Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 5/20/2012
So this is a VERY rough video, but I wanted to share it anyway. This is a little bit of our life here in Cambodia in video. It's just a silly video starting with the tuk-tuk driver that pretty much lives at our guest house and continually asks if we are going to the killing fields, going to the shooting range (I promise they were the ones to suggest this), or anywhere else where he can take us in his tuk-tuk. He is shown in this video rocking out on Jamie's uke. The second and longer part of this video is an inaccurate picture of our regular daily life here, but funny anyway. Here in Phenom Pehn we have 4 teams that we try to see and visit and so we decided that we would make bicycles our mode of transportation and so we really do ride bikes every day however on this particular day we needed someone to ride on the back of one of the bikes and so Joshua and Jamie chivalrously offered to share a bike and that's how this video came to be, enjoy:
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 5/20/2012
Thailand Rice Fields
Me and Pegs in the Rice Fields
Traditional Thai Dancer in Chiang Mai
Elephant Advetures!
me and pegs on the elephant!
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 5/8/2012
It's true, I've fallen in love on the World Race. It was a love at almost first sight, and I recognized it as something significant in the moment of our first meeting but as I write this I'm still unsure of what it means for my future, but I know that it is intertwined with what's to come for me. Actually, I confess that I've been praying for something like this to happen to me on the race, I've been praying to fall in love, I just wasn't really prepared for all that it would entail. Now here I am in the middle of an 11 month race and confused but peaceful about what my heart is feeling...
The first time I encountered Thailand I knew I crossed a threshold from which I couldn't return, I felt something I haven't felt in all my travels around the world: home. Literally the moment I stepped out of the airport in Bangkok, until the moment I crossed the border to Cambodia I felt a peace that I associate with home. This is significant, I knew it the whole time I was there, but God gave me grace to just enjoy my time there for what it was and nothing more or less, and while I struggled at first not being in only one ministry for the month, God gave me a peace that says "relax and enjoy this moment, you'll be back, this isn't it". Strange.
I don't usually do this, but I feel its necessary for you to understand where I'm coming from, this is an except from my journal entry from the last day in Thailand;
"Here it is, the last day in this my newly beloved country. My expereince in Thailand has been interesting and confusing and a blur at best. It feels like we just arrived a week ago and honestly I haven't had much of a chance to process all that is happening in my head and in my heart on so many levels. Funny thing is that I have a strange peace about it like I'm not supposed to understand yet all that is in my heart and mind. Last night as we were shopping in the chinese market and night bazaar I didn't have that panicky feeling of "I probably won't be back here so I'd better buy anything that I like now", but rather a "maybe next time" mentality. I think I'm coming back to Thailand and I can't help shake the feeling that I'm going to live here or a time. Oh gosh I'm in deep, I love Thailand."
Anyway I'm praying about what this all means for me but trust God's timing and feel so blessed that it isn't a distraction from my race and what God has called me to for these next 6 months. I'm just as excited for the next 6 countries as I was before and am grateful. I would love any prayer as I seek the Lord on this and will keep you posted on what happens!
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 4/29/2012
Introducing 2 of the funniest, God focused, absurdly weird, righteous men that you will ever meet that I have the honor and privilige of squad leading alongside for the next 7 months. I feel that it is necessary to take a whole blog to familiarize you with these 2 since I have a feeling they will be making an appearance in a fair amount of my future blogs. I want you to have an accurate picture of who they are as I recount stories and adventures.
Joshua, me and Jamie in Chiangmai Thailand
Let's start with Joshua Savage. Joshua is from the great state of Colorado and enjoys film making, dancing (you should see this guy move I have never seen anything like it, I mean talk about talent), quirky T-shirts, sunglasses of all sorts, a good cup of coffee, and one of his favorite pastimes is "getting weird". One of the goals of his on this race is to grow his beard and hair without cutting it the entire 11 months, unfortunately if this gets out of hand and hygiene is compromised I might have to step in and have an intervention with Joshua.
But seriously Joshua is a tremendous leader that leads out of a place of gentleness and humility. He is a manly man that knows how to be sensitive to others feelings and can be the best listener and counselor. God has gifted him with wisdom and discernment beyond his years that has blessed me and others around him greatly. He has an unwavering faith that is admirable and I can see that the Lord is rooting him deeper and deeper in it every single day. Joshua has the unique ability to make people smile and laugh which is a huge gift for me and this squad. I'm blessed by Joshua.
