been in every type of school and used any curriculum available at one time or another! Furloughs from the field and sickness made academic flexibility a household word for us.

Both girls have their Bachelor’s and our youngest daughter her Master’s.  I say this to encourage you, young homeschooling mothers that God is faithful beyond our circumstances and He has trusted us and is faithful to do what He calls us to do.

I was told that a good teacher causes learning and to accomplish this there are two pre-requisites:

1)   A teacher must know the child’s need …spiritual first and then academic…for the child to learn.

2)   The girls would need to be under my authority to receive from me. 

I did not always feel like a “good teacher”.  My sense of failure was forever present.   Would it be enough…is it going to allow them the opportunity to find their way in life?  Would they be prepared?

I was teaching school in the jungle before the term “home-school” became popular!”

I was given the choice of sending my little ones three days journey to live at our Mission boarding school for the school year or being a home school pioneer.  It was not a hard decision, but it was a tremendous step of faith and a huge commitment.

We lived in very primitive conditions where my job description included many already time-consuming activities.  There was no running water or electricity.  Cooking was an experience in itself, as many of the animals I was preparing were unknown to me!   There were no computers, Google, phones, radios or T.V.  There was no written alphabet in the Kuna language so linguistics occupied hours each day (oh, for an iPad).  In time, literacy became a necessity.  Sue, my partner, and I ran a medical clinic in the mornings for treating malaria, T.B., parasites, bat bites, open wounds, even setting broken bones, delivering babies, treating colds and flu… etc.   We joined the women weekly to sweep the village with palm leaf brooms (yes… imagine!).  There were remarkable teaching times, prayer meetings and lots of needs and visitors all day long… everyday.  My girls were small; one was still nursing when we moved into Pucuro, our village on the Colombian border.  Time was a precious commodity…days were short… darkness came early.

Teaching the girls was a blessing I loved.  These two girls, my heritage…are the only thing that goes on into eternity and carries on—our beliefs, our character, our philosophies, etc. into the next generation.  They are a commanding responsibility and the most important investment I will ever make.  You, moms, face the same imperative today in this asphalt jungle, as I once did as a tribal missionary mom tucked away in the tropical jungles of Panama.

As a parent we have an unequaled opportunity with each child.  We want our child to be wise, truthful, grateful, honest, mighty in spirit… etc.  It is important that our heritage has the godly character necessary to produce success in life.

My question this morning is threefold:

1.      Are you satisfied that you know how to take advantage of that opportunity for the benefit of your child?

2.     What is the cost to your children and to yourself if you fail to properly complete the task? 

3.     Is there a system that we can know for sure is going to work and we can utilize to obtain the right results?

Scary, I know!!

If there was ever a time in history when today’s youth must become God’s men and women for the world tomorrow….THIS IS THE TIME!

Isn’t it true, Moms, that our success comes from making our children successful?!

I believe Scripture gives us a system we can use with confidence.  It focuses on building Godly character and uses very simple tools to accomplish that purpose.  Many parents spend hours teaching the “do’s and don’ts” that instruct the soul…but building character trains the spirit of the child.  Our involvement in actively and aggressively developing character meets a desperate need in our child and our society.

Character is developing right attitudes that produce right actions habitually! 

Do you know how to do this?

In the following blogs we will give attention to the three questions above with pragmatic steps of action.

Will you join me?

Reality Hit

Shortly after moving into our remote village, reality hit! 

                        Jungle living is a challenge at best! 

I was buried near the headwaters of a jungle river with . . . .

no electricity,

running water,

mud floors,

 and a very scary outhouse!!

I regularly found myself at the river washing three dozen diapers and hanging them twice daily because we lived in a rain forest that lived up to its name! The river could swell 8 feet in a morning rain!  Sweeping the village with the Kuna women twice a week plus sweeping my mud packed floor daily was a given.  I had to keep my dirt floors “clean”, I had a crawling baby, after all. 

My house was made with bark walls that had Indians peering through them day and night. I carried my 6 month old on my back and my 3 year old by one hand and  with pad and pencil in the other hand, we would jot down phrases or words for a linguistic box (what I would have given for an iPad!).  I would walk the village listening to the people talk, wanting to communicate, but not having the language yet.

I felt isolated. 

I had confrontations with some of the largest spiders, snakes and scorpions known to mankind. In the first months of moving into our village, some kind of large black cat (jaguar) came in at night leaving huge paw prints on the path near our house and carried off a mama pig, squealing for her life!!...

                                        You get the point…a lot of survival living! 

One sultry morning, I sat down discouraged and burst into tears. I was tired, overwhelmed and realized I was a total failure as a mother, wife, teacher, missionary…you fill in the blank!   Right on cue, our partners came walking into our house, asking what on earth had happened.  I quickly explained my dilemma and to my astonishment, they smiled!!  Now…I was thinking maybe a little word of encouragement and some comforting verses from the Word for all my effort was appropriate.  BUT NO, they kept smiling and agreeing with me!  “Yes, Jackie, you are a failure!

                                               WHAT??? WHO SAYS THAT???  

They went on…”You are NOW in perfect position to receive the grace and power of God!”  I began to process the biblical truth…it was true!  I could offer God nothing.  APART FROM HIM, striving on my own, I am a failure!  11 Cor. 12:9 say,  “HIS grace is sufficient for those who know they are a failure and weak and in need.  At that point of agreement with God, HE makes HIS power perfect in our weakness”! 

                                          Failure had become my best friend!

As the years passed and I listened to other Christian women struggling and striving to live the Christian life, doing good things BUT apart from HIS empowerment, my heart broke with compassion to see them set free, as God had freed me in the jungles in 1972.  Discouragement and the sense of failure are my “red flags” or signals that tell me I am striving in my own strength and I need to humble my heart and let HIM do it!  “Faithful is He who calls us who will also do it”. 

Today when I hear people choosing to “live off the grid” (a life of complete time-consuming inconvenience!) in remote areas (Alaska, for example), I am wondrously swept back to a time when I was driven by an intense desire to see an indigenous group of people hear the name of Jesus Christ…just once…