Hip Hip Hooray

Erik and I often laugh together about a memory of ours that happened soon after we met at Boundary Waters Experience, a camp up in Ely, MN. I'll fill you in on the story now as it is fresh in my mind as I look over our fundraising progress for Lithuania today.

It was one of our first days off of the summer (June 2006) and Erik and Luke were planning on going fishing for the day. Anna and I hoped to bike over to the lake and join them for the afternoon on the boat. When I called to ask them what kind of sandwiches they wanted me to make for lunch, the boys told me they had caught a large number of fish so far. Without skipping a beat, I exclaimed, "Praise the Lord! We're going to have fish tonight!"

Little did I know that Erik and Luke had barely cast their lines out that morning and had instead been enjoying each other's company over pipe tobacco and poetry...leading to absolutely NO fish caught thus far. The boys could hardly stop their laughter as they listened to my genuine response about our potential fish fry that evening. I soon learned the truth of the situation when Anna and I showed up to join them and I later became the consistent joke of the summer. Praise the Lord...We're going to have rain tonight. Praise the Lord...the campers show up today. This photo taken at a later date shows all of the participants of the particular story, including Luke and Anna.

I tell this story as my first response to calculating our pledge responses so far is...Praise the Lord! We're going to Lithuania this year! I can hardly believe it. As of today, we have been given $11,745 in pledges towards our first year at LCC.

I must say the process of putting our dream to be a part of LCC International University and our financial need to make it happen out in the open has been a vulnerable position for me. I like to have an answer to give people and an explanation of HOW I am going to make it happen. This time I have an answer to give and I am trusting that the people in our community and support group are going to respond with exactly how this will play out.

Thank you to those of you who have taken time to capture our dream of being a light and a blessing to a new culture in a new place in the world. Thanks for sending your contact information to stay involved in our story. Thanks for sending your hard-earned dollars so that we can meet our needs. We feel FULL with love and encouragement. This will be what carries us through this transition time of leaving Minnesota and starting in Lithuania.


A first experience for the Johnson's. We may not be able to make up our minds about a lot of things, but we know for sure we like to experience life fully. In new ways. In new places.

With humor and in seriousness, Praise the Lord...we have supporters who give!