Meet our New Intern!

We are very excited to have a spring intern joining in April and May this year! She will be a very unique addition to our team, coming to Austria not only with cultural understanding but also German language ability! Praise God for His provision! Take a look below to get to know Kendra!

"My name is Kendra and I will be interning with the Johnsons this April and May! 

A few basic facts about me are:

- I am 20 years old

- I have one younger sister who is 17 years old

- I am a dual citizen of both Austria and The US

- I study Fashion Business and International Marketing in New York (I want to use this degree to pursue a career in Ethical and Sustainable Fashion)

As you might have guessed, I come from a bicultural household, where my Dad is fully Austrian and my Mom is fully American. My sister and I were both born in Salzburg, Austria, but we all moved to the States when I was 7 years old. I was blessed to be raised in a Christian household, and I first began to realize my passion for missions as I got more involved through volunteer organizations at my high school, in my youth group, and even as a Young Life Leader in college. Everyone I volunteered or came in contact with was searching for something, and many were looking in dark places. Specifically, my family and friends back in Austria each have had issues with substances such as alcohol, nightlife, black magic, or simply believing they are completely self-sufficient. Over the years, it has broken my heart to see the disconnect between the "religiousness" of Austrian culture and actually developing a relationship with the Living God. 

I have felt God put a burden on my heart for Austria all of my life, but especially this past summer, when I was doing a two-month missions trip in Bulgaria and Romania, I very clearly knew God was calling me to come back to serve in Europe. Through a great deal of prayer and trust, I found this amazing opportunity to serve with the Johnsons in Vienna. I am already extremely expectant and excited to see the type of work I will be able to do with the refugees and locals in the city. I know that no matter where God takes me, he will provide a way for me to reach my people either through direct mission work or just being a living example among them.  "

Please pray for Kendra as she prepares now to serve in Austria by raising support and preparing for her various ministry opportunities here. She will be with us March 31 - May 20. We are excited to see how God uses her here and what she learns through the experience!

Why Does Austria Need Missionaries?

Emily Roth visited us as part of the WorldVenture Media Team

We spoken and written a lot over the years about why Austria needs missionaries. It's a topic, though, that we regularly come back to because European countries are still in desperate need of more workers and for many Christians, it is still a new idea to consider Europe a mission field.

Last summer, a 2-person team of media interns from WorldVenture visited us and put together some great videos for use in recruiting and getting the word out about our ministry. (You can watch them here and here.) Emily from the team also took a lot of the ideas that we discussed and put them into a great article about Austria, which just went live in the WorldVenture website. We will post the beginning of the article here, but encourage you to read all of it by clicking the link at the bottom!


Why Austria Still Needs Missionaries
In a historically-Catholic country, WorldVenture workers follow God to plant a church.

Austria has roughly the same population as New York City. Yet the number of evangelical Christians in the whole country couldn’t fill Yankee Stadium.

Only 0.5 percent of the population is evangelical. Or about 43,000 in a country of 8.6 million people. WorldVenture workers Nate and Bethany Johnson hope to grow the Church by coming alongside Austrian Christians living in Vienna.

“Church planting is still needed in Austria because there are areas of the country and in the city of Vienna with no evangelical witness,” said Nate. “There are many people here in Austria who will go their entire life without a strong and meaningful relationship with a Bible-believing Christian.”

The Danube River slowly meanders through the middle of Vienna, creating a natural barrier between the city center and the developing northeastern quadrant. There, new construction and families moving in has opened an opportunity to plant a church. One neighborhood in the Northeast has about 150,000 residents and only one evangelical church among them. Nate and Bethany are seeking a team of local Austrians and other native German-speakers to start a new church in this neighborhood...

Click here to read the rest of the article!

From Everywhere to Everywhere

Certain concepts fall into your mind somehow and get stuck there. You think them for a long time without questioning them until a great class, scripture or a sermon pushes you to be more thoughtful or more nuanced.

For me, the idea that missions is not just from "us" to "them" is one of these ideas. It is the idea that missions is not just a "first world" to a "two-thirds world" project or only in poor places. To paraphrase John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad, missions isn't about being right or wrong, it is about worship. Missions happens because worship does not. Because there are and continue to be places on the planet where the worship of God does not happen, where people have yet to hear of the wonderful love of Christ that cleanses sin and removes shame.

