Holiday Greetings!

I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to spend the holidays with my family here in the US. However, there is much a miss from Venezuela already (yes, more than the warm weather). I just wanted to let you know that I did some filming of the church meeting place before I got into town and am currently editing the video to post here on the site. This will give you a better idea of where I work and what the building looks like! Thanks again for all you do for the Kingdom!
God Bless this Holiday Season,
Matt Johnson

Voting For The Future of the Country

This past weekend promised to bring big changes to the constitution and the country. President Chavez proposed almost 70 amendment changes to a constitution that was passed just 8 years ago in 1999. The majority of these changes were written to move the country more toward a socialist government and many feared more like Cuba. Weeks leading up to the voting marches were planned, rallies were held, and speaking events were schedule by both Chavez and his supporters and the opposition. Rumor had it that those voting for Yes had the lead in the poles and were expected to easily win. However, when the results were released this morning at 1:15 AM Venezuela time, the No was triumphant with a slim 50.3% to 49.7% total. We had prayed Sunday morning at church that God's will would be done. We preached to trust in God and not man. We sang praise songs to God proclaiming that He has the last word and that His will will be accomplished! We praise God as He continues to move and work here in this country.
Within the next month I will be reviewing my goals for the year and developing a ministry plan for the future. Please continue to pray that God would continue to lead our church towards growth and have an impact here in Cua! God Bless!
Matt J.

PS> I will be in the US between Dec. 20th and Jan. 3rd. My brother is getting married on Dec. 22nd, so I will be in the wedding and celebrating the holidays with my family. Feel free to drop me a line if you would like to hang out and hear an update of the work live and in person!!

Redemption on a Few Different Levels

Redemption seems to be a pretty "churchy" word now a days. That is to say, it is not a word heard frequently outside of a church context. This word carries a few different definitions. It can mean 1. to free from the consequences of sin, 2. to free from captivity by payment of ransom, 3. to buy back, 4. to atone for, 5. to change for the better, among a few others. One thing I have noticed about our new church location is the redemptive qualities it is having on the physical and spiritual realm. We are seeing slow but steady church growth on a spiritual level, and on a physical level the what was once abandon shopping mall where we are renting, is starting to fill up. Previously are only neighbors were an off track betting site, a liquor store, and a grocery store at the end of the complex. In just the last few months, a pharmacy has opened up, an internet cafe, a hardware store, and there are a few others that are currently in the remodeling process. We hope all of these business will attract more people to the shopping mall, and consequently more people will here the gospel preached! It is amazing how God works on both the physical and spiritual plane!
God Bless,
Matt J.

The Office is Up and Running!!!

Well, I am excited to announce that we finally have our office up and running here in the church in Cúa. This means that I finally have internet available at my leisure! This hopefully will mean that I can update this blog more frequently as well as post pictures, videos, and other articles. Well, lets try to bring everybody up to date from the last post...
We now have 6 bible study groups that meet during the week and are hoping to open another one before the end of the year. This is very exciting since we started the year with only 2 small groups. I have started to meet with the other youth ministers from the churches in the mission with the hope of sharing ideas, supporting one another in prayer, and planning events for all of our youth to do together! I am now in the process of translating some material to use for discipleship with 4 guys in the youth group! Well, I think that is about all for now! Thanks for all of your prayers! This weekend we have a conference about praise and worship. Please be in prayer that God would speak through the preacher this weekend. God Bless!
Matt Johnson

A Beacon of Light in A Land Flooded with Darkness

The longer I live here in Venezuela, the more of a need I see for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the presence of his body, the Church, here in this country. Every day I am reminded of how passionate this culture can be, and much to its own demise. One of the unfortunate statistics here in Venezuela is that 75% of its homes are lead by single mothers. With the amount of sex appeal that shows up in advertising here, and the overall vanity of the culture, it doesn't surprise me that so many marriages fail after only a few years. Another thing that really has struck me recently is the fact that this country is becoming more and more socialist. Unfortunately the government's eyes down here are focused on equality instead of justice. It seems that they just want everything to "be fair" and neglect the rising crime and corruption that abounds throughout the country. I give thanks to God everyday for being a part of His plan for this nation and consider myself blessed to be able to share openly with people about his son Jesus and the hope that we have in him! Please continue to pray as we try to carry out the great commission here in Venezuela! More updates to come!
Matt Johnson

It's Been A While...

