• Youth Page • Middle School • High School • Joel & Naomi in China •
Joel and Naomi sent us a video about their life in China (2.17 MB wmf file) |
Goodbye Joel and Naomi!
This is our last month with Joel & Naomi Johnson. They will be leaving for China in mid-December to enroll in a language studies school to learn Mandarin Chinese. We were very blessed when they "popped in" to our lives a year ago -- I am very grateful for the way they have shared their lives with us this past year.Joel and Naomi were both graduated from Berea College in Kentucky in the spring of 2004. Joel with a degree in business, and Naomi with a degree in nursing. With the expectation of moving to China, Naomi needed to have a year of experience working as a nurse before moving overseas. Since they had an interest in experiencing Alaska, in the summer of 2004 they packed up their car and drove up here. I had been in e-mail contact with them as they came up. Interestingly, at the same time, Howard Bess had been speaking with me about how an arrangement with Jesuit Volunteers had not come through to work with Daybreak, Wasilla Food Pantry, and the Treasure Loft. When Joel & Naomi arrived (with the desire to spend the year in Nome), we nabbed them and kept them here. Joel became manager of Daybreak apartments, the Food Pantry, and worked with Treasure Loft as well. Naomi was hired as a nurse in Valley Hospital's birthing center. And they both jumped into the life of our congregation, leading the high school Sunday School class and youth group; developing a young adult group; are involved in Kairos Prison Ministry; and have been delightful friends to many in our congregation, including Leisa and me.
Since college days, they have felt God's call tugging them to China. In classic Christian terminology, the word we use is "missionaries." But at this point in their lives, they are not exactly sure what that calling will mean. They are responding by seeking to be faithful to that tugging -- to that calling. They will begin with a couple years of language study, and trust that in the process God will lead them. In China, the most effective way to be a missionary is to work in the secular world (nursing, business) and be a support to the local church wherever they are. Very much like how they have spent the past year with us. As a congregation, I hope that we will pray for them as their time with us comes to a close and as they enter into this new phase of their lives.
They will be moving to Yuxi in the south-central region of China, about 150 miles north of Vietnam. I am grateful to God for their year with us, and know that wherever they go, they will be a blessing.
Tim.