Because of this, the older mindset of "from the West to the rest" is not valid. There are mission fields all around us the require stepping out cross-culturally or across community borders. Missions is truly a "from everywhere to everywhere" endeavor. It is about reciprocity and learning from one another. It is the humility to say, "my cultural expressions of the christian faith can be enriched as I interact with those that see things differently."

One quick example of this.

Our church here in Austria has been around for a little while. They have had a great deal of influence from missionaries over the years, many from our own team and organization. This Sunday, they were preparing to send out a short term team to eastern Europe. This is one of many short term trips they send out as well as supporting many long term missionaries.

I don't mean to just brag about our church here, but I think it illustrates the point. Even as they are receiving missionaries, they are also sending people out. It isn't about one-way relationships. No matter how small or large a church is, there is a benefit from not just engaging in missions from a "sender" perspective, but also from the "receiver" perspective. There is a humility that is connected with saying, "I have something to learn from you as much as you can learn from me."

So if you think of it this week, pray for the students from our church that are on this trip.

The Seeds of Movement

A while ago, Bethany and I spent some time away on a spiritual retreat. We were so blessed to have some focused time on prayer and hearing from the Lord. We sang together, read scripture, and enjoyed the time of communion with Christ amidst all of the craziness of this adventure.

A friend in Connecticut lent us their vacation home that was near the campus of Williams College in Massachusetts.  Because I am from the Midwest, this was my first exposure to this area of Mass. I had never heard of Williams College, which is the top liberal arts college in the country.

As we wandered across the campus of this prestigious school, we stumbled upon this monument commemorating a prayer meeting in 1806 . After reading it, I remembered the stories from my missions classes and realized we were standing near a piece of missions history.

In 1806, five men met in a meadow near Williams College to pray about and discuss the need for missionaries to travel to other lands and preach the gospel to those that had never heard it. In the middle of their discussion, a thunderstorm popped up and so they all hid under a haystack to continue their talking and prayer. They began a group called the Haystack prayer group that a few years later began the first American missions sending board.

Our first thought through all this was just how amazing it was to be in the place that has shaped so much of American missions. This was the beginning place for so many changed lives. This is where men and women stepped out in faith to follow where God led. 

We also loved being in this place, because it reinforces the need for prayer. We know from history how many Christian movements have started in prayer and yet the church doesn't spend nearly enough time on our knees together before God seeking direction and the movement of his Spirit. We pray that God would continue to birth movements of his people out of prayer and seeking his name.

Why Do We Do This?

Yesterday (Sunday), I (Nate) traveled an hour and a half across the Throgs Neck Bridge and drove out to Long Island to visit Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset.  We got to know pastor Steve, because he used to be a pastor at our sending church, Parkview Community Church. It was a great time to meet some new friends and see a great church.


During the service, Steve introduced me to the church and mentioned about our ministry. The funniest thing about it was that in the moment, he said we were going to Australia (obviously this isn't the first or last time someone has made that mistake).  He quickly corrected it and we all had a great laugh about the whole thing. But then he asked a very important question: why?


Why do we do this whole thing? Why do we send people across town or across an ocean to plant churches? The answer went back to the mission statement of the church which is "To lead as many people as possible into a joyful and growing relationship with Jesus Christ." And as a church, they love to connect with anyone that is seeking to accomplish that mission, whether it is across town or across the globe. It isn't about just their church, but it is about the kingdom of God.

My morning with these brothers and sisters was very encouraging and I wanted to pass some of that on to you guys. We are very excited about what God is doing as He prepares us to do ministry in Austria, but we have to yield to the fact that this isn't about us. This is about the glory and worship of God. Pastor Steve quoted John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad when he said that missions happens because worship does not. This is so true and we are very excited to be in the service of such a mighty God.

Photo credit: beglib from morguefile.com

The Fruit of Partnership

A few weeks ago, we spent some time up in Detroit Lakes, MN.  We had a few great stories from that time, but one of my favorites begins with my time at Moody Bible Institute.

When I was at school, we talked a lot about how to chose a stateside missions organization to partner with.  There are so many challenges to get overseas, and you need to work with an agency that is a good fit for you and will best help you navigate those challenges. As I started to look at different organizations, I met a guy named Phil from WorldVenture.  We chatted a couple of times each year and I got to know more and more about his organization.  He wasn't just a recruiter trying to make numbers...he got to know me and built a relationship with me.  He also communicated clearly about the organization's strengths and weaknesses, shared with me about the application process, and advised me about what would be the best timing to begin the process of joining WorldVenture.  We stayed in touch for quite a while until it was time for Bethany and I to begin our application.