Well, sorry for my lack of updates over the last month. We really have seen God do some amazing things over the last month! A few highlights: We just got back from taking over 25 kids to summer camp this last week. The picture above shows some 85+ youth worshiping from 4 different churches we have here in Venezuela. Two of our students who have been in the youth group for little over 2 months decided to get baptized. God really spoke to them at camp and they decided to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of their lives! We will be baptizing them this Saturday! Some youth group members returned from a mission trip to Columbia, and San Cristobal Venezuela. They went out to support a Venezuelan church planter that is part of the mission. I was unable to go as I had to preach at youth group the Saturday they were gone. However, they were used by God their and were able to baptize 3 people in Columbia! We praise God for the international harvest He is producing through our young people! The mother of one of the youth that attended the trip decided to be baptized and give her life to Christ! Her son, Elias, has been praying for her for a long time. After Elias returned from the mission trip he found his mother on her knees praying to God and repenting of her former life! We were excited to baptize her this past Sunday! She had been involved in witch craft at one time but has destroyed all of her ties with that and is excited to begin her new life in Christ! Well, hopefully as I find more time to write I will update this site more often. Thanks so much for your prayers. We are seeing lives being changed here on a daily basis! One note of specific prayer request: We have seen a lot of negative impacts of gossip among our youth group recently and it is something I am desperately trying to change. Pray that God would give me the wisdom to teach and disciple these youth so that they would mature in the faith!

God Bless,
Matt Johnson

From The Big City to The Boondocks....

This past month I finally moved out of my apartment in the large city of Caracas and into the small town of Cúa. I now live with another American missionary a little older than myself,(His name is Sam)and we are the only missionaries that live full time in the town of Cúa. In fact, we are the only Americans that live in Cúa. We are excited to be there even though the living conditions are a little rougher than Caracas. This has allowed me to more easily minister to the youth that I work with. Most of them live near my house and we now have more time to spend together and forge deeper relationships. I look forward to doing some discipleship with the guys in the youth and raise up some leaders among them! We are currently hosting a Bible Conference with Bob Stacy the founder of CIY! He is here to speak about how to prepare a sermon and how to overcome a loss. So far the conference has been wonderful for our Latin leaders that preach in the churches here. Tomorrow we will be talking about overcoming a loss and the book of Job!
God Bless,
Matt Johnson

It´s been a while...

Wow, sorry it has been so long since I last updated the blog. Life has been pretty busy down here the last month or so. My team leader had been on vacation and that meant more responsibilities for me while he was gone. We celebrated Fathers Day yesterday with just over 100 people in attendance! Praise God! We have been blessed with growth recently in the youth group and even baptized a few people this past week! Again we praise God for all the work He is doing here in Venezuela! I am getting ready to move to the town of Cua where the church is located. We have been arranging the house where we live and fixing it out. Right now we have a problem with the electricity. When we use the microwave, we have to turn the lights off in the kithchen. When we use the washing machine, we have to turn off the lights and unplug the regrigerator! Wow, definitely a different experience.
Well, I will be starting a small group for guys soon (something that is needed in the youth group). I also preached two weeks ago at youth group for the first time and it seemed to go pretty well! Thanks for all your prayers and support! The church is growing here in Venezuela!
God Bless,
Matt Johnson

Where's the Beef?

Well, life down here has been busy lately. I apologize for the lack of posts. We are currently working at the new locale the church rents and are hoping to have our first service there this weekend! These past few weeks have been spent carry concrete blocks, bags of cement, and cleaning the building on top of regular ministry commitments. I will hopefully have some photos and video up when I have more time! Thanks so much for all your prayers as things are moving right along with the new location! Well, I thought I would take some time to talk about life down here in Venezuela. Things are run very differently here than in the States at times. We often experience shortages in certain types of food in groceries stores down here. No need to worry too much, I am eating well. However, it isn't always what I want to be eating. For instance right before I arrived in March, there hadn't been sugar in the country for about a month. Just a few weeks back we couldn't buy eggs or milk because there weren't any, and now there are rumors going around that there might not be any beef either. Luckily, most of these shortages last only a few weeks and things get back to normal. I just hope we don't experience anything like this long term. Well, more about the church: On Mother's Day we celebrated with about 115 people in attendance at church! Last week in youth group we had about 35 students! Praise God! I think one of the new girls wants to get baptized soon as well! I will keep you up to date on that as I know more! The language is coming along as I study every day. I am not quite to the point where I can do public speaking, but I am progressing! Praise God! This next week I am going to start math tutoring with one of the girls from the youth group. She is bringing here brother who also needs help and is not a believer. Please pray that this would be a great chance to start a relationship with him and eventually share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him! Thats all for now!
All For God's Glory,
Matt Johnson

When 40% is worth mentioning!

It seems that Wednesday nights are always popular at churches for being prayer night. Well, here in Venezuela is no exception. Every Wednesday night at Siempre Con Cristo church we host a prayer night. It seems that the world church in general has a hard time getting members to attend what might be considered a rather boring time at church. Right now we are blessed to have about 25-30 people in attendance at these prayer times. That might not seem like much but when you consider this comprises about 40% of the entire church, that makes it worth talking about! We are so blessed to have members in our church that are passionate about prayer! Because of this God blessed the church with a new location to rent that more than triples the size of our current location! We are in the process of fixing up the new place and hope to move in in a couple of weeks! I plan to have pictures/video up of the new location soon. I will also post pictures of the old locale so you can get a feel of how awesome this really is! Keep up the prayers! Lives are being change! We celebrated 3 baptisms in April and are baptizing another lady this Saturday!
God Bless,
Matt Johnson

Poco a Poco...

