Jackie's Journey "Life Unraveling!"

                   “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him…Job 13:15”                               

 Our village was tucked away near the Colombian border and we lived in the silence of the jungle and its peculiar sounds.   One late morning there was an unfamiliar roar in the distance.  A large helicopter appeared and began circling our village, dropping low, looking for a place to land.  Before we knew what was happening, dust flew and the door slid open.  Men dressed in full military uniforms with machine guns jumped out and stormed into our house. Guns drawn, pointed directly at us, they began shouting commands with accusations!

 My life started unraveling before my eyes!  I quickly grabbed little Kim and Christina came running, clutching my legs. I reached down to reassure her, as Ralph stepped in front of us, whispering to me, “Remember, Jackie, this touched God’s hand first”. 

 We were being accused of being spies for the United States and they demanded we turn over our only means of communication to the outside world…our two-way radio!

I was trembling, imagining every plausible scenario of how we could be easily disposed of in the river and no one would know for months!  The truth that came surging into my consciousness was Job 13:15, “…though he slay me, yet will I hope in HIM”. 

 Still standing between the enemy and us, Ralph appeared calm and was responding in Spanish with an absolute, “We are not spies from America.  We have permission from your government to bring medicine to help this isolated group of people.” 

                              How had this happened?  What could we do?

 The next few moments stood still…their shouting gestures and my seeing no way of escape brought the verse in Job home to my heart.  I resolutely accepted His will, whatever that was going to be and instantly, peace prevailed.  What happened next was beyond belief!  To our utter astonishment, as abruptly as those militant soldiers barged in…they hastily, mid-sentence, without another word, turned and left!!  They did not ask for our passports or visas, nor did they take our rifles that were in plain view, hanging on the wall!  God had blinded their eyes, and in an instant, redirected their path.

 In the aftermath of my processing through this current event, Ralph gave me a definition for “tribulation” that comes to mind every time I am faced with a trial and I just want it gone…no processing…just gone!  “Tribulation is God’s fastest road to maturity”.  Well… missionary life had definitely put me in the fast lane to grow up!  The more life I live, the more I realize how much growth I need!

 This is that definition in a “mathematical” formula that changed my life and the way I look at trials, inconveniences, suffering and contentment.  It goes like this:

 Trials + Acceptance of the trial with joy and thanksgiving = Growth/Maturity

 I can respond to trials:

1.     By Benefitting from them

          The pressure of trials produces (Jas. 1:2-4):

2.     With Faith

3.     With Patience

4.     With Perseverance

5.     With Maturity

6.     With Wisdom

where I am …Lacking Nothing!

 OR

  Reacting to them and locking down emotionally with:  Impatience, Fretfulness, Why me?, Depression, Complaining, Rebelliousness or bitterness. 

 I choose to yield with gratefulness this morning and to recognize any form of tribulation, as a means to create a greater purpose in my life for the benefit of others. 

  What is your response? 

Jackie's Journey "Authentic Answerability!"

Are you a Mom of a prince or princess?  Albert Schweitzer said, “An example is not the main thing in influencing others…it is the only thing.”  We teach what we know, BUT we reproduce what we are!  We should never under estimate the power of our influence…both for good and evil.

 On a scale of 1-10 how would you say you are using your power of influence for good, mom?  What would your children say?  With the multitude of distractions from the world and its cultural pressure to sway you to adopt what your conscience has already told you is wrong…”how ya’ doin?”

 “Without a vision the people perish.” Pro. 29: 18   What is your vision for your child?  “We have been created in Christ Jesus for a life of good works that he has already prepared for us to do.” Do you sense God’s vision for us and our children in that verse?  Do you hear the destiny and purpose in that promise? 

 Each child entrusted to us by God has a personal destiny and specific purpose, as you do.   My children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are the fulfillment of my vision for the future.  My investment today will determine the fulfillment of that determination…tomorrow.

 Authentic answerability is taking responsibility for becoming the godly mother with a sacrificial heart that will walk carrying the burden of HIS heart. That makes being a mom a doable task empowered by our God that can and will do it, when we are yielded to His leadership and submitted to HIS vision and purpose for us and our children.  I Thess. 5: 24

 Can you hear the clear voice of God when He speaks to you?  He speaks in ideas.  The most important aspect of motherhood is learning to hear and respond to HIS promptings and to teach your child to do the same.  Are you acquainted with that still quiet voice?  “Be still and know that I am God” is written with promise, direction and intentional purpose.

 If you are a mother, you have a calling from God.  God entrusting into your care…a life, a future, a piece of what the world will become.  For those of you who have entered the battle with a vision and often feel overwhelmed…“let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we will reap, if we faint not” for “His divine power has given us everything we need…” Gal. 6:19; II Pet. 1: 3

 Will you take time to listen to that “still quiet voice” this week?