So how does this connect to a church up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota?  The night before we were to present, we stopped by the church to test out all the technical stuff and make sure we were ready to present.  We saw the board on the wall with pictures of all the missionaries the church supports.  One face jumped right out at us...it was Phil and his wife! The church had been supporting Phil and Mimi for many years as they ministered to Americans who are looking to go overseas as missionaries.

The next morning, it was so great to get the chance to preach the word to this congregation, a group of people who had already partnered with our ministry by supporting my friend Phil.  We are a product of their prayers and support! It was such a gift to know that this church understood the need for people like Phil to coach new missionaries along in their journey to the field.



Photo credit: alvimannfrom morguefile.com

When Do You Need Prayer?

I came across this quote made into a video from David Platt who spoke at the Desiring God national conference we attended last weekend (more to come on processing our experiences there).




Do you think we show that we need prayer, that we thirst for prayer?

Are Multi-Cultural Leaders the Future?

Over on Out of Ur, Skye Jethani just returned from a trip to Spain where he was training and speaking to missionaries.  Besides affirming the "from everywhere, to everywhere" reality of missions - which is another post - Skye made some keen observations about the challenges that the American church leadership community will face as the church becomes increasingly non-white, non-American, and non-western.  Here is a quick quote from his post:

 Most of what I’ve read/heard about church leadership says we should fight tenaciously to maintain clear purpose, vision, and values within our organization. And recruiting other leaders who conform to these is vital. Allow too many people inside who hold divergent ideas and you’ll derail the organization. But this mindset assumes that efficiency is the ultimate value to which all others must surrender. But in many cultures efficiency is not the highest good. And third culture leaders understand that in many cases clinical efficiency simply is not possible when seeking to lead diverse populations.

Read the rest of his post The Post-American Church (Part Uno).

My question related to all of this is:
Do you think that the current church leadership structure will make this change, or will it take an emergence of new multi-cultural leaders?


Do you disagree with these ideas entirely? 

St. Patrick - a Radical Missions Story

St. Patrick was a great missionary! Here is his story, told by VeggieTales. Video via Out of Ur.

Look Mom...I'm a radio star!

When we were in Colorado at WorldVenture, we were interviewed by Hans Finzel, the organization's president, about our decision to serve God in Austria. It was a really fun experience to participate in a radio show recording in a studio - complete with fancy microphones and headsets (the production geek in me definitely came out...) But beyond that, we enjoyed putting into words our experience being led to missions and the need we see in Austria.

Our interview was edited and posted as an episode of WorldVenture's on-going podcast, Missions on the Frontline.
You can listen to the final version here: Mission on the Frontline - 12/1/2010

Comment on this post to let us know how we did! And please - be nice :)

Why Europe?

GemStone Media of Greater Europe Mission recently created this brief 50-second video about the spiritual need in Europe. Though the video is simple, I think it points to an important fact that is sometimes overlooked - Europe can be considered "post-Christian". There are churches on every corner, but most are tourist attractions. There is very little evidence in Europe of an understanding of what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Europe didn't used to be seen as a mission field, but that is slowly changing. I am encouraged that the need is Europe is being spread and that other missions organizations are sending workers.

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” - Luke 10:2

Why Europe? from GemStone Media on Vimeo.

Taking the Next Step

Well tomorrow is the day, tomorrow we get on a plane for Denver.  We have our final interview, 'basecamp' training, and a lot of fun and meals to look forward to during our time there.  Maybe even some climbing, if I play my cards right.


Our emotions go from excitement to nervousness and everywhere in between.  We are really excited to have the chance to learn more about WorldVenture and also to meet our fellow appointees.  I know it will go fast, but right now two weeks feels like a long time.  It is an interesting microcosm of what we will eventually do - packing up our life, leaving friends, and heading off to a new, exciting and daunting adventure.


So with this, we head off.  I have felt for a long time that I have neglected blogging and I need to be more intentional about writing down my ideas and adventures.


- How do you see God preparing you for the ministry He has lead you into?