Next up we have Jamie Smucker. Jamie is from Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Interesting and cool fact about Jamie is that he used to be Amish, it's really cool to see how those roots have made him into the unwavering man of faith he is today. Anyway, Jamie, hmmm....when you first meet Jamie you think he is quiet, serious, righteous, pure, and all of those descriptions are correct, but there is so much more than meets the eye with Jamie. He can get sillier than anyone else in the room just keep him up past his 10pm bedtime and crazy Jamie comes out. Another fun fact you should know about Jamie is that he doesn't get embarrassed, I'm not convinced of this and as we will be spending ample time together I will for sure be on the look out for embarrassing stories. Jamie likes to get to the point and get things done in a timely manner which is and will be a good balance for Joshua and I as we tend to get off track more times than not in a meeting.
In all seriousness Jamie has the great gift of peace and peacemaking. Jamie has a presence that causes peace to follow him wherever he goes, and is imparted on those who are around him. He has great patience which is a great quality in a leader and something that I can definitely learn from and grow in. He lives a life of high honor and integrity, a life lived above reproach that is admirable and is contagious; he sets a high standard for all of us and I know he will grow me and this squad in righteousness and holiness. I am blessed by Jamie.
I'm stoked to work alongside these two and be stretched and challenged by them. These next 7 months are gonna rock. E-Squad is gonna rock this world with Jesus' love. What an incredible season to be in leadership I can't wait to see what God has in store.
Now to introduce you briefly to our "seasoned" squad leaders, these are the people that have been leading our squad up until now. They are sadly leaving at the end of our debrief in Cambodia and will only be returning for our month 8 and 11 debriefs. They are Lindsay, Allan and Hannah. E-Squad has been greatly blessed by them and all of their prayers, work and effort on our behalf. They have left big shoes to fill and I only hope to continue in the legacy that they have left behind.
Lindsay, Allan and Hannah
New and Seasoned Squad Leaders (Lindsay, Hannah, Allan, Jamie, Joshua, and me)
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 4/20/2012
I can't believe its been so long since I last posted. I apologize to all of you for that.
So you are probably wondering what I mean by the title of this blog, and to tell you the truth I'm still figuring out what it means as well. All I know is that God is stripping away every label I've placed on my self, every label others have placed on me, and stripping away any other identity I'm living in other than the identity as a daughter of God.
The story starts back in Honduras when I clearly heard the Lord ask me how I would react if He took away human trafficking ministry from me. I'm ashamed to say now that at the time I threw a holy tantrum before the Lord, giving him all the reasons why that is just the opposite of who He is and what he has spoken into my life. I know it's useless to argue with the Lord but sometimes I still choose to throw a fit and let Him really know how I feel (not that he doesn't know already). After I cooled down, I began to see all the identities I was identifying myself with, these were things I never even knew could be things that could turn into idols or turn into false identity that was preventing me from getting closer to the Lord. God began to redefine for me what ministry really is and what my "calling" really is and what I was really created for.
This is what I've concluded: I am the daughter of God, a royal princess.
That's it, in that one sentence defines who I am, what I'm called to do and what I was created for. I was created to be in relationship with God and walk in the identity he has given to me. That's it. When we walk in relationship with the Lord he breaks our hearts for the things that break his and our "ministry" or as I'd like to call it life flows out of that and we don't have to place the labels of this world on us, such as "abolitionist for the Lord", "friend of the orphan" etc., because we are all those things and it isn't a contradiction to minister to the orphans one day and the drug addict the next because that is the heart of God, his heart is for all people in all situations, all the time.
For those of you that know me, know that Thailand and Cambodia were huge countries for me on this race. I admit that I had expectations of ministering to the women in the bars, in the red light district and in brothels because "God had made me with a passion for human trafficking and for women in unjust situations" and so this was a chance for me to test it out, try out this ministry...however, turns out that's not exactly what God had in mind. A week before we left for Thailand our squad leaders approached me and 2 of my squad mates Joshua and Jamie, and told us that they would like to raise us up as squad leaders. Honestly God had already been telling me that this is what he had for me, but because of the stripping down process I was still resisting it in my flesh. I believed I had a right to ministry, as I defined it, in Thailand and I thought it was unfair of the Lord to ask me to focus on the squad when all I wanted to do was to dive deep into ministry in Thailand.
