Sneak Preview!

I'm excited about this blog because I get the chance to show you a little bit of the work we do at World Mission Communications - Africa Region! The first video here is a sneak preview of the piece we have done that will be on the next World Mission DVD, which goes out to each church in the USA/Canada Region. This video was produced by one of our partners, Kurula Media, which is a local South African media company owned and operated by one of our local Nazarenes!

This video is entitled "Grandmother Grace", and features a local Nazarene minister who runs a child care center (preschool) and a Child Development Center (school-aged children) sponsored by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. She is an incredibly interesting lady who is mesmerizing to sit down and talk to. Take a look at how this 78 year old grandmother stays so actively involved in ministry in her community... I hope I have that much energy at her age!

This next piece is a "just for fun" clip that was made from the extra footage from the "Grandmother Grace" video. The children in this video are singing "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", which is the South African national anthem. Enjoy!

Jake's Quote of the Week

Mommy: "Where are you going?"

Jake (while packing his backpack): "I'm going to fix the house, then I'm going to ninja lessons."

Praises and Prayer Requests

We thank God that everyone is finally healthy at the Johnson house! Of course, Katie and Ryan got their 6 month immunizations today, so this weekend will probably be the end of that. :)

-- Please pray for the meetings currently going on in Johannesburg regarding the StudyMaps project. Hopefully they will be coming to your church soon!

-- Please pray for Phil and Denise Anderson and their family. The Andersons will be moving to Johannesburg in late December and Phil will be taking over my role as the Communications Coordinator for Africa in January.

-- Please pray for our upcoming deputation travels in January-March 2009. We are available for services in February and March still. Please contact us at tjjohnson98@yahoo.com to schedule us for a service!

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Happy 5 months!!!

Well today the twins are 5 months old. It seems like time is flying by. We can't believe that it has already been four months that they have been out of the hospital and home with us. Jake is very excited that they are 5 months now because he is the number 5 also. Here are a few photos of our babies.

The babies are both 13 pounds now. Katie has caught up with her brother. Ryan is gaining slowly but surely and Katie suprises us everytime she gets weighed with how much she gains. They are doing well. They are quite a bit behind developmentally but hopefully by the time they are 2 years old they will be all caught up. Ryan can roll from his tummy to his back sometimes, but we have yet to have Katie roll. They are working on building up strength to hold there heads up for more then one minute. When they do tummy time they still spend alot of time with their faces buried in the blanket. They are both smiling alot and have started laughing more now. They are alot of fun.

Please keep us in your prayers as we are planning for home assignment and our relocation back to the States.

Jake Quote:

“… and Jesus, no one is better than you, no one is more kingable than you, and no one is bossier than you. Amen.”

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Ten Wonderful and Exciting Years

It sure doesn't feel like ten years ago today that we were walking down the aisle for the first time together as husband and wife! In some ways, ten years seems like forever ago, but also in some ways, it feels like we just started our family yesterday. The years have been interesting and not without challenges, but God has been good and has brought us through the tough times as well as blessed us with many, many good times. We are so thankful that God brought us together and has given us three children and ten years of blessings. Here's to 50 more! :)

Well, in addition to that bit of news, it's time for another big update. We have made the decision not to renew our missionary contract for another term, so we will be serving out the remainder of this term and then returning to the US. This is a decision that came after much prayer and consideration, but at the end of the day, we just did not feel God leading us to enter into another missionary contract at this time. We are, however, continuing our relationship with the Africa Region and leaving the door open for whatever God may lead us to in the future.

Upon our return in December, we will be travelling around the US through the end of March, speaking in churches about our work in Africa, and also sharing a few of the exciting ways in which God is leading the church into the future (please contact us at tjjohnson98@yahoo.com to book a service!). We will still be serving the Africa Region in a part-time volunteer capacity, assisting the Regional Director with special projects with which the region needs assistance. Though this is not quite the way we expected everything to happen, we are trusting God and doing our best to be obedient to him. After living nearly three years in South Africa, it has become home for us, and it will be difficult to head back to the US. Please pray for us regarding our transition, as well as the one that will take place here in Africa.

Well, this just wouldn't be a blog entry without some pictures of the kids:

Katie just hanging out waiting for Ryan to finish his bottle.

Jake surprised Mommy this week with writing his first sentence. He sounded it out all by himself and this is what he came up with. How cute!

Jake's Quote of the Week

Mommy: "How long do you think Mommy & Daddy have been married?"

Jake: "Maybe like 20,000 years... or maybe two and a half years."

Praises & Prayer Requests

-- Ryan is eating a bit better and is gaining weight again! Thanks for the prayers!

