Just a Bunch of Turkeys

We are constantly amazed that God would ever call a bunch of turkeys like us to be missionaries. And as we have reflected back on this year in a spirit of thankfulness this past week, we realize just how small we all are compared to Him. We are living testaments to the fact that he can take ordinary people and give them the ability to do something for Him.

We have so much to be thankful for, even though sometimes we might lose sight of that during the tougher times of being missionaries. Too often we find ourselves saying, "Why me, God?!" instead of "Thank you, God." It's cliche, but only because it's true, that God has been faithful. He is the one constant when the storms of life seem to have waves crashing down upon us. Even though those waves hit us and we might feel like we are going under, he has always pulled us through at the exact minute that we needed it.

So, as you can probably tell, this week was a "learning" week for us. During the week of the year set aside for thankfulness, we found ourselves feeling like everything that could go wrong was going wrong. First, we took our car back to the shop, as it has not been running correctly since the last breakdown. After some tests, the shop came back saying that we need to have some pistons replaced, which will cost approximately $2,700. Yikes. Then, the following day, Jake started to get these little red bumps all over him... yep, chicken pox. Those two things, combined with other small annoyances, started to make us question God a bit. Why would he bring us all this way to have all these "issues" in our first year?

However, reflecting on everything that God has done for us in getting us ready to go and then here in South Africa, we realize that those things that are crises at the moment seem to pale in comparison with the wonders he has worked in our lives during the last year and a half. So many things falling into place, so many doors opening, etc. It has just been undeniable that he has been at work. Plus, in the grand scheme of things, which is what God directs, our problems are minimal. Sure, a sick kid is no fun, but in two weeks time, chicken pox will be a distant memory. Sure, we don't have $2,700, but our car is still driveable for the time being and we know that God working out the details of us getting here makes this problem seem small. We are truly blessed to have a God like this on our side, and our insignificant contribution is to try to help Africa get to know this God. A small price to pay for what he has done.

Jake's Quote of the Week

“Hey Mom, sharp things are very sharp, eh?”

(See, that preschool is paying off already!)

Praises & Prayer Requests

Well, this section seems kind of irrelevant, considering the rest of the post, but for those of you who prefer lists to prose:

-- Jake's health as he battles chicken pox
-- That God would lead us in the right direction on what to do with this car, and how to pay for it.

Thank you for your prayers!

Until next time,

Jeremy, Tricia & Jake

Happy Thanksgiving (next week) !!!

We're not sure if we will have another post before Thanksgiving or not, so we thought we'd go ahead and say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you back at home! We are going to spend our first Thanksgiving in our lives working! Then after work, some of our missionary friends are having us over for a Thanksgiving dinner, which will be nice.

Life has been good here... uneventful for the most part, but good. Jeremy just completed a big project at work this week, one of those that really makes you feel like "this is the reason I am here". Tricia is still making good progress on her programs, and more and more applications for missionary service are coming in from all over Africa on a daily basis.

Jake is growing up so fast that it's scary sometimes. He has really been working on his letters and can identify every letter of the alphabet and spell his name verbally. We are now working on writing his name as well as writing the alphabet. He is doing a great job and learning very quickly.

As the holidays approach, we have had several questions about how to send packages, so we thought we would answer the question on here. The best way to send packages is by the Post Office, using their Global Priority service. they have letter-sized envelopes that you can put anything in, and then we think you can also send large padded envelopes and packages this way. We have received the letter envelopes and the padded envelopes very quickly... boxes seem to take much more time. So when you send whatever it is you send, here is the address:

Jeremy Johnson
Church of the Nazarene
PO Box 44
Florida 1710
Republic of South Africa

Alternatively, because postage is SO expensive and can take a lot of time, you may send money to Nazarene Headquarters in Kansas City at the following address:

Global Treasury Services
Church of the Nazarene
6401 The Paseo
Kansas City, MO 64133

Make the checks payable to General Treasurer with the notes field of your check saying, "Jeremy Johnson Family Christmas". You might also want to include a short note with an explanation that we are missionaries and this is Christmas money, just to be sure.

