Interesting Bits of Info From Our Last Day In The States

1. Lucy is officially 4 months old!
2. Living out of suitcases has left us wrinkled, but surprised by how much we can do without.
3. The weather for our layover in London looks great, as does our landing in Rome… CHI looks to be thunderstorms today, though, but possibly ending by our flight tonight!
4. Italy is currently 5 hours ahead of EST and 6 hours ahead of the Central time zone
5. Once we’re setup with Internet in Italy, this web site blog will become a place where we provide insight on living in Italy (Bella & Gwynnie will be included in this!)
6. With today being our last day in the States, we are going to try and do any “one last time” things that the girls want to do.
7. Andy has posted a recording of the new song he played last week at our church during our last service.  You can listen to it and/or download it for free HERE

 

The Date Is Set!

After over three years of taking faithful and life-changing steps, God has finally given us a view of when we depart. Now that we know when, it seems a little overwhelming. However, we know that it is God who calls us and Christ who sends us and The Spirit who enables us!  And great is Thy faithfulness!

We will be leaving the States and moving to Italy in less than 3 weeks, on March 19!

Would you like to learn more about what we are doing or even join this ministry?!  Get in touch with us and/or visit the two links below.  We would love to have you as a member of this ministry family!…

• Learn more
• Join us

 

VISAS

All five Johnsons each now have a visa in their possession!  This means that we can begin departure (moving).  Let the countdown begin.

Our Winter newsletter (soon this month) will have a great deal of important information regarding this.  We will not be posting all details here.  If you do not receive our newsletters or email updates and would like to, please let us know.

 

Permission to Apply For Family Visas – GRANTED!

Yesterday, our colleague in Italy was given an approved document (Nulla Osta) which gives us permission for Jaycie and the girls to apply for their family visas at the Italian consulate here in the States!  While standing in line, another lady told our colleague that it took her a year to get hers.  God granted ours in 24 hours!

Next up:  We apply for 4 family visas and continue to search for the remainder of our support family, to finish up what’s left to raise financially!  Let our departure process officially begin!

 

Family Visa Update

Our colleague in Italy has finally been granted an appointment for our family visa permission request (for Jaycie and the girls)!!  Assuming the Italian official/s will then grant him the approved paperwork, Jaycie and the girls will then be able to apply for family visas at the Italian consulate here in the States.  Andy already has his religious visa.

Please begin praying now with us for this upcoming appointment.  It is on Thursday, January 19, at 9am (Italian time)–3am EST.  Please be praying that the Lord will (1) provide the right person for him to talk with that will process everything, (2) stamp everything, and (3) that there will be no hold ups or road blocks.  This belongs to the Lord and we pray that He orchestrates this!

 

The Shortfall With “God Knows The Future” – A Christmas Observation

“God knows the future.”

This is a belief and statement that I have so often personally taken ahold of.  However, I have come to see the shortfall of being satisfied with just that.  This is simply not enough and because of it, it affects (limits!) other areas of my belief and faith.  To say that God “knows” the future is true, but limits Him.  Why?  Because I am placing Him in the present (though He is), but refraining Him from the future.  It puts Him alongside of me in the perspective of “now,” looking forward.  So, He is like me, except that He is also able to “know” the future (He “knows” what is coming, “knows” what will happen, etc.).  I am limiting Him (not truly, but rather limiting Him in my life, thus my faith) to fit into the time and reality in which He has created, in the same way that I exist in this time and reality…as if He stands beside me looking forward and seeing what is ahead, though I cannot.  The truth is, He is already there, too.  He is already part of the moments that I simply know as “the future.”  So, to say that He “knows” the future is not enough.  He is there.  He is not part of each moment, arriving at them as I do.  He does not move from moment to moment as I do.  He is here AND He is there.

When I look at Him in this perspective, many things change.  The present, the future, even the past!  Most importantly, I stop seeing God as having sent His Son into time as we know it (i.e. God “came” to the moment in time, ~2,000 years ago, and decided to send His Son into creation…).  God is not limited by time, but rather time has limitations by God.  Can it be possible that God sent His Son to this earth to die even before He created the heavens and the earth?  That His glory within “time and reality” is demonstrated through His Son on earth?!  After all, if Christ has first place in everything, would that not also include death?  I am now in the age of time that this mystery has been made known to humanity.  I can know that “time and reality” revolve around His Son, Jesus Christ.  The axis of reality, of time, is Jesus Christ.  This brings me to my knees in awe of a limitless God, who IS Love, Goodness, and Faithfulness.  Glory be to God in this season of celebrating His Son’s arrival (as we know it) from eternity (that’s forever, by the way—no starting, no ending)!

My Christmas passage for you…

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation because by Him everything was created in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things and by Him all things hold together.  He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.  For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross—whether things on earth or things in heaven.” – Colossians 1:15-20 (HCSB)

 

Despite Circumstances, All Things Hold Together

Today has brought news to us.  Seemingly very discouraging news.  However, we know the author of all things.  This story was already written… today has simply proven to be the day that He has revealed this to us.   We have the choice now on how we handle it… do we rejoice or do we wane?  It obviously came as a surprise to us, but to Him, it has always been—Can we not find peace in that understanding alone?  And if He is the author, having always known and is not surprised like we are (by the way, God cannot be surprised), then should we not revel with joy in this day?  What new possibilities may we now be able to be part of through this going forward!?

