A Missionary's Many Hats

A Missionary's Many Hats
by Dr. Dave Johnson


A missionary must wear many hats, often within the same day or week. Some we wear often. Others we put on for special occasions.

This past week has been one of the special occasions in which I wore my "host missionary" hat. On Monday two advance men came from First Assembly of God in West Monroe, LA, to get ready for a team that was supposed to arrive on Saturday, but didn't arrive until Sunday, to do major, much needed renovations to our Bible school, Evangel Bible College. We spent several days running all over town, buying everything from paint to power saws, and working with the Bible school leadership to determine what repairs would be made and in what priority.

Since many Filipinos speak English the language is usally not a problem but sometimes different words mean different things. To a Filipino a hostess is a prostitute, not a woman who seats people in resturants. A tomboy is a lesbian, not a girl who climbs trees and plays men's sports. The bathroom is called a comfort room, which is often not an accurate description.  On the other hand, the upraised middle finger is only significant to those Filipinos who have watched too many American movies. But while these things can be easily corrected, other cultural issues are more challenging, requiring the missionary to put on the hat of "cultural mediator." In the middle can be an uncomfortable place to be.

In my case, hosting this team required me to master the art of driving a Filipino jeepney--a type of transportation whose hood design came from an American military jeep and has two long seats in the back where the passengers sit facing each other. My attempts at driving one have already driven many to prayer!

During this week we also had an evangelistic outreach nearby, so I put on my "evangelist" hat on two evenings. Fortunately I put this one on fairly often, and God continues to bless our efforts with his presence.

We are also completing the translation of the study notes, articles, etc., of the Full Life Study Bible (aka Fire Bible or Life in the Spirit Study Bible), and I am the managing editor.  This project has been a partnership between Life Publishers--the publishing arm of the Assemblies of God World Missions, and the Philippine Bible Society. My major responsibility has been to keep the partnership functioning well--and it has. But this week a couple of issues came up that demanded my involvement, so I put on my "managing editor's" hat, a role with which I am familiar.

This is all part of the job, but it does make for a long week--one in which I wore many hats.

 *All Scripture references are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

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Copyright 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

October Update

October Update

By Dr. Dave Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to provide you with a quick update on our situation here.

We have nearly completed the moving in process.  It took longer than I had hoped but we had a lot to do to get the house the way we need it, and we have both been sick.  Fortunately, we made the decision not to accept ministry invitations until after we are settled.  This has really helped to keep the stress manageable.  The price for overworking last term, among other things, was depression, burnout, and a year long sabbatical from the ministry to deal with it.  We learned our lesson and do not wish to walk that road again.

The next phase of our transition back into ministry here is to reconnect with friends, colleagues, and the district leadership team, and reestablish our relationships after being in the States for 27 months.  This has already begun.  As we reconnect, we will also be re-evaluating our ministry here to see where we fit and where we don’t.  Since Filipinos have a face-to-face culture, such things are better done in person than by other forms of communication such as email or even telephone.

For example, the Church Planting Schools that Debbie was instrumental in launching four years ago were ably led by the Filipinos themselves while we were gone.  Since our goal is to empower them and see this ministry expand, we want to be very careful about how we get involved.  Getting their input is critical—and we expect this to happen as we reconnect with them.  We will also evaluate the effectiveness of our evangelistic team and make changes as the Lord leads.

Also, over the next couple of weeks, for the first time ever, I will be writing my philosophy of ministry, reflecting both on becoming the man of God that he wants me to become and the work which he has called us to do. I will then write some short and long term goals. I believe that God has spoken to us to be slow, deliberate, and intentional about what we are doing on this time.  We are not at all timid or afraid of the future, just cautious.  We are, in fact, quite excited about what the Lord is doing in our hearts and lives.

I start preaching again on November 6 at an anniversary celebration for a church pastored by our district treasurer.  This is consistent with our goal of reconnecting with the district leadership.  At some point in November I will rejoin the evangelistic team for some of the outreaches. Other events will be scheduled according to the priorities I have listed above, but we will keep light in order to do the writing mentioned.