-- The health of our family (lots of sickness going around the past two weeks)

-- Our upcoming transition

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Wow, 4th Post In July Already!!!

We have been so bad lately about posting blogs, but we already have four in for this month! I guess that is a sign that we are getting the hang of having three kids now. We can't believe how this month is flying by. The winter here is more than halfway over already. The month of August is really windy here, it is the strangest thing, but we know once the wind comes then it begins to warm up. We can't complain about the weather though, because it is beautiful all year round. We get to enjoy being outside in the parks even in the winter.

Quick update:

Ryan still is having trouble taking his bottles so we now feed him a teaspoon of rice cereal everyday and it is making a world of difference. He is still classified as "failure to thrive" but is now on the upswing, we feel. As you can see, he doesn't like the cereal either, but is a champ about eating it anyway.

The babies are really into putting their hands in their mouths! It makes it difficult to take pictures when you have to constantly pull their hands out of the way!

Here is a picture where I actually got them both smiling at the same time but now I have to get them to smile and look at the camera at the same time. Maybe in a year from now...

Jake's Quote of the Week

"I just can't stop loving Katie! I think I should have her as a stuffed animal."

Prayer Requests

1. Jake would like you all to pray for his cough. He has had a bad cough all winter. We think it is an allergy thing to have lasted this long. He is getting really tired of having a cough.

2. Please pray that we are always listening and open to Gods direction in our lives.

3. Please pray for Pastor Madela and the Africa Trinity Church of the Nazarene.

4. Please pray for Ryan as we are still battling with his eating problems and weight.

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

"Oh Say Can You See...

...by the dawns early Nkosi (Zulu word for God)", repeat at least 5 times and this is Jake's version of the Star Spangled Banner. I think he needs some work. He knows the South African national anthem (Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika) and has started to learn the American national anthem but has gotten a little mixed up. So we had a fun time playing with sparklers, having a cook out at another missionary's house and listening to Jake signing this song. We thought, "This is a true missionary kid, combining two anthems in one!" Hope you all had a nice 4th. Here are a couple pictures of our celebration.







The babies slept through the celebration but here is a picture from the 4th also. I tried for a long time to get them both to smile, this face is the only one that I could get that they were doing the same thing. I will settle for it, for now.




Until next time,
The Johnson Five

Fun with Grandma Cont'd

Well, we all got a little spoiled while Tricia's mom was here. She helped a lot around the house and with the kids. Thanks Mom for all of your help!

Jake had a really hard time seeing her go. She had been sleeping in his room for the past month, so not only did he cry for a really long time after she left, but the crying started all over again when he had to go to bed and he didn't have his MawMaw to sleep with him. He had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories.

This past month, Jeremy made a trip to the States to promote a project (Study Maps) that the Africa Region is working on. It was really tough having him away, but he was able to accomplish a lot in the week and a half he was gone. It looks like the project will be able to get off the ground, which will be good for Africa and the Church of the Nazarene as a whole! When Jeremy got back to South Africa he couldn't believe the changes in the babies, mainly that Ryan had a lot more hair and Katie had a lot less :)

Please keep Ryan in your prayers! He has recently been losing weight, as he is not eating well. They labeled him "failure to thrive" and are looking to see what is going on. The initial tests all came back okay, so now we just wait and see if he snaps out of this soon or if we will have to begin some more testing. He is an active baby and is so full of smiles, but is just really having trouble eating. Please remember him in your prayers that this soon resolves itself.

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Fun with Grandma

Grandma and Katie hanging out.

We watched this giraffe for quite a long time. He was just sticking around the watering hole.

It was thinking, "Don't you have something better to do?"

It is really hard getting both babies to smile at the same time. One of these days I will get it.

Cont'd Twins Dedication

More Pictures from the Dedication Sunday

The four sets of twins

The babies dedication outfits were compliments of their Great Grandmother better known as Gran! Thanks Gran, they looked like little angels.

The Twins' Dedication

Pastor Madela at Africa Trinity Church of the Nazarene led us in the dedication of the babies.

In a congregation of 60 we had four sets of twins present on the dedication Sunday. The pastor is a twin and his twin brother is a pastor also and helped in the dedication service. It was pretty amazing.

It was cool that the babies were dedicated on Fathers' Day and that Tricia's mom was able to be a part of the dedication.

The babies just hanging out at the reception following the dedication.

The Pastor and his brother with the babies. It was such a special service we felt like the whole congregation was celebrating with us. The pastor did the dedication in Zulu and English.