Those little feet stepping into your footsteps are counting on it…

~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 "Dimmed Vision"

As women, we face daily the threat of being derailed from our calling and designed purpose. As moms, we face the same fate of a dimmed vision and a protracted destiny.  We fight to maintain our goal and the priorities it takes to reach our intentional target and we carry the responsibility of those “little feet” energetically following us.

“You may never abuse your children,  or turn them out on the street or fail to feed and clothe them, but the viewpoint of the current generation may have left its mark on your mothering with loss of vision, absence of conviction, compromise, self-centeredness, lack of commitment,  self-pity, laziness, frequent parental absence or pre-occupation with your own interests, activities and concerns…”

 Here are five non-exhaustive questions that will keep the vision for our heritage alive:

 1.     Will my child look back at life and say, “my mother was a godly woman who walked in the light”, obedient to and living by scriptural truth?” II Pet. 1:3

2.      Did she read and study me “like a book” and purpose to build godly character in me? “We are known and read by all men”.  II Cor. 2: 2

3.     Did she enable me to see my purpose in life by learning to hear the voice of God and encouraging me to walk in it?

4.     Did she teach me to redeem the time and use it wisely…because time is short?

5.     Did she train me to walk with biblical conviction, accepting rejection from peers and the world as standard?

 These five basic questions will reveal your current effectiveness as a mom. Your dedication to the preparation of your heritage and the equipping of them to enter a tumultuous world is key.  I watched my two daughters grow and marry and give me grandchildren.  I am currently watching those seven grandchildren graduate from college, get married and fly away!  I am held responsible until the third or fourth generation…

 Are we keeping the vision connected to our calling

(as a Mom, Grand-mom , Aunt…) or has our vision dimmed?

~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 Silent Cry"

     “…and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power to grasp

           how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love

           surpasses knowledge…”  Ephesians 3: 18

If you are struggling this morning in some way

that you do not understand…this blog is for you…

 Recently, a stranger placed in my hand a small book written by Amy Carmichael (a missionary to India 1867-1951).  Immediately, upon hearing her name, a vivid memory came knocking at the door of my heart.    

 While we were in Boot Camp in Fredonia (make that "Freeze-don't ya"), Wisconsin!), preparing for missionary service I became so sick that I wasn't sure we would be able to finish the course.  Yet, my husband and I knew God had brought us this far.  There was a tribe, deep in the rain forest of Panama that had never heard the name of Jesus Christ and they were waiting for someone to come and bring His Name to them.

 We had been seeking local medical help for over two months.  I was in my first trimester with our first child.  My physical symptoms were severe, I had lost six weeks of missionary training and I was lost in my understanding of it all when diagnosed with an unyielding case of pneumonia!  The infection was suffocating my compromised lung and I would have to take a drug that could adversely affect my unborn child!  The choice was my recovering or possibly both of us not going full term!  I was confused and consumed by fear.  

 Have you ever been there?

Faced with impossible decisions and lost in your imaginations?

 At this juncture of my journey, someone gave me a quote of Amy Carmichael that stopped me in my tracks and I realized I had the concept of my Father's love and means of communication to me all wrong!   

 “If I cannot catch the ‘sound of the rain’ long before the rain falls, and going to some hilltop of the spirit, as near to my God as I can, have not faith to wait there with my face between my knees, though six times or sixty times I am told ‘there is nothing’ till at last ‘there arises a little cloud out of the sea’ then I know nothing of Calvary love!"

   I Kings 18: 41 says, “And Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go, eat and drink, for there

Is the sound of heavy rain’.  So, Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah

climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face

between his knees.  “Go and look toward the sea”, he told his servant.

And he went up and looked.  “There is nothing there’, he said.  Seven times

Elijah said, ‘Go back!’  The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as

  small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea’…The sky grew black with

clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came…’”

 I felt a little like Elijah may have felt when he was in danger for his life. Why didn’t I understand?  I should, shouldn’t I?  I was a missionary candidate (soon to be deployed!), I had spent a year at the University of Arizona, 4 years of Bible School, 2 yrs. of Boot Camp and Language School...I was completely committed to God with everything I knew, in all the light I had …But God always has much to teach me about Himself. I waited for Him at the front door of my heart and He silently entered through the back door and shattered my concept of Him and His promises!  He came with new light, new peace and new understanding of His divine nature. I re-focused, solely, on the author and finisher of my faith…

 “There are times when something comes into our lives which is charged with love in such a way that it seems to open the Eternal to us for a moment...it may be a small and intimate touch, as the touch of the dawn wind or it may be the pain experienced in the storm of life along the way... But we know it is our Lord.  And then perhaps the room where we are, with its books and furniture and flowers, seem less ‘present’ than His presence, and the heart is drawn into His sweetness… Can we ever cease to wonder at the love of our companion?  And then suddenly we recognize our Lord holding us in a new way?  Dimness seems to be more wholesome for us here...not understood by us.  After all, how little we see!    Confounded and abased, we continue to hold fast to the Rock and hide in the dust, before the glory of the Majesty of love--the love whose symbol is the Cross.  

