Jackie's Journey "Duty or Devotion?"

My oldest (Catherine) reading to my youngest granddaughter (Megan)…

 As parents, grandparents or parents-to-be one day, it is imperative to understand it is ONLY as we develop others that we permanently succeed.   Have we adequately prepared ourselves and our children to face the world with a godly world view or have we dropped the ball?

  There are going to be distractions and temptations along the way that will make the vital and continual necessity to consider the question,, “am I committed to my heritage or am I sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the immediate?”  What is really important to me?  Are there areas of compromise in my life that are exposing my true priorities?

 Did you know that “parents who read 1 picture book with their children every day provide their children with exposure to an estimated 78,000 words each a year. Cumulatively, over the 5 years before kindergarten entry, we estimate that children from literacy-rich homes hear a cumulative 1.4 million more words during storybook reading than children who are never read to.” 

 Can you imagine the impact of reading Voss’ “Bible for Children” to your child daily would be? Just the time sitting next to you while you read would be invaluable. Time singing and explaining simple truths of right and wrong, could begin to form a character that would one day make you proud.

 Are we aware of the fact that “nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight!  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before His eyes and to him we will give an account.” Heb. 4: 13  Personally, these words have always been a “call to action” for me! They have been a strong motivating force all my life.

 Our dedication to see our child prepared to face the worldly chaos with a godly worldview, will take a personal faithfulness to God (we are only stewards of these little ones entrusted to us), and it will be the benchmark of our permanent success.

 Where do your loyalties lie?

Duty or Devotion?

~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 "Eye of the Beholder"

Father’s Day was yesterday and my heart began rehearsing the life Ralph gave us as the father of our girls. My wonderful father has been with the Lord for 8 years and my children’s father has been with the Lord four months.  I like to think of my dad and Ralph celebrating together!  Both… extraordinary fathers.

 My children’s father was a force of nature!  His entire life was spent reflecting glory back to the God he served. He had a spiritual vision for the souls of men that was unparalleled.  Ralph had “limited outside interests”. His real passion was reaching the lost. His every contact with others was an opportunity to present his Savior, Jesus Christ.  His unconditional love for the hurt and needy caused him to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders!

 Ralph was a comforter of the afflicted… and an afflicter of the spiritually comfortable. His  name means “Bold Counselor” and political correctness was never his priority, if it meant a lost opportunity to present Christ.  He was a man on a mission, focused on the eternal soul of every person he came in contact with.

 He loved us, his inheritance…now left behind. Other than ministry, his first love was his family.  He was determinedly committed to us and he taught us that it is only as we win souls and serve others that we permanently succeed in life. He instructed us to love the Lord, to pray, to love the scriptures, and the importance of sharing our faith. We learned that “the mark of a saint is not perfection or absence of faults, but consecration; a committed man… who has given himself without reservation to God.” A surrendered man!  Ralph knew the greatness of a man’s power was THE MEASURE OF HIS SURRENDER to the Holy Spirit.

 He led the way and focused on preparing our girls to live in a world filled with compromise, confusion and chaos!  Ralph read the word and prayed daily for our daughters.  Whether curled up in a hammock in the middle of the jungle or in a home in the states, he was consistent in his own life and taught us to be the same.  Every morning we would find him at his desk with the Word open and ready to share what God had taught him.  He was always available to listen and had an earnest concern for the welfare of his two girls, which one day was extended to his seven grandchildren.

 Ralph was a gifted man.  He was certainly a gift to us.  He is the man who loved me and our girls…deeply …and always put us first.  He was my husband, my best friend, my soul-mate, my rock, and my mentor… but most of all, he was the loving Father of our children and grandchildren.  He has left an enduring legacy with his uncompromising testimony of God’s great love.…He was faithful… he was courageous…he was discerning…he led us with godly confidence and taught us truth…and he is sorely missed!

 Godly fathers are a rare commodity…if you have one that is still on earth…

Don’t miss any  opportunity to acknowledge his presence with a grateful heart…

 HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

~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. 

Jackie's Journey "Storms May Come and Go...BUT!"

Do you ever feel like the bluster all around you is an indication of what the future holds?  The tornado is coming…what do I do?   There is no “stop” in the midst of the swirling tempest. At times, it seems like the downpour is all we can take.  We find  ourselves rushing into the wind, hopelessly grasping for some “relief”.  Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees. 

