Joel & Melissa JohnsonDear Friends,
We “go” because of His birth, His death, and His resurrection. May the true meaning of Christmas reign in our hearts! Wishing you a Merry Christmas!
We praise the Lord for the 20 years we have had working together with the Brazil Gospel Fellowship Mission in Northeast Brazil. We are humbled to be used of God to have seen many come to Christ and see them grow in their faith. For the last several years we have been working in the church planting ministry in Fortaleza. We thank the Lord for Fountain of Life Bible Baptist Church and Pastor Johnny Torres. What a joy it has been to have a part in these lives and to see the work continuing on in good hands. Please continue to pray for Pastor Johnny and the church family we leave behind. We plan to stay connected to this ministry, as we take short term mission teams back there from time to time.
We have resigned from BGFM and accepted the position of Director of South American Ministries with Wordless Ministries Foundation and are very excited about this open door. We truly believe God has directed us in this decision and look forward to how He will use us for His glory. Wordless Ministries Foundation is a ministry based upon the colored wordless book theme. One target of this ministry is into hundreds of Christian schools and colleges in the United States. WMF will build relationships and strive to impact teens and adults by engaging them in the ministry of missions on short term teams. Please pray for us during these transitions times.
Short term missions is a part of God’s strategy for missions today as He is using mission trips to wake up and involve American believers in His Great Commission. We have loved the teams that have been part of our ministries in the past years and are thrilled God is allowing us to impact lives in this way. Short term missions is a life changing experience. While the goal may be to give, in the end the giver becomes the receiver.
Our ministry base will be in North Carolina, where we will be organizing and directing short-term discipleship mission trips into Brazil as well as other areas of South America. There is an urgent need to engage all believers, in one way or another in the Great Commission found in Matthew 28. Our prayerful desire is to see God raise up more full-time missionaries and to see the “casual” Christian in the USA view missions in a whole new way, realizing that all believers have a part in missions wherever God has placed them. We will still be full-time missionaries, just based in the USA. Although we are still working on the new web site, you can check it at: www.wordlessministries.org where you can see and read more about Wordless Ministries!
We are presently planning and working on several mission trips for 2012.
– In April, a pastor friend of mine, Dr. William Colman and I are going down holding workshops with pastors, on expository preaching. We will have several different opportunities in various places with pastor groups and Bible Institutes.
– Also in April, we will hold our 6th annual event in sports evangelism, with the Futivolei, (volleyball with no hands). Pray for this is as well a local church ministry outreach, as we reach folks who would otherwise not set foot in a church building.
–Then June 16 – 26th we are planning a mission trip with Hyland Heights Baptist Church, where we will be working in a new church planting ministry in Mulungu, about 2 hours from Fortaleza, in the mountains. We also will be doing some outreach evangelism ministries with Fountain of Life Bible Baptist Church.
–Also in July we are planning a survey team to the Amazon area as we consider how we can help the local church planting ministries in that area with some future missions teams. We will be using the Wordless rubber bracelets and balls to spread the Gospel of Jesus and see those lost and going to Hell come to Christ.
Please pray for all of this and those involved. We would love for you to join us in one of these mission trips!! If you are interested in going with us on a short term mission trip please contact us.
As many of you know, Melissa’s father went to be with The Lord in November 2010, and her mother is up in age with some physical needs of her own, so Melissa will be closer to her in miles and thus able to help out when needed. We praise the Lord for our son, Aaron and his family. Please continue to pray for him, our daughter-in-law Stacie and grandsons Toby and Tyler, for their spiritual needs. We are grateful to God for our daughter, Bethany, who has been married for one year now to Matt, a young man who loves the Lord, and to see God using them in their own church.
All financial support will now be channeled through Wordless Ministries Foundation.
We praise the Lord for Pastor Tim Duncan, (our home pastor) and the members of our home sending church, Sedge Garden Baptist, who stand with us in this ministry change. You can go to this link to watch short video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RRw1JZjJKU&feature=feedu
We communicate mostly through email, so please send us your email so we can stay in touch with you in that way. God bless you all as you continue to serve Him.
Your servants for Christ,
Joel & Melissa Johnson
II Corinthians 4:5
