CHEA Conference

From Spring '09

Last weekend we had the opportunity to represent TMI at the CHEA Homeschooling conference in the Bay Area. It was exciting to meet new parents & young people who are intersted in missions. One of the most encouraging things about this conference was meeting parents who's children went on teams last year & head their praise reports about how the summer was for thier kids & how it changed their lives! We continue to pray that the Lord will bring the right people to our booth so we can share with them about TMI's ministry. We brought both of the kids with us this weekend. Micah did great at the booth & many people were impressed with how patient he was (I think it's because he's been doing this type of thing for most of his life). Abby was quite the attention getter! It's amazing to see how many moms she attracts to our booth by just being cute :-)

From Spring '09

After the weekend we decided to take the long way home! We drove north on HWY 101 across the Golden Gate Bridge & then followed HWY 1 north along the coastline to Point Rayes National Seahore. It was absolutly beautiful & amazing that such an area is within 30 min from San Francisco & felt like you were away from it all! I really hope we have another opportunity to explore this area more!

From Spring '09

From Spring '09

Where is the spring going?

From Spring '09

Can you believe that it's almost May & I have thought about sitting down and writing a bit most of the past month...but I seem to keep getting distracted by the kids (which is a good distraction!).

But we have been pretty busy for the past month. Ryan & I had the opportunity to travel up to Redmond, WA for the NW Ministry Conference. This was an AWESOME time to meet with youth pators, parents & youth themselves to share with them about the opportunities through Teen Missions. Ryan was even given the opportunity to share at two different times about the bennifits of short term missions. He really enjoyed this opportunity. We anticipate that he will probably do more presenting at other upcoming conferences. We were also excited to bring Abby with us to this conference. It was her first conference where she stayed with me through the whole conference & I think she did really well. It wasn't until the last 3 hrs that she told us she was DONE!!

From Spring '09

This is us, with Abby, at the NW Ministry Conference.


On the family life side of things, Ryan is driving to Nevada City, CA today to look for a location for his office. We are probably going to be transfered down there (about 4 1/2 hrs away) in the middle of May. Because of the Stimulus Package there are more Federal construction jobs (actually more jobs than they have empolyees to manage them) so we will be heading out again to a new location. We are actually very excited about this transfer for many reasons. Including, we will be closer to our Church family in Mariposa (only 4 hrs away), much closer to "the big city" of Sacramento (about an hour away) and I will have more opportunities to get involved in activities with Micah (i.e. Swimming, play grounds & preschool). Please pray for us as we head down there as a family on Thursday to look for a residence.

In the relm of future promotions activities our whole family is headed to the Bay Area for the California Christian Home Educators' conference. This is my 3rd year in attendance & we often have a great turnout from families interested in getting involved in short term missions.


here's some family memories from the last month:

Abby is getting closer & closer to rolling over every day. She already has two teeth, but is not too interested in eating solids :-)

From Spring '09

We had our family's (the Johnson's) Annual Motorcycle trip in Stonyford, CA. Micah had a blast hanging out with his cousins & uncles. It was hard to get him off the bikes!! This is him & his cousin Ella:

From Spring '09

Pics of the kids

From Spring '09

Don't you love being a parent?! Whenever your child does anything interesting...you think it's extrodenary! Ok, well this isn't "extraordinary" but it was one of Micah's masterpieces. He claim's it is "Louis" from "Meet the Robinsons"

From Drop Box

Can you see the resembelance? :-)

Ok, I am having trouble giving up my other blog & I may just keep two going. But if you want to see pictures of the kids & see how they're doing please check out our other blog - http://micahsmischeif.blogspot.com/

I have recently posted some fun pictures of the kids & our trip to FL.

February Update

Ok...so I'm trying to get Ryan his own account so he can update the blog himself, but at times the cyber world confuses me. So until the fog clears...I become the messanger...I hope you enjoy - Erin

I’ve gotten some positive feed back from my last posting so I thought I might add another. So here goes round two of postings from the dark side...



Recent travel took us to Florida to take some much needed R&R after a very busy season in our lives (Abby being added to the family and all of the various promotional activities and travel associated with the publishing of this year’s TMI brochure). After a week of vacation and checking in with family that live in the area we found ourselves out in Merritt Island, FL the home and headquarters of Teen Missions (TMI). Working and performing promotional activities for TMI on the West Coast over the past 5 years has been very exciting. However, being on the opposite side of the continent from the vast majority of TMI staff can often leave us feeling a little disconnected with the ministry which we care so much about. In order to remedy this Erin and I have deliberately taken trips every year to “check-in” with the TMI and give a report on what the Lord is doing.