 “Our God in heaven does whatever pleases Him. Psa. 115: 3  The storm that was sent to break us, is going to be the storm that God uses to make us!  When we come out of the storm, we won’t be the same person that walked into it.  That’s what the storm is all about!”

 “The river 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 a rock, its head serenely tucked under its wing…sound asleep!  That 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

 My girls and I used to sing a song in the jungle when the rain was so fierce it came through the bark walls and half-way across our living room floor! The thunder was so loud our tin roof shook and the wind and lightning filled the whole Darien with light!  The river, eighteen feet from our front door, could rise 10 feet in a few hours!  We were on alert, in the event that the rivers rage would come over the bank and into our house…

 It was great comfort to lift our voices in song, as we cuddled together in the hammock that was hung from beam to beam in that little remote room. The “storms may  come and go but the peace of  God we will  know.” We were wet, but we were at peace.  God knew and directed the rain, the river and  our hearts when we surrendered our will to His.

 Maintaining the right focus makes all the difference.

 Stand up in the storm this week and in gratefulness,

Find peace by yielding to His will in your 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. 

Jackie's Journey "The Sureness of Uncertainty!"

Being sure of something is a forever quest because life is so full of uncertainties!  Knowing we can count on someone is a welcomed consolation in times of turmoil, shock and confusion, but the promise of its permanence is unknown. Having confidence in an outcome is a luxury we don’t always have, but we think our well-being depends on it. There is very little in life that we can be absolutely certain about; yet, it is the mark of the “common-sense” life that we find ourselves in.

 “Use your common sense, Jackie”, my Dad used to say to me.  I wondered about everything and the future was at the top of my list!  What if…or what happens next?  Then…out of nowhere, the day of uncertainty becomes a drastic reality!

 “Gracious Uncertainty” is the mark of the spiritual life.  The very nature of our spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty.”  We are uncertain of our next step,  BUT we are certain of God. Oswald Chambers 

 HE has the plan, direction and purpose. The unsure fades, as long as our eyes are focused on HIM and not our circumstances. We can be certain HE will take care of all the uncertainties. The simple surrender to His will over our own; the abandonment of self-preservation (trying to make it work and failing miserably),  “brings a spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectation”.

 Knowing God is sovereign and needs no help from me, apart from my intentional surrender and obedience to Him, is a certainty I can put my confidence in.  Understanding HE is not only in control, but HE has my best interest at heart and has divine purpose in it all, brings that spontaneous, joyful expectation.

 “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is my strength.”

Neh. 8: 10b

 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 "Please...Don't Judge Me!"

I have a Ragdoll cat that entertains me continually.  She has a little OCD and came with separation anxiety disorder!  She has lived here for ten years.  When Ralph didn’t come back, she waited and waited for him, listening at the door,  every night for weeks! Then, instead of making the adjustment, she licked until she had a bald spot on her neck!  She is a prolific hunter and goes into high alert, instantly!  She is able to discern the intention of her prey by evaluating every tiny sound or movement.

 I recently had a young girl tell me she had the gift of discernment.  As I thought about the requirement to be alert to the needs of people, as well as the need when making important decisions, I started jotting down thoughts on how does this all play out in real  life?

 We are to exercise our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, hands, mind  and heart in sensing what is clean and unclean for us. We are called to choose wisely, so as to maintain a “walk in holiness”. (I Thess. 4: 7)  No hidden or unconfessed sin and no unresolved relationship is a good test for checking how clean our heart is.

 When God told Solomon to ask for anything he wanted, Solomon asked for discernment.  Discernment is the ability to see the hand of God in every circumstance and to understand His intentions; distinguishing between what is good and what is evil, in order to make a wise decision.

 One who discerns examines his own life. One who judges overlooks similar fault in himself.  One who discerns checks out all the facts.  One who judges forms opinions and then looks for supporting evidence. One who discerns deals privately with another person’s failures.  One who judges condemns without discretion.

 “Discernment is God’s call to intercession, never to faut-finding”. Oswald Chambers  Discernment will observe patterns; judgement will nit-pick. Observation becomes judgement when there is no desire to provide a solution.  It takes compassion and time to be discerning and  only “a minute” to be destructive and judgmental…

 Take a check: Which are you,

Judgmental or Discerning?

~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 "There's a Decision Knocking at My Door!"