Praise God he has given me a desire for obedience because without it I would have probably declined, but I said yes and felt the Lord meet me as I took that step of obedience and He has given me his heart for this squad. I'm not going to tell you that every step of squad leading has been easy, I've had to resist the feelings of jealousy as I hear about my squadmate's ministry stories, but it has been so very rewarding and the best decision for me. I feel so very fulfilled in praying for, ministering to, and focusing on the amazing people on my squad and I can only have gratitude in my heart for this season. Has my race changed? Yes most definitely, but it's the exact thing that the Lord has for me and I'm privileged to be walking in this new role and walking in it with 2 amazing men of the Lord.
Stay tuned to the next post where I will introduce you to my co-squad leaders Joshua and Jamie, they are pretty awesome you're going to want to get to know them...
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 3/29/2012
In a snap anything can happen. The snap I'm going to tell you about happened to bring a smile to a little boy's face. His name is Bryan and we met him last Friday at a place called The Mustard Seed, the Mustard Seed is a place for youth to live who have disabilities and are abandoned by their families. The place had so much peace that you could tangibly feel God's presence in there and on the children who lived there. It was a place filled with God's love
Bryan was one of the first children we met when we arrived and immediately he made us aware of his hearing problem, which of course was that he couldn't hear anything, he was completely deaf, and couldn't even read lips. So our limited Spanish was useless when it came to communicating with him. One of the girls on our squad, Katie, thankfully knew sign language and could communicate with him and of course she became his favorite. Let's be honest Katie is most people's favorite person, she is just that likable, love ya girl. Bryan had another problem that he was battling and that was anger/attention deficit disorder, which would often cause him to hit the other children when we they would pose a threat to taking away his attention, in other words when they had our attention instead of him.
One such incident happened while he was sitting next to me and Dura underneath one of the verandas, he had us wrapped around his little finger, he had me rubbing his back and arm while he basked in Dura's smile. It was all good until one of the other children came and sat down and wanted us to play with her, he got right up and hit her and screamed at her. We pulled him back and told him as best we could with the limited communication we had with him that it isn't ok to hit other people. I can hardly blame him for acting out in a physical manner, I suppose I would too if I couldn't communicate with people through words. Then Dura suggested asking if we could pray for his ears and hearing, how do you disagree with such a suggestion? I went off to find Katie to ask him if he would allow us and also to allow him to know what we are doing. She graciously came over and asked and he nodded is head in agreement. So we prayed.
Honestly I was expecting this healing prayer to last for at least 20 minutes. I wasn't expecting the healing to happen so fast, but it did. After we prayed that first time for 5 minutes we asked if he could hear anything, and to our amazement he nodded his head yes. Let me repeat that, without Katie signing to him we asked him in Spanish with our mouths if he could hear anything and he nodded his head yes. Incredible! This boy that couldn't read lips and couldn't hear responded to our verbal question. So we tested out his hearing first Dura snapped in his left ear and to our amazement he turned his head and smiled as if for the first time he heard what a snap sounded like! Then I tried it out in his right ear and snapped and he turned and rewarded me with a smile as well. We realized though that his hearing still wasn't great so we prayed again and retested and it was better, much better. After a few more questions we told little Bryan that his Heavenly Father had just healed him and that He loved Bryan so much that he died for his sins so he could live for all eternity with God. Bryan was all smiles and to our shock he stood up and walked over to the girl he had hit just moments before and gave her a giant hug. This was the first time we saw any of the children hug each other. God is so good, He has healed and is continuing to heal little Bryan. Bryan still can't talk but I know that God will heal him completely. Who knew a snap could bring so much joy?
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 3/17/2012
Hello from Nicaragua!
My team arrived in Nicaragua a week ago and we were able to enjoy a few days of debrief in Granada before we headed to our next ministry site. It was nice to have some time to process a little bit about what God has been doing the past 2 months and pray for the coming months. Two days ago we arrived at our ministry site in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. My team is working with a ministry called New Life Ministries. The ministry has 4 churches, and does outreach in the local barrios and in the hospital and in with a ministry called "the mustard seed" a ministry that works with handicapped people. Our contact Bonnie has a HUGE heart for people without families and is currently raising 4 "sons" (they are boys that used to live in the orphanage here and they are older ages 18 to 24).
In other news I am now the team leader of my team. The switch was made over our debrief this past week in Granada, not for any other reason then the squad leaders felt that God was leading our team into a new season and me as well. God had been preparing me for this leadership position for awhile now and I'm very excited to be stepping into a new season, I know I God is growing to grow me rapidly this next month in and through this position. I would love any prayers as I start this new position so if you feel so inclined I would be grateful.
