God called us into missions in 1985, and there is NO doubt about our calling.  It was as drastic a call as a person could have and it literally turned our lives around and changed us forever.  Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  We work with Baptist Medical and Dental Missions International.  We started out as team captains, bringing medical and dental teams to Honduras and Nicaragua.  God allowed us to come to the mission field full time in June, 1996 and we have been here in Nicaragua since that time, serving the Lord in different areas.

Darrel is the field director here which involves a number of different hats.  He coordinates the medical and dental teams here, and oversees the construction, and our 22 established churches.  He leaves home everyday at 5:00 am and returns at 10:00 pm.  Through out his day he checks on homes in the villages, helps with construction repair, chicken farms, needs of the pastors and their families and works on the mission home.

Cathey has served in various roles over the years.  She started out working with the teams as a nurse, and also as a children's church worker.  In 1998, she started a Christian school, Mount of Olives Christian School in San Gregorio, Nicaragua, starting off with only 2 levels of preschool, but over the years has grown to include a primary level and a high school.  She is the administrator of the school and that also includes a variety of "hats".  She is accountable for the money including the salaries and expenses of the school, building projects, hiring and firing, payroll, construction and disciplining the children, etc.  She teaches 3 levels of English, a bible study for her staff once a week, and does the chapel services on Fridays.  she leaves home at 7:00 am and because they don't have enough classroom space they have school from 7:30-12:00 and the afternoon starts at 1:00-5:30.  Many time she is giving the sewing teacher a ride or the dentist a ride so she has to stay until after 5:30 to leave which gets her home about 7:00 each night.  Cathey still has to heat water to wash her dishes; they have power outages and no water at times. 

Outside of the school work, she is the coordinator of the women's retreat ministries.  This is a ministry that was started 5 years ago for the ladies of our church.  We Praise the Lord for the opportunity to serve our God on a foreign field and are praying for many more years of active service.

On May 7th and June 23rd Lisa Martin shared with SiSS here most recent trip to Nicaragua and her time spent with our adopted Missionaries Cathey & Darrel Johnson:

Lisa is a school nurse at Rogers State University in Claremore and has heard so many stories from the girls who visit her about sexually transmitted diseases, she feels that it is her duty to make sure that all know about sexual purity and holiness.  Cathey & Darrel knowing Lisa's experience asked Lisa to help in their mission in Nicaragua.

Due to the culture the parents of the students are ladies that don't have Christian girlfriends - they are single ladies who know the father of their children are sleeping with other women, but are not spiritually mature enough to completely trust God to meet all their needs.  We have Christian girlfriends that encourage us, that understand our trials and pull for us in difficult times.  Lisa spent the last day in Nicaragua praying with women and their difficult situations.  Some things that we can be praying for are to:

1.  Change the sexual relationship in the home and what the students hear and see.  Due to the homes being one room homes many children are exposed to the adult sexual relationships.

2.  Open the dialogue between the kids and parents, not from guilt but from education.  A lot of the children are sold into prostitution to make money for their families and most parents only know to tell their children to just not get pregnant.

3.  The parents to lead by example.

4.  Cathey and Darrel function so independently with little time spent together that their marriage needs our prayers.

Young girls need to know that they can change the culture, the young girls need to know that they can live a life of purity.  Lisa has spent a lot of her time trying to educate and encourage them to finish their education and that they might have a way out of poverty and be able to afford independence by staying in school instead of dropping out.

Men need to realize that it is not macho, but ignorant to have multiple sexual partners.

Problems in Nicaragua are associated with early sexual involvement, unreliable disease testing, and the inability to afford medical treatments.

In the future Cathey is looking to provide more ladies retreats to educate the women which cost around $800 dollars for the whole retreat and to complete a school gymnasium to encourage education and change future generations.  The gymnasium will cost $24,000 to build.

For Lisa's future she is returning Labor Day break for a ladies retreat in Honduras to speak on depression and during her fall break will teach the pastors about purity education and participate in a multi-church rally.

Just think what it would be like to look into the eyes of your children and see hunger.  A real hunger for learning, a hunger for a change, a hunger to better yourself, and most important a hunger for Jesus Christ.  You may not even know what all lies ahead, but you know it must be better than what has gone before.  Those are the families in Nicaragua.  Now SiSS has been presented with a challenge.  We can build an entire High School.  A High School were there is no other opportunity for such an education.  A High School that is a Christian School and can also present our Lord.  In our meetings in May and June this challenge was presented to us.  At this time we have explored all of the options and more of the details.  Originally the price for the High School and all books and furnishings was $24,000.  Now another church has stepped up to the plate and is building three of the class rooms.  That only leaves two choices - First is to leave this High School unfinished - Second is for us to take up the challenge and in the name of Christ to raise only $16,000 to finish the job.

Ladies, we can do it!  This is a small amount of money in comparison to the huge blessing that will go on for generations in Nicaragua.  There are people all over this town that would have their hearts lifted with the opportunity to be a part of such a project.  Let's make a difference for Christ.  Let's make our lives count for something.  Let's start to change the world!