Jackie's Journey "Fire of Sorrows!!"

Our family… The Day of Ralph’s Celebration of Life

 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me,

YET not my will but your will be done.”

 The day we said good-bye, this quote from C. S. Lewis kept running through my head…“When I am in the presence of God, it seems profoundly unbecoming to demand anything!”  Luke 22:42  Christ said, “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?  But for this cause I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your Name.”

 My attitude toward every “fire of sorrow” and difficulty is, initially…please don’t let this happen!  Then reality sets in and the truth comes blaring with its message. I cannot be saved from its flames, but I can be rescued into its divine purpose by His grace!  There is no evading it, enduring it, denying it or asking, “why?”  It is a fact of life that escapes none of us.

 Grace, by my husband’s functional definition, is “God who works in you the will and power to do His will”.  Phil. 2: 13  He always gave the five factors of grace as:

Grace is:

(1) Given to every person Titus 2: 11;

(2) Given freely Eph. 2: 8;

(3) If received, we are Given more II Pet. 1; 2;

(4) Grace can be resisted Heb. 12: 15;

(5) Given to the humble. Jas. 4:6

 Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest” this month directed our attention to making sure we saw this “fire of sorrows” from God’s point of view and realize that “the GRACE we had yesterday will not do for today”!  We are to draw on the grace of God now, in this moment…in the trenches, in every conceivable condition we find ourselves in.

 I love his checkpoint…”the proof that you are drawing on the grace of God  is that you can be humiliated without manifesting the slightest trace of anything but HIS grace!”

 With gratefulness I am drawing on the grace of  God,  

not presently…but NOW!

Will you join 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 "Evil?"

“First, we overlook evil

Then  we permit evil

Then  we legalize evil

  Then  we promote evil

   Then  we celebrate evil

Then we persecute those who still call it evil!”

 Woe to them who call evil good, and good evil.  Isa. 5:20a

 Life is simply a stewardship, not an ownership; a trust, not a gift.  With a gift you may do as you please, but with a trust you must give an account. Ephesians 2:10  One day we will be called upon to view evil, as God sees it!

 Wickedness in all its forms seems to dominate the culture on every level.  Instead of seeing trials and conflict serving as a continual process to personal growth, they are seen as an interruption to our walk because we refuse to view them through humility and His divine purpose.

 J.P. Phillips once wrote, “The real danger to professing Christians lies not in the more glaring and grosser evils but in the slow deterioration of vision, a slow death to daring courage and willingness to adventure.”  The adventure referred to here is in the context of our daring to stand alone against the throes of evil, in a world that is fraught with lies and deceit.

 Accepting truth with humility is a lost art!  Self-defense, self-esteem and rationalization are the resources used to confront conflict.  Our homes, children, communities…all of life is consumed by it.  Hence, evil takes control and prevails, with division, divorce and destruction. All in Satan’s plan to steal, kill and destroy us.

 Our challenge for our sake and the sake of our children, who are stepping into the print we leave behind, is to step up to the plate of maturity and receive “the meat” of His Word and respond to life’s situations from God’s point of view and act in harmony with it!

 In these days of uncertainty, “we renounce secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God.  On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

 God’s  Word calls Evil out…

 How often do you get in God’s Word?

 Is His Word dwelling richly in 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 "Princess Puzzlement!"

Taking a look at the need we have in our bookstores (that are disappearing!) it is obvious that Biblical worldviews are sorely missing! Children’s books are not representing those of us who are intentional in presenting godly character, biblical values and eternal perspective.

Articulating a biblical worldview within our sphere of influence is what “The Princess Parables Series” is all about. They are written to strengthen the belief that God made our little princess special and designed her with destiny and purpose.

The mission of “The Princess Parables” is to introduce and encourage the disciplines necessary to step outside fantasy and into the magical realism and authenticity of a loving and accepting God who teaches finding contentment in serving others, not in serving oneself. Although written in fiction, each Princess story is based on fact. It teaches a specific character quality in the name of its Princess and takes the storyline from a Parable that was taught by the greatest teacher ever born.

