The Johnson Family - Missionaries in Brazil
At the mouth of the Amazon River, in the City of Belem, David was born to missionary parents. Growing up in Brazil he lived on rice and beans, learned to speak Portuguese, and developed a love for the Brazilian people. A small missionary school where his parents, Art and Ellen Johnson, taught; is where he heard God’s call to missions. During his freshmen year at Amazon Valley Academy he met a new classmate : me.
My name is Kimberly, Kim for short. My grandparents were both missionaries. So my dad grew up in Brazil and my mom in Bolivia. They met in college, married, and returned to Brazil as missionaries when I was three. They ministered 2000 miles west of David’s parents, but when we were in highschool the Brazilian pastors invited dad to start a Baptist seminary in Belem. That is how God orchestrated our encounter and during our senior year our friendship became a budding romance.
As we talked about graduation and our future plans we came to the realization that separately God had called each of us to minister in Brazil; he brought us together, and soon would ask us to surrender our relationship to him as David headed to California for college and I went to Ohio. Our college years were four years of many prayers, letters and phone calls. In 1992 we married and continued preparing for the mission on our hearts: reaching Brazilian people with God’s Story, the story in which we are all characters of an incredible plot, the story in which we live.
That was many years and four kids ago. We have served in various ministries in the Belem area since 2003. Our children are growing into young adults. Andrew and Matthew are both married and starting their own families. Our lovely daughter, Karina, finished high school, and is now working and ministering to children. Daniel is finishing high school and seeking God’s direction for the future.
We lived and ministered in Belem from 2003 to 2010. God led us to the island of Cotijuba in 2010 through many circumstances including the property on which we lived being sold and a weekend getaway in a house that was for sale. During the seven years we were there our family started a kid’s club and saw four kids come to know the Lord as their Savior. We started a girls’ embroidery club which Karina was leading by the time we left. The kids club and embroidery club gave us contacts with parents, some of which became interested in home Bible studies. Over time the different home Bible study groups were joined together once a week as a spiritual family. The spiritual family was the birth of a new local church. We witnessed God’s power to change lives in 13 salvations and 4 baptisms. Our Brazilian coworkers, Pastor Jeu and his wife Ester, continue to minister in that church and develop leaders there.
Though our financial support has been extremely low we are asking the Lord to allow us to return to Brazil in August of 2019. A ministry called Creative Hands has invited us to do an internship with them. Their goal is to reach the many people who live off the dump in the greater Belem area with God’s love and compassion. Already they have a facility where people can gather for sports, kids clubs, and worship. Teams from America go down yearly to help build simple homes. There are home Bible studies and vocational training seminars. I, David, was asked to start a hydroponics garden as a method of disciplining and vocational training. Kim was invited to participate in home Bible studies with women and sewing/embroidery classes. Since she is a teacher there is also an opportunity for her to help at Amazon Valley Academy which would provide housing for us as well as a networking relationship between the two ministries. Please pray that we will quickly discover more financial partners so that we can return before the end of 2019.