Decisions…decisions…

 Difficulties in decision-making are overcome when our hearts (plural) are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be.  When my husband, Ralph, was here, we put our wills in neutral and prayerfully sought the counsel of God who held our future. We allowed peace to decide…not my will or his,  but His peace in our hearts (plural). (Phil. 4: 7)

 I am finding decisions are harder for me now…

there is only one heart! (singular)

 I am reminded of the Four D”s of decision-making:

1.   Don’t – If it is the responsibility of others, let them do it.

2.   Delay – if it should be done at a better time,  wait.

3.   Delegate – if others can do it better, let them.

4.   Do It – if none of the above apply…do it!  Dr. Glen Heck

 Life is a continuous series of exchanges based on wise or unwise decisions.  We build decisiveness when we refuse to reconsider a decision that we know is right and not in harmony with God’s Word.  Proverbs 11: 14 is clear …”where no counsel is, people fall; but in a multitude of counselors there is safety.” 

 Seems  to me, there are a horde of decisions that need to be made after the loss of a partner (60 years). What do I need to be asking myself? 

1.   Is my use of things consistent with the purposes for which God created them? (money, family, food, clothes, time, friends…)

2.   Whose jurisdiction am I under? (husband, parents, government, church; The Word of God…)

3.   Can I make this decision with a clear conscience?

4.   Am I in harmony with all those involved in the decision?

5.   Have I yielded my rights on this decision?

6.   Will it cause someone else to stumble?

7.   Is  this part of God’s purpose for my life?

 The little decisions we make now determine

the big decisions we will make later.

What do you do when a decision comes knocking?

~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 "Dissatisfied?"

I’ve been thinking about the mouse that made his home underneath the hood of my car a few months back and ate through the wires, costing me a lot of money to have fixed and loss of the use of my car.  Well, it has been less than six months and my little friend has done it again!!  He had another huge nest and ate through my fuel pump wires this time! 

 Needless to say, my forbearance for this little pest is running thin!  It is time for drastic measures.  Then… I remembered the lesson he taught me the first time he ate through my electrical wires and I am relenting on my determination to see him eliminated permanently!

 That little creature gave me a  good lesson in being content.  He makes his house in the most obscure places and he has the ability to make himself totally comfortable with whatever is available.  He’s content that he has all he needs.

 Contentment is realizing that God has  given me everything I need for my present and future happiness.  He is all I really need and HE is always with me.  “He will show me the path of life; in His presence is the fulness of joy; at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm  16:11) 

 It has been three months since Ralph left for his heavenly home.  I am still processing how fast it all came about and what all God needs me to learn.  His Word is sweet, as is HIS presence and HIS grace is more than abundant.  I  have only praise and thanksgiving for HIS undertaking on my behalf.

 I want thank those of you who have reached out to me recently and for those of you who continue to pray me through these days of “fine-tuning”.  I have reviewed the five steps of grief and have weathered the “Shock” and skipped the middle three and went right into “Acceptance”.  God’s is sovereign and knowing HE”S got the plan continues to bring peace to my soul. I am content…

 Do you believe that God has given you all you need?

“If I am not satisfied with what I have,

 I will never be satisfied with what I want.”

Ralph Guthrie

~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's Worth Dying For?"

During the reign of Maximian in the third century(A.D. 286), repeated persecutions were brought against Christians.  Yet the greater the persecutions, the more  the early church grew.

 One day Maximian ordered  all his armies to assemble near the city of Gaul.  Tens of thousands of soldiers were there.  They stood at attention to give a loyalty oath which included the killing of Christians.

 The captain of 6,ooo men, known as the Thebian Legion replied to this oath by saying, ”We  will fight and die for Maximian in battle, but we will not kill Christians.  We, ourselves, are all Christians.”  

 Maximian became infuriated.  He ordered their ranks to be decimated.  Every 10th man was killed by the sword.  The remaining legion still refused!  More men were killed until the entire legion was martyred for their faith!

 The tens of thousands who watched saw men who had something worth dying for.  Soon, thousands became converted, and in A.D. 313 the entire Roman empire adopted the Christian faith.

 These men were strong in God’s Spirit.

Their faith was grounded in conviction, not preference.

 We live in a time when our fear of God is at an all-time low and our love of the world and all it offers, is at an all-time high!  God wants us mighty in spirit, “’To be strengthened with might by HIS SPIRIT in the inner man.’”

 This means God’s Word is dwelling richly in us, we are sensing His presence and recognizing His promptings. We are alert to spiritual dangers that would draw us away from Him and His purpose in our life and we are discerning of wrong attitudes and ideas that would neutralize our ability to make decisions with godly convictions and His blessing.

If HE is worth dying for…

HE is worth living for…

~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.