Fab Friends | Wide Awake Family

Six Months!

Posted on May 13, 2014 by kimnjed

Today marks 6 months in Ukraine. Happy Anniversary to us! YAY!

The past 6 months have flown by, yet so much has happened and so much in life has changed in that time that I can hardly believe we’ve only been here for 6 months. Crazy.

My heart is so full right now as I look back at all God has done, and as I look at what He is doing right now. I think about the ones who helped send us here, and continue to send us and I am overwhelmed with love. All our friends, family, and supporters that are so far away- we love you so so much. We cherish every email, every Skype/Facetime date, every Viber message, every Facebook message, every postcard more than we can even express. THANK YOU for your continued prayer and encouragement. It is necessary and such an enormous blessing to us. We know we aren’t “out of sight out of mind” and that means a lot to us. 🙂

Then I think about all our wonderful friends here in our new home and I get all gushy and teary-eyed again. How is it that we can be so blessed?? I’ve decided that we are just stinkin’ spoiled rotten. Our Ukrainian friends love us and our children so very well. Our lives are so much richer because of your presence in our lives. THANK YOU for loving us despite our toddler vocabulary. You are too good to us. We love you!

Okay, I’m done with my speech now. I could say so much more, but it’ll get all mushy and you all don’t want to read that. Let’s just say, God s good and saying YES is worth it.

Annnnnnd for your viewing pleasure, here are some of my favorite pics of the past few weeks, just because I can. 🙂

First S’mores of the season

photo 2 (23)

photo 4 (19)

photo 5 (16)

Romaniv Sweetness

“Mama Nina”

Fun at our friends’ farm, i.e Seth’s Heaven

Football!! (Soccer)

Addy and Hava helping babysit Zakhar, their fave Ukrainian baby doll 🙂

Fun with friends

Flying kites with cows. Hahaha

Free-Range Sethers

Making friends in our neighborhood. Slowly but surely!

Ezra found a pet at the park…meet Slimey!

Bob, a Vineyard pastor in California, came to visit and we made a great new friend. We can’t wait till you come again!

Olya, my Ukrainian Mama 🙂 Я люблю тебе Оля!

Semi-scary ooooooold carnival rides are right up Ezra’s alley

I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months hold. Woohoo!

Keeping up with the Joneses

Posted on October 3, 2013 by kimnjed

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Do you live in one of those neighborhoods where it seems like each guy is trying to outdo the rest of the block with his lawn care?

You know what I mean.

“I noticed Jim and Nancy put in some fresh bark chips and a row of boxwoods. I think I better go ahead and put the lighted fountain in that I was planning to do last year.” “Honey, make sure to use solar powered lighting like Russ and Deb have. We want people to know we care…. well, about the environment and all.”

As I fell asleep a couple nights ago, I distinctly heard God ask me to study Nehemiah. Not read it, not skim through and look for “life verse” to put on the fridge. STUDY Nehemiah.

Photo Credit

I’ll get back to that.

The Johnson clan has been on the road for the last couple weeks, sharing the vision of Wide Awake International.

I left Kim and the kids in Montana, with my sister, and took a little jaunt to Colorado Springs to share with our dear friends at New Life Downtown and to attend a Missional Leaders Meeting with our group of churches.

I have been surrounded by beauty all week near Garden of the Gods.

I have truly met some amazing heroes. One couple, named Paul and Kristen, have been loving on orphans with special needs in Bolivia. They take them in to their home, get them medical care and love on them. They have been doing this for years, under the radar. Absolute heroes.

Another woman has been taking physical therapists and piles of wheelchairs into Kazakhstan, outfitting people with wheelchairs that fit their body and help them be mobile. Fantastic!

While we have known Tri and Nancy Robinson with i-61 Ministries, I have had the joy of meeting Sergio and Michael, who tirelessly work to mobilize people, passion, resources and the education needed to address injustice across the world. Intensity!

I wish I would have taken a picture of these folks and so many more. I want you to see the fire in their eyes. These people have given up everything to bring Dignity, Hope and Love to the marginalized, counted out and the broken. Heroic!

Photo Credit

Well back to Nehemiah and the Landscaping.

On my first read through the book, I wondered if all the different families were just trying to keep up with the Joneses as they started to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.

“Did you see Eliakim and his kids out there this morning? I can’t leave my section of the wall all tore down if they are gonna build their section. What will the neighbors think?”

Photo Credit

Who knows? That is why I am studying the book, I guess.

All I know is that as I have been meeting all these amazing people, I have realized there are many people like Kim and I who have sold everything to address the inhumanity that spans the globe. There are people, just like us, who won’t wait another minute to do something about the injustice that breaks the heart of God.

I have met the “Joneses” that I want to try to keep up with. I have seen the hands of Jesus in the hearts of great people who are loving their neighbor. They are heroes, each one.

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A Little Slice of Heaven

Posted on September 17, 2013 by kimnjed

Yesterday was perfection. Yesterday was one of those days where you look around and wonder how in the world you got to where you are and try really, really hard to take in every single moment so you can treasure it forever.

Yesterday we, and the couple who are hosting us spent the day waaaaaay out in the boonies of Idaho at Tri and Nancy Robinson’s ranch, Timber Butte. Tri was the founding pastor of Boise Vineyard back in 1989, and he had Nancy are ranchers extraordinaire. Tri is also the founder of I-61 ministries, a part of Vineyard Missions.

Homemade ice cream!

“The ministry of i-61 is a highway to do the ministry of Isaiah 61, fulfilling this commission to care for the broken, the oppressed, the captive and the extreme poor under the promised anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is an organized effort to train and send authentic disciples to those Jesus referred to as ‘the least of these’.”