Thank you for all your prayers for the babies and our family. Everyone is doing well overall except for a cold that Jake brought home for school and then shared with us. We just pray the babies can fight this off with out a hospital visit. Please continue to pray!

Happy Fathers' Day!

Jake had a special Fathers' Day concert at his school. Jake had to wear one of his Dad's ties.

Instead of having the kids sing the songs from the front of the gymnasium they decided to have the kids go sit on there Dad's laps and sing right to them. Jeremy got this video of Jake singing to him. What a special day!

The three boys, Jake likes the fact that there are three boys and only two girls.

We are so thankful for Jeremy for the wonderful Father and husband that he is. We are very blessed!

Our Big 5 Year Old!

He felt like such a cool kid!

He had a special Spider-man party.

At the party place they had a "pretend" section and Jake and one of his friends enjoyed working out.
His favorite area of the party place was the motorcycle race track, he went around and around until he was absolutely exhausted.

He was moving so fast it was hard for me to get many pictures of him standing still, they were mostly action shots like this one. He was so excited to be playing with all his friends that he didn't eat any of his birthday cake he just kept asking if he could go play.

The party was a success he said it was the "eleventy-two-one best party in the world." So that must be pretty good... at least we think it is.

He also had a special guest at his party, which was pretty cool. His grandma all the way from the States came to help us for the month and was able to get here in time for the party!

Sorry it took us so long to post this, another update is coming soon. We promise!

Winter Is Here!!!

Ten weeks old!

Jake just couldn't help himself it just looked like so much fun.

The weather is beginning to cool off. We have pulled out all of our space heaters and they are getting a lot of use in the evenings. Here houses don't have central air and heat so we must rely on lots of blankets and space heaters to stay warm in the winter. The days are nice because it is really sunny all year round so that helps. But once the sun goes down it gets quite chilly. It has even been known to get to freezing at night. BRRRRRRR!!!

We are doing well, starting to get the hang of having three kids. Granted, we don't go out of the house much any more but I am sure in time we will be on the go again. The babies are doing well and growing like weeds. They are beginning to smile and make really cute talking sounds. They are a bit behind but they are right on target for babies that are five weeks premature. Jake is doing really well also and is also growing like a weed. It seems like all of his clothes are getting to small and he doesn't seem to be able to get full, always wanting to eat more. He is turning 5 in less than two weeks (June 6). He mentions his birthday party at least once a day, he is having a special Spiderman party at a local play land.

Jeremy and Tricia are finally getting a bit more sleep. We feel like now that we get 5-6 hours of sleep straight we are able to make it through the day better. Jeremy is extremely busy with all the areas he is involved in. Tricia has her hands full with the kids and sometimes wishes she had more hands. So we are happy that they are getting closer to sleeping through the night.

Jake took this picture of Tricia. If we give him the camera he will spend about an hour walking around the house taking pictures. Good thing we have a digital camera.

We had the wonderful privilege to speak with Blue Springs Church of the Nazarene during their Sunday morning service. Thank you to this wonderful church family for all their support and their many prayers for us. We really enjoyed speaking with you and hope to do it again soon.

Prayer Requests

1. Please pray that we would always be sensitive to what God is calling us to do.

2. Please pray for the violence that is occurring in the townships in South Africa.

3. Please pray for us as we try to balance family and ministry.

4. Please pray for strength and wisdom in raising children on the mission field

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

7 Weeks Old

Wow, we have our hands full. Our 7 week old twins and our active almost 5 year old are constantly keeping us on the go. The babies are growing at a rapid pace which we are thrilled with. Ryan now weighs 4.2kgs and Katie weighs 3.6kgs. They are eating well and now we are trying to get them to sleep longer so that Mom and Dad can get some much needed rest.

Jeremy is back to work. It has been nice that he has been able to be home more and help with the babies. He has a lot of catching up to do at work and he is trying to figure out how to do that on minimal sleep. There are some exciting things going on in Communications in Africa in the area of radio, web and video. Please pray for the Communications staff as they try to create ways to help the Kingdom through media.

Tricia is staying at home with the kids right now. In a few months, she hopes to have more time to spend on the Missionary program here in Africa, but for now she is completely occupied with taking care of the babies and Jake. What a privilege she has to be able to do this. They grow up way too fast!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

More Random Photos

Random Photos

Katies first day home from the hospital
Just hanging out.
Jake and his swimming teacher. He can swim all by himself now.
Their first outing other than the hospital visits. We went to a party at a neighbor's house.
Jake is Mommy's big helper, he feeds Katie while Mommy feeds Ryan. Ryan is doing much better with eating now and improving everyday. Katie doesn't have a problem at all with eating except for the fact that she never wants to stop.