Life on the race is crazy and amazing and hard. I wouldn't trade any of the experiences I've had good and bad for anything. God is growing me up into a better version of me and into the woman he wants me to be and I'm so very grateful for that. I often think to myself "how is this my life? God you are so good." I thank you for your prayers and support I can't tell you how important you all are to me. I would like to bring one more request before you knowing that God is going to use it for his glory and praise and to grow both you and I in ways we can't begin to understand. As you know I have to raise a total of $15,500 for this trip and have deadlines along the way that I have to make to continue on with the trip. I have a deadline coming up on April 1st, at which time I have to raise $11,000 to continue on to Thailand. Let me tell you that I know that i'm supposed to be in Thailand, and I will be there, God has already been giving me visions and dreams about that place and I know he will provide the resources to get me there. I'm currently at $10,000 and only need $1000 more to reach my next deadline! Praise God for his faithfulness! Would you consider sowing into what God is doing around the world by supporting me?
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 3/8/2012
Today was the hardest 30 minutes of ministry I've ever encountered. I'm broken, and torn apart writing this to you all.
Pastor Armando, a local pastor we are working with here in Honduras, took my team and another team to the dump today. I had no idea what I was in for, I thought I knew what to expect since I'd been to a dump ministry before, but I was definitely sideswiped by what I encountered today.
We pulled up into the dump and were immediately surrounded by men, women and kids wearing dirty tattered, foul smelling clothes, and faces covered by handkerchiefs, pieces of cloth or anything else that would protect their mouths and noses. Honestly the first thing I thought was "if they are wearing something over their mouths, shouldn't we as well?" As we stepped out of the van, stunned and disoriented, people started coming up to us waiting for us to offer something. I was truly at a loss for words and felt as if I had stepped onto the moon. It might as well been the moon. By the grace of God I snapped out of it and was able to talk and pray with a few people. Then I met her.
Her name is Johanna. Her story and her face will probably haunt me for a long time, or for as long as God wants me to pray for her and her family. She actually was one of the first people I met and then I kept bumping into her over and over again. We had some initial conversation, the usual, and I learned that she believed in God and owned a bible but wanted nothing to do with a relationship with him. In disbelief I told her that it didn't make sense to me that she could believe in God but not want a relationship, so I asked if I could pray for her. So I asked that the Holy Spirit would put a desire in her for Jesus, that she would trust him with her life and that he would become the Lord of her life. Amen. Then she told me her heart breaking story.
Johanna is 17 years old and 12 months ago she married, 12 months ago she wasn't working in the dump trying to survive. 2 months ago her husband was murdered, she doesn't know why he was murdered or who murdered him, she told me this all with blank eyes. They were only married 10 months. 10 months! I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Then for some reason I asked if she had any children, expecting her to say no since they were only married 10 months, and then Johanna tells me she's pregnant. I try to wipe the shocked expression off my face when I ask if I can pray for her unborn child, and she says yes but only if I pray in english because she doesn't want anyone to know. I scream inside my being for her, for all that she has gone through and will yet have to go through. She clearly has no one to help her, and is afraid of people knowing she is about to have a child. In my flesh I wonder to myself what do I have to offer this woman? I only have a few more moments with her and then I will leave and never see her again. I want to cry, I want to scream. Then God speaks. "You have nothing to offer her, but I do. All I ask is that you love her and speak life and truth into her. It's my business what happens next it's not your burden. Just be obedient in this moment and Love her." So I pray, I speak over her the love of her Heavenly Father the best I can do in my humble spanish and then I hold her, and tell her that I will never forget her, and she looks at me and tells me that she will never forget me. I hug her once more as my team tells me its time to load up and as I release her from my arms I wish that I had held her the whole time I was with her. I can tell its been a long time since someone has held her.
As we drove away I was completely broken and astonished, I couldn't believe that she never walked away from me the whole time I talked to her, I mean I had NOTHING to offer her, but I believe in my heart she knew that Jesus had something to offer her today and I just happened to be the vessel he used to pour it out onto her. She didn't surrender her life to Jesus today but I believe the day is coming soon for her, and that the Holy Spirit is stirring inside her and I know that I will be in prayer for that girl every day until God releases me.
God is good all the time. All the time God is good.
The dump
The dump
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 3/8/2012
Turning ashes into beauty
This place where I lay my head down
each and every night, this place where we worship God with songs,
prayers and Bible studies; was once a place where lives were torn
apart. This place where my dwelling is this month was once the
devil's playground. This building once held Tegucigalpa's most
infamous bar/strip club/drug/prostitution establishment. I feel very
strongly in my spirit that it also was a site of human trafficking.