And the piercing question then:  What do I know of Calvary love?”

 I am praying for you, this morning, for your sensing the whisper of His Presence in that "cloud out of the sea" in a new way and for the power of His healing.

 Have a great week!

~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 "Character Markers!"

A Biblical worldview should influence all areas of life.  Articulating that worldview within our sphere of influence is what the Princess Parables are all about!  While surface problems (hate, prejudice, murder, anger, addiction) attract media attention, they merely reflect and are symptomatic of the deeper need we have as people...the need for character!  Character determines our actions.  Character determines our responses, regardless of the circumstances presented to us in life.   It defines us and tells others who we really are!  Character is written on the heart of every person.  It is universal and transcends culture, race, age, social status, religion, gender and nationality.  

 Character marks the life of a true princess!! For many years Princesses Joy, Grace, Hope, Faith and Charity have been a large part of my life and I have grown to love each of them, as distinct and separate personalities, with unique engiftments and an adventurous story to tell.  They form a cohesive body of work that speaks to the need for early development of godly character in our little princesses in a pragmatic way they can relate to with Biblical terms attached.

  I recently read, “A dear old Quaker lady, distinguished for her youthful look, was asked what she used to preserve her appearance.  She replied sweetly, “I use for the lips, truth; for the voice, prayer; for the eyes, pity; for the hand, charity; for the figure, uprightness; and for the heart, love” (Jerry Fleishman).  The Princesses are designed to inspire godly thoughts and actions.  The key of this wise “Quaker lady’s” answer and the challenge to us is to maneuver victoriously through this new day and its many opportunities... each revealing our TRUE character through our moment-by-moment responses!  

 Who am I really?

My daily response to life situations brings to light the REAL me!

~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 "Put that Rubber Back on the Road"

“Perseverance is a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity

achieves an inglorious success!” Ambrose Bierce

 While attending Bible School, I met my husband and we were married a year later.  We had never heard of tribal people who had never had an opportunity to even hear the name of Jesus Christ!  Can you imagine?  God challenged us to take His Name to them!  My husband responded immediately to the need before him.  Yes, he would go!  He stood up quickly, as the seasoned visiting missionary, challenged the crowd for tribal missions; however, I stood frozen with my mouth wide open, in shock!  I could not believe his independent, instant response.   God had work to do in my stubborn heart.  My self-consumed willfulness held me captive!  

 I was not equipped to live in the jungle…I hate spiders!  It took three days travel to get to this Indian village.  One and half days journey by banana boat (that’s right we slept on wooden benches) following the coastline, arriving in a remote small town to make a connection for the last ten hour day trek upriver in an open dugout canoe!  Let’s see, I have two babies less than three years of age fighting the rapids during rainy season!  Surely, there was someone in that crowd of churchgoers more mature than I am that is willing and ready to go…not me!  I, fearfully, contemplated another 24 hours before I silently knelt with my husband and acknowledged God’s beckoning whisper to submit to His will and His very clear call to GO! 

 As a young student, untested missionary, wife and new mother I stepped out in blind obedience.  The unknown was my constant companion, as was my all-knowing God with His directing will and promises.  “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be.  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead…since he was about a hundred years old…and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  YET he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promises of God being fully persuaded that GOD HAD POWER TO DO WHAT HE PROMISED.”(Romans 4:18-21)

 For over 50 years now, God’s pursuing love has driven us to proclaim the name of Christ.  First, to those living in the remote jungles of Panama, “in the farthest corners of the earth” (Psalm 65:8), and today, to those living in the asphalt jungles of the United States.

 We have counted it a privilege to walk day-by-day wrapped in His strength, following where He leads us.  Joyfully persevering has become a fulfilling way of life… His receiving the glory is our reward…

 What are you facing today that seems unbelievably overwhelming and impossible?

~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 "Jungle School"

Christina’s Early Schooling Interior

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

 Good-morning, Mom’s!  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 curriculum available at one time or another! Furloughs from the field and sickness made academic flexibility an imperative and a household word for us.

 Both girls have their Bachelors 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, Youtube, phones, radios or T.V.  There was no written alphabet in the Kuna language so linguistics occupied hours each day (oh, for an I pad).

