Jackie's Journey "The Sixty Year Journey!"

My husband’s birthday was yesterday!  Our 60th wedding anniversary was a few weeks ago. A lifetime of memories and markers.  My parents were married 74 years and Ralph’s parents were married 47 years, so… 60 years did not seem inordinately long and I looked forward to many more years…but God had a better plan.

 I met my Prince at Bob Jones University and if you were to ask our college friends, they would be astounded that we are celebrating 60 years!  Most did not give us two years!  Ralph and I were polar opposites in almost every way.  However, we had the one element in marriage that will guarantee longevity…we were both individually committed to “burn out” serving God wherever He led us.  My husband’s godly zeal and spiritual leadership in our home was always preeminent and a constant for the last 60 years!

 I was blessed with a man who loved me unconditionally and when he said, “For better or worse”…he meant it.  We weathered the storms of life with near death experiences more than once and his loyalty to me and to God was unwavering. “Deference living” rather than compromise, was a key to our taking our two wills and finding harmony in God’s will.

 Ralph’s name means “bold counselor” and that he was…a man of daring motion and direction.  He was once told he was “an afflicter of the comfortable and a comfort to the afflicted”.  I could write a book with all his wise one-liners, biblical formulas and scriptural definitions.  His capacity to see things in Scripture and interpret them from “inside out” to give a total new look at a familiar verse was uncanny.

 Christian missionaries are people whose passion is to make the Lord Jesus known to the whole world.  They are completely under the command of King Jesus (my Paratrooper husband would roll out of bed, stand at attention and salute heavenward, committing his day!) and missionaries will go anywhere, under any circumstances, for no pay, with poor living conditions and food, even though no one ever notices.  They know their Sovereign Lord is watching every minute and that is the only reward and joy they seek…a true missionary is someone who will risk everything for the sake of the lost of this world.  This was my husband.

 We have a precious heritage that is a loving reminder of his loyalty to God and his responsibility into the third and fourth generations.

God’s faithfulness…

 If we had these 60 years to do over again, we would like to serve more and better, as we were bought with the price of His blood. Rom. 6: 16-18 says, “We were slaves of sin and now are slaves of righteousness.”  God called my Ralph home in February, so… it’s just me now…and I work daily on being a better slave!

 However impressive or challenging your marriage may be,

 It is the genuine proof of the degree of your loyalty to God.

~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 "The Price of Freedom!"

“We hold these truths to be self-evident:  That all men created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,

that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

 We are all familiar with these words but, not so well-known, the concluding words of the Declaration of Independence reads, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  Fifty-six signatures of great patriots follow these profound words. These were the American heroes to the core!

 And what did they get for pledging their lives, fortunes and honor for our country? 

·      Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

·      Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

·      Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

·      Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy.  He sold his home and property to pay his debts and died in rags.

·      Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.  He served in Congress without pay and his family was kept in hiding.  His possessions were taken from him and poverty was his reward.

·      Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

·      At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwalls had taken over his home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire.  The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt.

·      Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.  The enemy jailed his wife and she died within a few months.

·      John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying.  Their 13 children fled for their lives.  His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste.  For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.  A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.  Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifice of the great Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. These great men were not wild-eyed, rebellious ruffians.  They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security…but they valued liberty more!

 So… this July 4th, as we celebrate our freedoms with family and friends,

take a few minutes to silently thank these founding fathers

who paid such a great price for America’s freedom?

 Freedom is never free!

~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.