 It has been specifically created to put a functional tool into the hands of young mothers (urban, suburban, rural, stay- at-home, teen moms, single moms and married moms, grandmoms, aunts, and teachers, each with a different lifestyle, but all who share a similar desire to be the very best power of influence they can be!

The passion to meet the need of every person desiring to cultivate what God has programmed into her child’s “Princess Potential” has been a huge source of motivation and it allows parents to nurture their little ones into genuine greatness.

The innocent imagination of a small child is a book yet to be written and images of truth, hope, loyalty, joy, grace, charity and faith are but a few of the myriad of opportunities lost when the exposure to truth is clouded and “synergized” with fantasy.

If you have a little princess…

Take a peek at The Princess Parable Series this 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 "Princess Perplexity!"

The original intent of this weekly blog was to encourage young moms to be all they could be for the benefit of their little princesses. It takes intentional planning, commitment and direction.

From their earliest memories our little girls are swamped with a princess course that introduces them to an unreal world filled with wizardry and lacking strong moral themes with eternal values. They are asked to define love and romance by standards that are not true to life or a representation of clearly defined biblical standards.

These little girls are needlessly exposed to the illusion of life and love  through the many Princes Charming’s and young squires that are so readily available to them in most story lines; however, the child is not exposed to the truth of genuine love. Children are caught in a quagmire of choices that offer only temporal values, but not eternal ones.

Their personal identification with a fantasy character is deceiving on many levels because the charge to discern the good and evil is often obscured by wrong motives and intentions on the part of the “hero” in the story line. Often the attitude of the leading character is questionable and the continual interjection of clairvoyance and magical fantasy is confounding.

The child is left to choose from bad and really bad, instead of from good and bad. Neither choice is particularly clear, but the medium being used (book, film, cartoon, etc.) is “thought” captivating and attention binding. Both of these goals are shortsighted and not fulfilling for the long term.

Living in a post-Christian era, we seek to carve out a more excellent and realistic milieu for our children, these little ones that are so literal and entrusted into our keeping for so short a time. Most Christian parents are seeking an alternative to the present prince and princess culture trend in books and films presently available. Their main reason…our worldview influences all areas of life!

Every exposure a child has (visual or auditory, etc.) is adding to their life experience and their worldview.

Presently, how would you describe your child’s worldview?

How would you describe your worldview?

The original intent of this weekly blog was to encourage young moms to be all they could be for the benefit of their little princesses. It takes intentional planning, commitment and direction.

From their earliest memories our little girls are swamped with a princess course that introduces them to an unreal world filled with wizardry and lacking strong moral themes with eternal values. They are asked to define love and romance by standards that are not true to life or a representation of clearly defined biblical standards.

These little girls are needlessly exposed to the illusion of life and love  through the many Princes Charming’s and young squires that are so readily available to them in most story lines; however, the child is not exposed to the truth of genuine love. Children are caught in a quagmire of choices that offer only temporal values, but not eternal ones.

Their personal identification with a fantasy character is deceiving on many levels because the charge to discern the good and evil is often obscured by wrong motives and intentions on the part of the “hero” in the story line. Often the attitude of the leading character is questionable and the continual interjection of clairvoyance and magical fantasy is confounding.

The child is left to choose from bad and really bad, instead of from good and bad. Neither choice is particularly clear, but the medium being used (book, film, cartoon, etc.) is “thought” captivating and attention binding. Both of these goals are shortsighted and not fulfilling for the long term.

Living in a post-Christian era, we seek to carve out a more excellent and realistic milieu for our children, these little ones that are so literal and entrusted into our keeping for so short a time. Most Christian parents are seeking an alternative to the present prince and princess culture trend in books and films presently available. Their main reason…our worldview influences all areas of life!

Every exposure a child has (visual or auditory, etc.) is adding to their life experience and their worldview.

Presently, how would you describe your child’s worldview?

How would you describe your worldview?

~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. 

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.