We have learned that we need to add Luciana to our Nulla Osta document, since she has now been born and our colleague has not yet been invited into the Sportello Unico for requesting permission for the family visas.  This means that we must now add her to the document, once we have her birth certificate, which will then allow us to apply for her passport, which must be referenced in the document.  We then must journey back to the Detroit Consulate to sign in their presence and have certified.  Then the document must be mailed to our colleague.  This looks to be somewhere close to an additional 4-6 week process.

Even if we do go through this above scenario, will not the Author and Perfector of this script be right beside us orchestrating for His glory, thus our good?!

There is the possibility in all of this that our colleague could be invited in for an appointment before we have this updated document to him.  If this becomes the case, he will simply go before them with Lucy’s birth certificate (which should be completed here in Indiana by the end of the week and we will mail to him to have on-hand) and see if that would somehow suffice for him to proceed with our request.

Whichever scenario (maybe something completely outside of these two), let us now bring this chapter of the story before our Creator and Sustainer in prayer.

So, let this be an encouragement to you, no matter what you may be going through right now or soon will be.  Though things once feeling secure may now feel like they are unwinding, know that Jesus Christ is before all things and by Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17) and rejoice in your afflictions (Rom. 5:3-4) because of the hope that we have in Him (5:5)!

The short song “Spring” is rather fitting for this.

 

It Is In His Timing That We Reside…

We hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful day of giving thanks to the Lord for all of His blessings that He has made known to you!  This is a spectacular day of giving thanks for us.  A year ago, we were at about 45% of our monthly support level and Andy stayed by himself all day at home, having strep throat.  This year is so much different…
 
First of all, we praise the Lord for the sweet and beautiful Luciana He gave us less than a week ago.
 
Secondly, we were so blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving in Terre Haute with the entire Johnson side–something that has not happened since as long as we can remember.
 
Thirdly, we received word from our colleagues in Italy that they have received the last and final document that we have been awaiting.  How wonderful is the Lord?!  His timing is perfect and we give thanks to Him on this day!  Our colleague has now filed for an appointment/invitation to go before an official in requesting permission on our behalf of Jaycie and the girls to join Andy.  Here is what our colleague suggests for specific prayer over the coming week or two…
 
“Encourage everyone to pray that request for the Nulla Osta is processed quickly and that, right away, I will receive an invitation from the Perugia “Sportello Unico” to present all of your documents.”
 
So, please be in prayer for a quick response and invitation to his request!

 

Why Did You Leave The Light Off?

As the holiday of Halloween moves up on us this weekend, the bustle of kids and parents up our streets and in our neighborhoods quickly approaches!  Do you have your candy to pass out yet?  Do you have a costume?  Are your pumpkins carved?  Or are you choosing not to participate in this Holiday at all?  I hope this is not based upon you being a “Christian.”

But Halloween is evil and anti-God, right?!  Or is it?  Though the scary costumes, decorations of death, and movies that often arrive in this event are off-putting and seem to lean away from “godliness,” to say the least, you have the personal freedom to choose not to participate in those specific areas.  Isn’t the freedom we have in the Spirit of God, great?!  Or do you rather wish we had a checklist to adhere to specifics of Halloween… or better yet, have one box that simply says, “Did not participate in “Halloween,” in any way, shape, or form” to check.  That would be easy right?

However, is there any other Holiday where people are expected and encouraged to receive (as well as send out to) perfect strangers?  Where every door with a light on will be opened to greet perfect strangers?…And for the sole purpose to give?!  God sent His Son, then His Spirit, so that now we are sent in Christ!  This is the one Holiday of the year, where you can not only go, but where anyone and everyone will be brought to YOU! 

If you are a follower of Christ, I plead with you to consider this.  Search the Scriptures.  Understand the opportunity that God gives us, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, to fulfill His mission! 

1. And then go out and buy the best candy you can find (We are considering candy canes, but ringpops (my brother found this to be very attractive for repeat customers!), full-size candy bars, etc. will all make your house one that they want to return to the following year)! 
2. Put on the biggest smile you can have.  Interact with kids and parents.  Rejoice and be encouraged!  God does so much of the work in setting up for you through this Holiday, which so few see as “Christian.” 
3. Then “shine your light” so that those whom God loves enough to send His Son to die for, will come to you!

Even though I am eternally redeemed and reconciled through the work of Christ (and not of myself!), I may still one day be asked many questions of which I will be ashamed and have empty hands.  But one thing I hope I will not hear now is:  “I put the Light in you to shine for My glory, why of all nights did you choose to leave it off when I could have used you in ways outside of your own knowledge?!”

Proclaim His salvation from day to day.  Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful works among all peoples. – Psalm 96:2b-3

 

Andy’s Visa – Update

In case you did not receive our Summer newsletter this week (or if you haven’t had the chance to read it yet)…  what we expected to take a few weeks, has taken less than one week–Andy has already received his visa!  Now we move on to the visa application process for Jaycie and the girls.  This is where we anticipate the long delay.