In any case, we are humbled and thankful even for the thoughts that you or your churches would be sending us something at Christmas time. It feels very nice just to know that we are on people's minds and they are praying for us, as well as caring enough to send gifts. "Thank you" just doesn't seem to express our feelings of gratitude. May God bless you.

Jake's Quote of the Week

“I may never march in the infurry, ride to the Calvary, shoot the Camry, I may never fly into January, but I am the Lord of me, yes Sir!”

Praises & Prayer Requests

Thank you for all of the cards, encouraging e-mails, and packages that we have received recently. We praise God that we have such a great support network of people back home that can makes us feel so loved and appreciated!

Please remember the following needs in prayer this week:

-- Jake has had a bit of an allergy flare-up this last week, the first since his tubes were put in. Please pray for his health
-- For strength to make it through our first holiday season away from family and friends. It won't be the same, but we know that we are part of a bigger family that we will be celebrating with here.
-- Unspoken request

Until next time,

Jeremy, Tricia & Jake

We Don't Have a Good Excuse...

... so we won't try to come up with a bad one. Busy times, internet down for almost a week, you know the story. But anyway, we are back now and ready with an update:

Since we last posted, some cool things have happened. One of those things is that one of Jeremy's friends is coming out next month for a couple of weeks, which should be a fun time. We haven't had any "just for fun" visitors since April, so that will be a welcome diversion. Also, our fellow missionary friend, David Webb from Guatemala / Costa Rica will be coming to an event in Africa in January. We went through our training in KC with the Webbs last year, so we are very excited to at least get to see David again!

As far as what we've been up to these past couple of weeks, Jeremy found out this week that he will have the opportunity this coming April to add another facet to his ministry in that he has been offered a teaching role at Nazarene Theological College here in Joburg. Pending his boss's approval, he will be teaching a two-week intensive course called "Administration and Accounts". He is really excited for the opportunity, as he has always wanted to teach at the college level. Looks like that master's degree is paying off in more ways than one!

Tricia has been working for the past couple of weeks on planning a program that resembles Work & Witness in the United States. This one, however, will be Africans traveling to other places in Africa to get involved in short-term missions. Few people realize how many career missionaries felt or confirmed their call on a short-term missions trip. Thus, this program will help Africa, yet it will fit in nicely with Tricia's 3D program. Also, in other Tricia news, she has gone to an allergist, who put her on a strict diet in order to see if any of the foods she is eating are causing her severe allergies. She is limited to chicken, grass and tree bark for her foods. Only kidding, but it is a very strict diet that she has to suffer through until December 1st, when they can start slowly adding foods back in. Hopefully this will help!

Jake is still Jake. These past few weeks, we have accumulated a collection of quotes that will probably keep us until mid 2007. There have been many times lately where Mommy and Daddy have had to hide their faces or bite their tongues (literally!) in order not to embarrass Jake. Man, who knows what this kid will say next?! Not us. :) Other than spouting wisdom, Jake has been keeping to his routine of school, gymnastics and mischief quite well!

Jake's Quote of the Week

"Dear Jesus, I love you very much and I want you to jump in my heart and make some sense..."

(Well, this is not exactly the "Roman Road", but I think God knows what Jake means.)

Praises & Prayer Requests

We praise God that he has brought us safely and successfully through our first 10 months on the mission field. We are just now starting to feel like we are getting the hang of things and that things in our ministries are starting to pick up steam. We praise God that he is big enough to made us succeed where we never knew we could!

Please remember the following needs in prayer this week:

-- That the source(s) of Tricia's allergies would be discovered so that we can deal with them better.

-- That we would continue to make progress in our ministries

-- That God would begin preparing Jeremy to teach the class at NTC next year

-- For safe travels for our friends coming to visit

-- For the Garey Miller family, former Kokomo First Church pastor and current Iowa District Superintendent

Until next time,

Jeremy, Tricia & Jake