When Tony and Nidia (the founders of
Zion's Gates the ministry we are working with this month) were biding
to rent this place their offer was not by any means the best or the
most money, but then again I shouldn't be surprised, God uses the
foolish things of this world to shame the wise. The people that own
this place were moved by Tony and Nidia's vision for the property and
desired that even though they weren't offering the most money, that
they have it. The building hadn't been used in 18 years and required
a lot of cleaning up and fixing up to get it functioning, not to
mention the property was surrounded by chest high weeds.
Zion's Gate's heart is for kids who are
in trouble. Their heart is for the unruley kids on the streets that
are doing drugs, skipping school (if they can afford it), causing
havoc, and literally killing each other. They have a heart for the
unwanted, the undesired youth of this city. They have such a big
heart that in fact they have invited these very kids into their home
to live and love on them. This property is now a place of healing, it
is now a place where children come and play after school and where
street kids find refuge. Its a new kind of playground now, it's God's playground. It's a beautiful thing.
God has redeemed and is consistently
redeeming this property for his purposes and I can't help but put
this is contrast to last month's brothel down the street from the
house we were living. Yes, we were living down the street from a
brothel, and we walked past that brothel almost every day and every
time we passed by we prayed against lust, adultery, sexual
immorality, human trafficking, prostitution, and perversion. One day
we parked ourselves in front of the building and did some spiritual
warfare through praying, and we got a vision of that brothel becoming
a part of a church, used for bible studies. Since that day we have
been praying that the brothel would go out of business and the church
we were working with last month "Compaz" would purchase the
building and use it for God's glory. The last day we were in El
Salvador we woke up early and blessed the building with holy water
and prayer to consecrate it to the Lord. We left El Salvador leaving
that place in the hands of the father trusting in Faith that he would
indeed do as he promised.
When we arrived at Zion's Gates (the
ministry we are staying and working with this month) and were told
the story of the property I knew it was complete divine foreshadowing
for the brothel in El Salvador. It was as if God was saying I heard
you and I will restore and redeem that place just like I restored and
redeemed this place. What a beautiful promise.
There is hope I have seen it with my own eyes. A prayer request for Zion's Gates, is that they don't own the property
they are on at the moment and are in negotiations with the owner to
purchase the place. Would you pray for favor with the owners and even
bolder that the owners would gift Tony and Nidia with the property
without them paying a cent?
God is Good all the Time!
The army of God camping out in what once was a stronghold of the enemy. Redemption.
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Posted in General Posts by Leah Johnson on 2/27/2012
Los Pinos is a place where no outsiders
are welcome, it's a place where violence reins supreme, and drugs
rule the streets. Los Pinos is a place where you have no choice but
to form a hard exterior and are constantly in survival mode. You
can't really blame the kids that grow up in such a hard environment
when they begin to reflect the people around them, or when they start
to act out in ways that we would consider delinquent. They haven't
had any opportunity to see anything else and even when they have seen
an example the hopelessness that is instilled inside them will surely
squash any dreams or aspirations above the norm of this place. The
few that are able to have and hold onto hope long enough to choose a
different direction and a different life and escape are few and far
in between.
The boys we have had the privilege of
knowing and living with the past 2 weeks are from this place I've
described above and they are the few that have been given the
opportunity and the ability to escape and become something different,
something new. They have been given the great gift of redefinition.
Redemption is really a redefinition of who we are, a new start, a new
life. Praise God for redemption! Not all of the boys have decided to
follow Jesus but I know that God is using Zion's Gates and Tony and
Nidia to show them what following Jesus really means and what real
love really means. A lot of these boys were abandoned by their
parents and left to fend for themselves and don't know the real love
of a father or mother, and Tony and Nidia work really hard to restore
that to these boys. My prayer is that they will have their notion of
what a father is redefined so that they can fully receive and
understand the love of their heavenly Father and come into a full
relationship with their Lord and Savior.
This past week we were working in Los
Pinos on one of the boys houses that lives here at Zion's Gates. 5
months ago this community wanted this boy taken out, in other words murdered, and now this boy is leading teams into his community to better the community and improve his house. Redemption story for sure! Praise God! I hope to share photos soon, so until then I love you!
The house we worked on is now painted!
His mom and neice
Another view of the house
Los Pinos
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