Fall 2012 Newsletter

Fall 2012 Newsletter

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

Hello Friends,

First, we want to wish all of you a blessed holiday season. May you know the presence, power and peace of Jesus!

Pentecost in Bicol For the last two weeks of August and the first week of September we hosted our good friends, Bill and Beth Juoni who are American AG evangelists from Wisconsin (junoib@cni-usa.com), for a series of meetings here. Over a three week period we traveled to ten places throughout the Bicol region of the Philippines, where we are based, doing seminars and revival meetings focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The aggregate attendance was about 1,200 people and about one half, as best as we could tell, either received the Baptism or refilled with the Spirit during these meetings. It was a wonderful moving of the Holy Spirit. We also loved having the Juonis with us! God has obviously anointed them to lead people into the Baptism and they are really good to work with (that’s missionary parlance for being joyously willing to live and minister in challenging situations that we can’t always control)!

Is this the opening showers of the coming revival that God spoke to Debbie about several years ago?  We don’t know, but we certainly want to be prepared when revival comes.

In response to these meetings we found ourselves praying “Lord, what next?” In other words, what can and should we be doing to help our people continue to walk in the burning fire of the Spirit. To date, God’s response to us has been twofold. One, we are to continue offering seminars and revival meetings to provide an opportunity for people become refreshed in the Spirit. We started the next round of meetings last week and will continue into mid December.

Second, the Holy Spirit has impressed upon Dave the need to do more writing. His newest book, Theology in Context: A Case Study in the Philippines, was in the works before the Juonis came and will be released by APTS Press in January. As a direct result of the Juoni meetings, Bill and Dave will be writing a book under the tentative title, The Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Answering Questions Filipino Ask. We don’t have a publication date yet, but Bill has already done a lot of the work on it and Dave will start soon. Other books will likely follow in due course.

An Appeal for Help We have some wonderful opportunities for ministry, but our account has run dry. Over the last six months we have accrued a deficit of $2,700.00. We cannot continue to do deficit spending. Would you please help us erase the deficit? Here’s how it can be done: (1) One, if you have pledged to support and are not up to date, we would appreciate it you could bring your giving up to date, (2) Perhaps you could increase your giving just a little bit, (3) if you are not currently supporting us, perhaps you would consider doing so or, (4) you could give a one time cash offering in any amount to help us make this up. On our part, we are doing our best to trim expenses. If you are already supporting us, you already know how to send the funds. Otherwise, you can give on our website, www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com, or the Assemblies of God website www.ag.org (just follow the links and look us up), or send your offering designated for us, AGWM account 225600, to 1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield MO 65802.

We would especially like to appeal to our friends and acquaintances outside of America to help at this time. Our American friends are doing their best in difficult economic times. Could you lend a hand as well? Giving through our website is easy.

While we do need to make this appeal because our situation is challenging, we refuse to be negative or defeatist about it! The future is as bright as the promises of God, and we are as excited as ever about what God is doing to bring in the harvest in the Philippines! So, let’s go on to more good news!

A New Edition of the Fire Bible! (See www.lifepublishers.org) We are both passionate about training workers for the harvest. Part of that vision includes making the Fire Bible, aka the Full Life Study Bible, available to as many of our pastors as possible. As far as I know, this is the only study Bible in print together written for Pentecostals. This study tool, with its commentary on much of the Scripture text, 77 articles, cross-referencing system, concordance, and many other features make it an ideal tool, especially for pastors and lay leaders who can’t get to Bible school or afford a large library.

Just a few months ago, in partnership with the Philippine Bible Society, we completed the translation into the Cebuano language of the Philippines. Cebuano is the dominant language of the central and southern part of the country, and we have more than a thousand AG churches in those regions. About two weeks ago, with officials from LIFE Publishers, the publishing arm of AGWM, and the Bible Society in attendance, we presented the Bible to a total of about 468 pastors and church leaders from across the evangelical community in public launches both in Cebu City and Davao. In every respect the launches were highly successful. The Fire Bible is not just an AG Bible; we believe it is for all Christians. The Bible Society is well positioned to make this Bible available across denominational lines and they will market the Bible in stores and at various events throughout the region next year and have asked Dave to travel with them to promote it.