During this check-in I learned something very valuable. Here’s what I learned: Don’t ever sell God short! We went to Florida hoping to have a time of relaxation and refreshment and giving a quick update on what God was doing on the West Coast; instead God blessed our socks off by taking our limited vision and making it so much broader. In our conversations with the director (Bob Bland) we were hoping to just continue to have his blessing on the promotional activities we have initiated over the past few years and to pursue some alternate ideas we’d come up with. Instead the director not only encouraged us to pursue these activities but wanted us to take them to whole new level. He asked us to look for a place in California where TMI could establish a base of operations where not only promotional and recruitment activities could continue to be expanded but additional TMI activities too! We’d never dreamed this big before!

Please pray for us as we seek to pursue this vision. Pray that in God’s timing we will find the right location where we can establish a base of operations and that God will introduce us to the right people who will support us in this endeavor.

A final thought: I find myself reflecting on what God’s vision looks like and how it is passed on to others. With this in mind I read a familiar passage in the book of Philippians recently and found myself looking at it through a little bit different filter. I’ve always thought when Paul tells us about how big and how wide the love of God is that he was trying to show us that there is truly no way we can ever escape God’s love. However I think it’s not necessarily a matter of trying to avoid the unavoidable; rather its being so consumed by the unavoidable that we can’t help but share it with everyone we come in contact with.

In Him - Ryan

thoughts from the dark side...aka, Ryan

Erin has often accused me of being the “writer” in the family. I don’t know if this is really the case, but I do love to communicate and just about any opportunity to do so I rarely pass up. So here goes my first ever “blog posting”…

In a recent phone conversation with my sister (Tamarah a.k.a. TA) we found ourselves on the topic of control. Who really has control? Sure, the Christian world view demands that we believe God is in control, yet so few live like they actually believe this. As TA and I dialogued I found myself saying to my sister that in my reality I simply don’t believe that I can control anything, so in my mind only God controls anything. I’ve learned when I make statements like this God tends to say “Ok…prove it!”

As I’m sure all of you know Erin and I have begun the official process of going into full time missionary service. The fact is we’ve been about this process for many years, but now we find that all the little steps of faith have finally culminated into this last and final step that requires quite possibly the biggest step yet. God has always been very gracious to us, and I’ve never doubted that my God will provide all our needs. Yet in some small way I have taken comfort in the fact that I was bringing home a paycheck that was used to take care of the family that God had given me. Yet when we’re talking about becoming missionaries we’re talking about relying on God and His people to literally put food on the table for my family. I find humility to never be an easy bite to swallow but the fact is the pride I used to take in “bringing home the bacon” is now gone, and once again humility is being experienced in a new way. This process is very overwhelming, but yet I know that God will provide. All the things I’ve taken for granted all of my life, things like food, shelter, healthcare, etc. are no longer things that I control but rather God does. The question I find myself asking is was it ever within my control to begin with?

Please pray for us as we take these steps of faith, and pray that we will continue to trust in God and not in our own understanding.

Mission Connexion

Well this weekend is my favorite missions conference out of the whole year, Mission Connexion. This is where I got my feet wet in doing TMI promotions over 3 yrs ago & I fell in LOVE!!! It is held annually in Portland and various mission organizations from around the US come in to share with people about their ministry. I LOVE having the opportunity to share with young people about the ministry of TMI & how they can get involve.

This year though, I am having to let go of the regins a little bit. This is hard for me, as many of you know, but I am having to leave for Denver on Saturday morning, so I have compiled a group of people to work the booth all day on Saturday. My wonderful mother-in-law, brother and two of his friends will be working the booth on Saturday.

I am praying that the Lord will have his will this weekend & bring those who need to hear about the ministry of Teen Missions to our booth.


check it out: http://www.missionconnexion.com/

Seattle MissionsFest

What an exciting weekend! We just returned from two days in Bothell, WA at the Seattle MissionsFest. This was a great opportunity to share with participants about Teen Missions & network with other missionaries about their ministries. We were blessed to have a Teen Missions staff person from Georgia out to help us at the booth. We had a lot of great conversations with young people & adults alike. Ryan & I even had the opportunity to share about Teen Missions with homeschoolers & children in two different seminars. This was defiantly outside our comfort zone but the kids sure seem to enjoy it & many stopped by our booth afterwards. It was encouraging to see the turnout at this year's conference because I was a little discouraged after last year. We look forward to returning again next year.