Addy could have stayed in that little spot all day!

When I met Tri at the Vineyard Conference in Anaheim I quickly saw that I-61 is where Wide Awake International and the Johnson family fit within the Vineyard Missions family. These are our peeps. Tri and Nancy are all about justice, mercy, compassion, and going to the forgotten. Not only that, but they were homeschooling in California back in the day when some people didn’t even think it was legal, and started a homeschool co-op to try to help other parents, raised their kids an hour out of town with no electricity, packed their kids out on horses and homeschooled in tents. Oh man, I think I found my heroes. 🙂

We spent the day with great people, eating great food, and having great conversation. Not to mention my kids thought they’d died and gone to heaven. Thank you Tri, Nancy, Rand, Lori, Gary, and Lynette for such a perfect and special day! We will never forget our time together.

The Guest House

I big boy! I feed the sheep!

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Road Trip! Yakima and Hermiston

Posted on September 16, 2013 by kimnjed

Road Trip Stats:

3 days

3 states

3 rounds of ice cream

3 delicious batches of homemade cookies

3 awesome times of sharing

2 church families we absolutely love

2 amazing host families spoiling us rotten

1 near-missed tornado warning

600 miles

countless hugs

countless welcoming smiles and open hearts

So as you can see, so far so good!

We had amazing times in Yakima and Hermiston. We seriously love those churches! It’s incredible how God can knit your hearts with people when you least expect it and when you really aren’t even looking for it. We feel such a great love for those 2 church families. The excitement, encouragement, and support they have showered on us has been so humbling and heart-filling. THANK YOU our dear friends! We left both places feeling loved and spoiled. 🙂

Don’t be judging the food choice…it’s a ROAD TRIP!

On Friday night in Yakima we led worship and then Jed shared about the goodness of God. After the talk we had a Q & A time with some medical professionals interested in how they can help. I can’t even tell you what it does to our hearts to see others grabbing this vision and running with it. To have someone come up and tell us they’ve been thinking about Ukraine ever since they last heard us speak and they know they just have to respond. “Wait, you thought about what was shared after we left??? YESSSSSSSS!!!!” 😉 We got to have breakfast with the fun and fantastic Lee Family and I forgot to take pictures. Lame! I guess you’ll have to use your imagination on that one. Thanks friends!

In Hermiston we got to stay with the Douglass family and invade their space. It was the bessssst. Man we love those guys. Mark and Lois adopted their son Nik from Ukraine a couple years ago so we have a special bond there, plus they are just awesome, plus their boys are tons ‘o fun, plus they all love our kids, plus they fed us delicious food and let us jump on their trampoline and eat their ice cream and swim in their pool. We had a comfy cozy family time with them that we’ll always treasure. Thanks dear Dougli!

We got to share Wide Awake with Oasis Vineyard in Hermiston on Sunday morning and a good time was had by all. That probably had more to do with the delicious potluck than anything else. 🙂 Why does it all have to be about the food, you ask? Well, I just really like food…that’s why. Heeheeeee…

Now we’re in Boise at an awesome host home with such kind hosts, it’s just great! We shall see what good times await us here.

Thanks friends for praying and following along on our journey. If you could pray for Jed we would really appreciate it. He’s got a cold/cough that he just can’t seem to shake. That’s made speaking and leading worship a tad interesting! He really doesn’t want to be sick and I really want him to be able to fully engage in this trip without feeling sick and tired. Would you pray with us for his healing? Thanks!

Bye for now!

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Garage Sale of the Century Recap.

Posted on September 3, 2013 by kimnjed

You found us! Yay for you!

I've been meaning to move over to WordPress for a while now, and finally got around to it. I managed to move all the blogger content over to WordPress a while back, and then I forgot I did it and wrote a few more posts on my blogger account. Oops. So…I copied and pasted them here. I'm so hi-tech. Aren't you proud of me?

Now for the real news!

Holy Garage Sale Amazingness!!!

What kind of crazy garage sale brings in that kind of money? I have absolutely no idea how that happened, other than the fact that God must have multiplied the money once it hit the change box. 🙂 So many wonderful friends donated loads and loads of stuff for us to sell. Our oh so gracious and amazing friends Tom and Emma let us host the sale at their house since we live on a super steep hill. On Thursday night we stood in their house attempting to sort the ~~junk~~ sale items, and we literally almost cried (well, not so much Jed and Tom, more like Emma and me…or maybe just me…). It was a serious case of Hoarders. Tom and Emma get a standing ovation for hosting this beast. We made such memories together…I would almost be tempted to do a re-do just for some more quality snacking with T and E…almost.

We priced the items low, and then prayed for loads of buyers. And guess what? Our prayers were answered beyond our wildest dreams!! Tons of shoppers were commenting on how few garage sales there were that weekend…our sale was the only big one in the area…THANK YOU JESUS! He cares about every.single.detail- right down to the friends providing pumpkin spice lattes and milkshakes just when I needed them. 😉 Can I get an amen? Hehe

Tom, Emma, Debbie, Joe and Kim, Duane and Kim, Becki, Curtis and Sara, Jasmine, Ashley, Rosa, Vicki, Carli, Hannah, Mom and Dad, Sam and Ang…and everyone else I'm forgetting, THANK YOU for the coffee, the donations, the blizzards, the doughnuts, the help with the kiddos. You are all ginormous blessings to us and our hearts were/are bursting with all the love and support we felt from our friends and family. High five Team Garage Sale!

The proceeds from that garage sale, combined with one done by friends earlier in the summer raised a whoppin' $3100! That almost paid for our plane tickets. We are most blessed, and we are most done with garage sales.

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