Prayer Points (No particular order of priority. Just let the Spirit guide you!)

• For the financial situation mentioned above.
• For the Holy Spirit to be poured out on our region.
• For more people to be reached for Christ and more churches to be planted.
• For a serious situation in the national church here.
• For our missionary friends from other groups who also labor in this region.
• For God to show us more ways that we can care for the poor.
• For God to reveal ways we can reach out to the Muslims in our local areas.
• For the success of the Cebuano Fire Bible

We are joyfully yours because we are joyfully HIS!!

Dave and Debbie Johnson

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this 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 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

Monday Morning

Friends,

Yesterday we had our last missionary service at Central Family Worship Center in Coopersville, MI.  We are looking forward to wrapping up itineration once our fundraising is complete.  We still need $448.32 in monthly support and more in cash.  We are praying that all of the pledges will be in by this Wednesday, our formal deadline, even though we can continue raising funds by phone and email after this date. 

Today, I'm planning to pack a couple of large boxes for shipment to the Philippines.  We don't leave Grand Rapids until September 15, but we are trying to avoid waiting until the last minute to get everything done.  The harder we work now, the less we have to do in the last few days before departure.  We will be in the Pacific Northwest (Bellevue, WA, with a few days in British Columbia) before leaving for Manila on September 29.

Talk to you soon!

Dave

An Appeal For Partners

Dave and Debbie Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionaries to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

 (616) 558-1889

August 18, 2011

Dear Friends,   

For many years now Debbie and I have been serving with the Assemblies of God World Missions in the Philippines.  For some time now, we have been home itinerating and plan to return to the Philippines in late September 2011.  Our vision is to share the gospel with all of the four to five million Filipinos in the Bicol region of the Philippines where we live and plant a church within walking distance of every one of them. Raising up and training Filipinos to accomplish this vision is at the core of our strategy. For more information on our ministry, please visit http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.  Among other things, you can download a copy of our latest ministry video and get a copy of our bio-data.

Our vision is two pronged.

First, direct evangelism.  Over the last 17 years we have conducted approximately 700 evangelistic crusades in conjunction with local churches.  Many new churches have been planted and others have seen increased attendance at either church services or Bible studies.  We conduct about 45-50 outreaches every year, each crusade lasting three nights.  Except for Debbie and me, all members of the team are Filipinos, as are all of the pastors with whom we work. While the Filipino churches do partner with us in sharing the expenses of this ministry by shouldering the expenses over the dollar figure given above, the nature of this type of work is finance intensive and more help is needed.

Second, in 2007 God gave Debbie a vision to plant house churches.  Working hand-in-hand with Filipino church leaders in our region and one other missionary couple from another organization, three house church planting schools were started and about 12 house churches were started.  Today, this movement has grown to include 15 house church planting schools and at least 191 house churches have been started.  The possibilities for expansion are almost limitless.  God’s blessing on this effort is obvious, and we are anxious to see this movement grow. We foresee the need for expanding the level of training and are excited about participating in it.    

I am writing today to ask for your help.  First, your prayers.  I have taken the liberty to add your name to our email list, which we use for sending out prayer requests.  If you do not wish to receive it, please let me know.  Second, we also send prayer requests over Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and you can easily find me there. 

Second, we need financial support.  Our deadline is August 31, 2011.  Here are the details of what we still need:

Monthly Support Still Needed:  $801.32

Cash Still Needed:

General Cash Budget: Completed!

Evangelistic Crusades: $28,000.00

House Church Planting:  $5,000.00                  

Cash Reserve Fund: $8,011.00            

If you can commit to monthly support, you can download a pledge for from our website, http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/, fill it out, and follow the instructions given for sending it in.  Your CASH offerings can be sent to AGWM

1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO, 65802

, designated for Dave and Debbie Johnson, Philippines, acct 2256006, or you can donate online at http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call on my cellphone at (616) 558-1889.

Thanks considering partnering with us,

Dave and Debbie Johnson