|
The following testimony was given by Mrs. Clarice Johnson to our congregation at Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, and is our second of guest writings for the OneLife Ministries. I appreciate Clarice allowing me to post this wonderful witness of faith.
Clarice is the kind of person that keeps growing on you the more you come to know her. The more I am around her, the more I see her as an extraordinary woman, with a generous, very much Christlike heart.
One attribute she shares is her loyalty to her husband, his ministry, and their God. She and Rev. Wayne Johnson, a retired United Methodist Elder, married over fifty years ago. Clarice and I have spoken of this fidelity of a wife to her husband's pastoral career as something that is now often absent among wives of pastors. She, however, found meaning in supporting him and, also, in her work in education. She showed how a wife of a Pastor can serve in supporting him, be a mother, and have meaningful work for herself. Yet, she is clear that the moving over the years, and some places they served, provided ample difficulty and challenge. She, however, smiles when she remembers her vows to support Wayne and speaks of her doing just that.
I am grateful for these two fine persons being in my congregation. Their support, including much time at their home or out eating together, has been a blessing I cannot describe. I know they love their Pastor, and I am so blessed to be growing in gratitude and love for them, too.
With the above sentiments, I am blessed to offer you Clarice's words. May they speak to your heart, and encourage you in family faithfulness and loyalty to Christ.
* * *
TESTIMONY
By
Clarice Johnson
Christ Community UMC October 12,2008
I was reared by a Godly, saintly mother! She taught me valuable principles and values. She nurtured me in important Scriptures and sayings like: "...you will reap what you sow, ...never begin a habit that may make you a slave to it, ...be not deceived, God is not mocked, ...learn God's commandments. Hide them in your heart that you may not sin against God,... love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, ...walk with Him daily and pray and He will direct your path."
My mother taught me in Sunday School and in the home from early childhood to late teens. She nourished me with her Christlike examples. It was because of her influence on my life that as a freshman in High School, I walked a sawdust trail in an old strawberry festival building and dedicated my life to full-time Christian living. The evangelist that night challenged us to walk with God daily and let Him lead us into what He wanted us to become. The prerequisite to this he said, "...is devotion to daily Bible study and prayer." I took his word very seriously.
From that spiritual camp-meeting revival in that old strawberry festival building came challenges for me and all the youth who had dedicated themselves that night to full-time Christian service. We began a prayer and Scriptural promise meeting every morning before the School bell rang.
It was through these meetings that I began to admire a handsome young boy in my class and in my church. We began to date in our sophomore year. His life was filled with music and Christian principles much like my own. I admired and respected his good and faithful walk with Christ. We dated throughout the remainder of Hardee High School in Wauchula, Fla and Asbury college in Wilmore, Ky. We were married our senior year in college(1958). We began our life together, hand-in-hand, working hard to walk that dedicated Christian path, remembering all the spiritual guidance we had received at Asbury College.
Wayne's first job led us to Northside Methodist church in St. Petersburg. Fl. to be: youth director, choir director, teacher wherever needed, and assistant minister. Our first child, our daughter, was born there, and in Wayne's second year on the job, he was called into the full-time ministry.
One night while putting our daughter to bed, Wayne asked me how I felt about his going into the ministry. So many questions entered my mind: "...how could we possibly do this? ...when could we do this? ..where would we do this?" I answered Wayne's question by telling him,"...be sure it's God's voice that you hear and if it is, then put your hand to the plough and never look back. I will put my hand on yours and we will push that plough together." I knew Wayne understood that language because he was a country boy, and I really understood it because I was a country girl. I had pushed many ploughs with my dad as a young girl.
We gave up the home we were paying on, borrowed a pickup truck from Wayne's daddy, loaded up what we had, and after moving, our young daughter would come to us by way of her grandfather and grandmother. We headed toward Asbury Theological Seminary across the street from the college we had attended.
Wayne got his second job as youth director in Lexington, Ky. while he attended seminary. God blessed us with grants, scholarships, and jobs so that Wayne could finish his degree in three years. After graduation, by Wayne's membership into the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, came my vow that she would support her husband in every aspect of his ministry. This vow was administered by the bishop at the same altar that Wayne would receive his ordination later on that evening.
For the next 29 years we were together arm-in-arm for full-time Christian service. My thoughts kept returning to the words spoken that night by the evangelist, while I walked that sawdust trail: "God might not show you until later what your calling may be." I was sure now what I was called to be: ... Christian mother teaching Christianity to our four children, ... supporter for my husband and Christian witness for all about our God-given blessings.
I went on to be a Christian witness for 15 years as a teacher in the Florida state public schools. I became a self-proclaimed missionary by relocating our family of six, seeking their happiness to new places and new faces wherever we were appointed, and teaching them in Sunday School and public school.
There was one thread that ran through both of us during 5 years of dating and 50 years of marriage, we both wanted to be the faithful servants who will hear our master say when He calls us to our eternal home. "Well done thou good and faithful servants, come into my Kingdom prepared for you by my father!"
* * *
What in Clarice's testimony resonates with you? Is it possible for a husband or wife to find their sacred calling in supporting a spouse in his or her calling? Is there a parent or other person who, during your childhood, shaped your life by being a Christian example and teaching important Christian lessons to you? Who was that person? What about him or her spoke to you of what a true Christian is? What principles did you learn from the person?
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in the continuance of his work of ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers, or through the Cokesbury on-line store, at www.cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist Pastor, lives in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed through Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a vowed, contemplative life and inspires others to a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the Church through addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
|
