April 23 Praise and Prayer

Praise Reports:

·                        - Praise the Lord though he is absent from his body, our son Daniel is present with Jesus.

·                        - Praise the Lord for the comfort and closeness to Himself that the Lord is giving us

Thank you for praying for the following with us: 

 

- Pray that our visa application will now finish processing quickly and efficiently so we can get to California quickly and deal with the final arrangements for Daniel's passing.

- We also pray that as the gospel is shared at the memorial service for Daniel, family and friends who have not yet accepted the Lord will come to faith. We pray that Daniel's life will show God's grace is the way to a relationship with Him, not our works (or lack of!)

- Pray also for Daniel's former girlfriends Trisha and Ashley who have been greatly affected by his death. We have prayed for their salvation for years and both will be at the service. 

- Pray that the desire of some to dissolve Harvest as a church in July will not be fulfilled, as we feel it is the Lord's will for us to remain in Northern Ireland and we want to walk in obedience, trust and faith.

Thank you for your faithful prayer support, and the countless prayers said over the years on our son's behalf.

God bless you,

Rick & Cindy Johnston

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

We went to a sunrise service Easter morning at the foot of Mount Slemish, what a gorgeous morning.

Jesus is Risen defeating death. Thank you Lord because of this we are not afraid of the future nor fretting about the present or worried over the past. And because of the promise of resurrection we know we will see Daniel again.

We trust you Lord and we love you

 

 

Devastating News Regarding our Son, Daniel

We've received devastating news Saturday from our son's fiancee, Trisha, that Daniel had a major seizure and was rushed to a hospital in California Friday evening. They were not able to revive him. He is home with Jesus. We're in total shock and are trying to process this news.

As most of you know, we're missionaries living in Northern Ireland. We're in the middle of a UK visa extension process so our passports are in England. We'll be able to get temporary passports Monday, but we need to get the authority to travel from the UK border agency without having a
proper visa.

We covet your prayers for this and also for traveling mercies, finances, and all the necessary details to be worked out.

We are comforted by KNOWING that Daniel is in the presence of our Lord Jesus.
Please pray for us.
Blessings. - Rick and Cindy.

April 14 - Update On Travel Plans

First of all, we want to thank everyone for their prayers, love and support.  It is amazing how the Lord is carrying us through this time.  We are blessed to have so many around us who love us so.

As you know there were questions regarding our authorization to travel outside of the UK with our current visa extension applications in process. 

Well the decision has been made for us!  If we travel without our visas being issued, it would cause the entire process to be cancelled. So...we will be waiting for the visas to be completed.  It is an 8 week process, and we submitted out applications 3 weeks ago, so we should receive them in 4-5 weeks.  We found out today that we could mail a request to 'speed up' the process with the details of our situation, so we've mailed that off this afternoon.  So we'll see, it could be a bit sooner.

We totally see the Lord's grace in this, as if there were no issues with our visas, we would have already booked flights for this week.  The Lord knew we would have arrived too soon.

It all will work so much better for us. (Romans 8:28, " And we know that, for those who love God, all things work together for good.")

We've arranged to have Daniel's remains cremated, which will take about 2 weeks, then at least another week is needed for the documentation to be sorted.  So we wouldn't  have been able to collect Daniel's ashes & paperwork for 3-4 weeks. So everything should be completed when we arrive.

Having this extra time here, allows us the time needed to comprehend and process everything.  We will also be in a better state of mind when we arrive in
California.  We are so grateful for the Lord to have caused this much needed delay.

Oh how Lord watches over us, Thank you Jesus!

Please keep Trisha Allen, Daniel's fiancee, and her family in your prayers.  They were very close for the past 3 years, and this is extremely difficult on them all as well.

We love you, and appreciate you - We pray the Lord's riches blessings to you! 

We want to thank you so much for your prayers, love and support.

Rick and Cindy Johnston