 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, 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… every day.  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 will go on into eternity and carry on—our beliefs, our character, our philosophies, etc. into the next generation.  They are a commanding responsibility and the most important investment I wiould ever make.  You, mom’s, 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?

~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 "I Want to be Just Like YOU!"

“What if God should place a diamond in your hand and tell you to inscribe on it a sentence which should be read at the Last Day and shown there as an index of your thoughts and feelings!  What care…what caution… would you exercise in the selection! 

(The diamond is your child!)” Russell  Payson

 This is the month we dedicate to Motherhood and our focus, Mom, is asking our “self” … What kind of Mom am I?   Being a mom is a massive responsibility.  Is there a test we can take to know if I we are on the right track?  I don’t want to get to the end of the road and realize I have been on the wrong trajectory!  Little feet are stepping into the print I leave behind… 

What should my life look like?

 Let’s take a look…Here’s a little test…A godly woman is clearly defined in Proverbs 31…    She is:

 PURE.  “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” Vs. 10 Virtue is the moral excellence and purity of spirit that radiates from a life that obeys God’s word.  Are you a virtuous woman?

 TRUSTWORTHY. “The heart of her husband has confidence and safely trusts in her, so that he lacks nothing of value.” Vs. 11 Being consistently truthful earns future trust from your husband, when you accurately report past facts.  Are you a faithful and truthful woman?  Can he trust you?

 COMMITTED.  “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.”  Vs. 12 Being committed means we are using difficult times to demonstrate our dedication to God, family and to those 

DILIGENT.  “She seeks wool and flax and works willingly with her hands…She rises also while it is yet night and gives meat to her household…with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.” Vs.13-16   When we are visualizing each task as a special assignment from God and using all our energies to accomplish it, we are being diligent.  Are you a diligent woman?

 INDUSTRIOUS AND OPTIMISTIC. “She girds her loins with strength and strengthens her arms.  She perceives that her merchandise is good: her candle does not go out by night.  She lays her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.” Vs. 17-19   Knowing what factors will diminish the effectiveness of our work or words if neglected, contributes to the completeness of the task at hand.  Are you a woman of gratefulness that doesn’t quit when the job gets tough?

COMPASSIONATE.  “She stretches out her hand to the poor; she reaches forward her hands to the needy.  Are you a woman who invests whatever is necessary to meet the need and heal the hurts of others?

 GENTLE.  “She is not afraid of the snow for her household…she makes fine linen…strength and honor are her clothing…she opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” Vs. 21-27   Are you a woman who is fearless, demonstrating wise and gentle assurance with kind concern in meeting the needs of others while eagerly doing what is right with transparent motives?

 HONORED.  “Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her…Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that fears the Lord…she will be praised.  Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.” Vs. 28-31    Do you want to be praised and honored by your family?  Ask yourself…Am I a woman who fears God by my obedience to His Word …literally terrified of the consequence of compromise and sin in my life?

Did you take the test?

How did you do?

Those little footsteps behind you are counting on you passing the test…

“But the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, 

 and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits,

 without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” James 3: 17

~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 "Mother's Understand Sacrifice"

Christina, my oldest daughter and my beautiful Mom

at her 101 year old birthday party…

 Love is not a passion.  It is the pulse of sacrifice”.

 This Sunday is Mother’s Day! For seventy-seven years my Mother taught me about genuine love and Motherhood. She was 101 years old when God took her home.  I watched her as she maneuvered through life.  She was strong and courageous, especially in the latter years without Daddy.  She faced life with grace each day with acceptance of God’s Hand and timing.  She had no fear of old age which is the assumption that we still have many years of life ahead of us. “The length of our days is seventy years or eighty, IF we have the strength; yet this span is but trouble and sorrow and passes quickly and then we fly away”! (Psalm 90:10)  

 She learned to be “satisfied in the morning with His unfailing love. She did not sing for joy out loud but she was clearly grateful and glad for every day.”  And she looked forward to any, or all of us coming and visiting with her as often as we could.  She was the best listener and I can remember my high school friends coming home with me to talk to her, not me!  

 She was wise… my precious Mama.  She taught me, by example, to number my days, to be deliberate with my heritage, to think generations and to see how short and quickly life passes.  I am paying attention.  So, you see…your job has been well done… 

 Thank you for leading the way, leaving a print for me to step into 

and showing me the pulse of sacrificial love…

I love you…I miss you…

~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 "Crawling Babies and Hiding Snakes!"

I have never been a fan of reptiles!

 Panama is the home to some of the biggest and most frightening snakes on the planet.  Our corner of the dense Darien 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 in 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 they had ever seen!  It was noisy, the water had to be carried from the river (or in rainy season, we could utilize the convenience of the roof 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 other accounts!  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 gave attention to the wringer, 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 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.