Prayer Points

1. Please pray for our continued transition.  I’d prefer to let the Holy Spirit guide you regarding the details.

2. Also, we are still about $350.00 a month short in our pledges.  Please pray for this and, if possible, let us hear from you. A pledge form can be downloaded at http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.

Many thanks,

Dave

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “join this site.”

Copyright 2011 Dr. Dave Johnson 

News From Dave and Debbie Johnson

Dave and Debbie Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionaries to the Philippines

www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com

http://www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com/

dave.johnson@agmd.org

 

News from Dave and Debbie

Fall 2011 Edition

Packing and Parting

Our offices have been in chaos.  Dave’s is worse than usual, if you can believe it.  Why?  It’s that time again as we are preparing for yet another move to the other side of the world.  We’ve already shipped six huge boxes, and we will send another one or two before we leave.   We will leave Grand Rapids in mid September  and spend a couple of weeks with Debbie’s family in the Seattle area. Then, we will continue on to the Philippines near the end of the month.

Our first order of business in Legaspi will be to find a house and reestablish our relationships with our Filipino brothers and sisters. We will also take some time to assess our role the ministries we have left behind and get some direction from the Lord regarding where we fit in.  These ministries have been handled well by Filipino leaders while we have been gone, so we want to approach our reintegration with great sensitivity and appreciation for the great leadership they have given. The evangelistic team continues to be ably led by Pastor Alan Esplana, a Filipino that has been working with Dave for fifteen years. The house church planting program that Debbie and the Filipino district leadership launched in 2007 has grown to fifteen church planting schools and at least 191 house churches!  Praise the Lord! 

While we are excited about being reunited with people we love in the Philippines, we dread leaving friends and family, especially our aging parents, here in America. In times like these, we just have to draw closer to Jesus.

Knee Benders

1.  Please pray for both us and our families as we separate after more than two years at home.

2.  Please pray for our reintegration to life in

the Philippines.

3.  At the time of this writing, we still need $456.32 in monthly support and would appreciate your prayers.  If you can help us please let us know.  A pledge form can be downloaded from our website, www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com. Thank you!

Reflections on Itineration

Over fifteen months of itineration, we have visited around 150 churches and met with numerous pastors over lunch or coffee.  Here are a few observations:

1.  We are blessed to be part of such a wonderful fellowship with a deep commitment to missions for which we are grateful.

2.  In 28 years of ministry, I (Dave) have never seen more bi-vocational pastors.  The recession has affected our pastors deeply, but I never heard one complaint. Some have even taken jobs in order to avoid cutting their churches’ missions budget.  This has humbled and touched us deeply.

3.  We share the heartfelt burden of many of our churches that are on a plateau or in decline.  On the other hand, we have seen some great revitalization of churches.  The concept of a strong mother church sponsoring the renewal work seems to work quite well.

4.  We have seen a great increase in the number of churches doing need oriented community evangelism, and we believe that this is a key to the growth in our churches in this generation. We also believe that is one antidote to the marginalization that Christianity has experienced in American culture.

5.  In the last few months we have been in some new church plants in Michigan or met with pioneering pastors over lunch, and we are excited with what we have seen.  In almost every case, the pastor was under forty years old and doing non-traditional things that are working!! I hope those of us “older” folks will make plenty of room for this younger generation to express the creative gifts that God has given them.  They are the future.

Dave’s Blog

God has been doing some refreshing work in Dave’s life as a result of the healing God brought while we were on sabbatical.  One of the results is fresh spiritual insights from a renewed passion for studying the word of God.  He has been sharing many of them through blogging.  He has done a series of blogs on Moses and the gods of Egypt, God and Abraham, the Tower of Babel and, most recently, the Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry in Luke 4:16-30.  His next series will be on understanding the book of Daniel in its historical context, and he is really excited about it.

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Thank you with all our hearts for all your prayers and support.  We could never do this without you!

In His grace,

Dave and Debbie Johnson