Little by little I am adjusting to life here in Venezuela. The language is coming along as I am learning new words everyday. Every Friday I meet one on one with a language tutor at one of the schools here in Caracas. It has been great working with her and improving my speaking, writing, and reading skills. Little by little we are prepping the new location where the church will be meeting. It is so cool to see God provide for His Church! We can't wait to start holding services in the new locale. We will also have office space which the church desperately needs. Please keep praying that everything would finish well and we would be ready to move into the new place soon!
Little by little I am finishing up the paperwork I need while in the country. I am getting ready to get my Venezuelan ID card and drivers license. Hopefully by the end of next week I will be done with those. It just seems that things move so slowly here. Well, we celebrating another baptism on Saturday! Thanks for all your prayers and support!
To God Goes All the Glory,
Matt Johnson

April Highlight Reel!

God Answers Another Prayer!!!

Commute to Cúa!!

Certifiably Healthy!!

Driving in Venezuela is much different in the US. Yes, they do drive on the right side of the road, but the rules of the road down here seem to be merely suggestions. Though they aren't as stringent on rules, you do have to have two different licenses to drive here. I received one of these today. I can drive on my US license for the first 3 months upon entry. After that I will have to apply for a Venezuelan drivers license. The other form you need is called a Certificado Medico. This certifies that you are healthy enough to drive a vehicle. The test consists of: blood pressure being taken, reading a few lines from an eye chart, and the doctor listening to your heart beat. I was pretty excited I passed, though outside of being in a coma, it is difficult to fail the test. I don't think the doctor administering the test would have passed himself. When I walked in to the room, I had a ball point pen stuck in my hat by my ear. This keeps the pen accessible in case I have to write or sign anything. The doctor asked me if this was a special microphone for my hands free cell phone. I said, "Nope, just a pen." I think he would have had a hard time reading the lines on the eye chart! Well, the prayer time was wonderful last night! Tonight we have two small groups I will be leading worship for!

God Bless,
Matt Johnson

First Venezuelan Video!!!

Does this Country make me look fat?

Yesterday was my first church service in Cua! They had a nice welcoming meal for me after the second service. It was good to see some old friends and meet some new ones as well. Apparently I have put on some weight since I was hear left. One of the ladies remembered me from my time here as an intern and her first words to me were: Wow, you have some more fat in your cheeks since last time! (rough translation) I forgot how brutally honest Latinos can be! Yes, they notice things like hair, weight, clothes, and they aren't afraid to tell you about it. Today is our day off so I went downtown with Chris (team leaders wife) to run some errands. I had to cash a check at the bank to convert dollars to bolivares (Venezuela's currency). The bank works a little bit differently here than in the states. First as you walk in you go to the old "take a number" machine. Then everyone stands in one large blob and you watch a screen flash up numbers in a seemingly random order. When the sign displays your number you walk to the teller assigned to you. I had to show my passport as a form of identification to cash my check. This was followed by a picture. After endorsing the check, I had to include my thumb print directly beneath my signature. Talk about security. We then went to the cell place in the mall to get my cell phone! Cell phone plans are prepaid down here so you just buy a card with a certain amount of minutes, and then purchase more as needed. Unfortunately minutes cost quite a bit so everyone sends text messages instead. Man, I am not even good at texting in English let alone Spanish! Purchasing the phone also required a print from my thumb as well as my index finger. Ah yes, there is nothing quite like being 24 and relearning how to do everything all over again. This really is a high adventure life style and one that takes some patience as well! Tomorrow we have an office day at one of the churches. This coming Sunday I am leading worship at the Cua church! Well, I will write more as I have more to share!

God Bless,

Matt Johnson

First View of Venezuela

Here is a picture of Catia La Mar, Venezuela. This was my first glimpse of Venezuela as I flew in Friday night. I had two wonderful flights and some wonderful news! I found out yesterday that my Visa was approved! That is very exciting and I hope to get it soon! My team leader and his wife met me at the airport and we headed to his house. That is where I am staying this weekend, till I move in with my host family. I looks like I will hit the ground running so to speak. We have youth group today so I will be headed there this afternoon to help out! Well, I look forward to sharing what God is doing!

Blessings,

Matt Johnson

Packed and Ready to Go!!

Well, it's official. As of 8:40 PM, March 22, I am packed and ready to head to my new home. I think this is the earliest I have ever been packed before flying somewhere. Usually I wait till about 2:00 AM the night before. I am pretty proud of myself! Tomorrow is going to be a full day of traveling split between driving and flying. I will hopefully have the chance to send off an email to everyone either Friday night or Saturday morning. Please pray for safe travel for me tomorrow and that all my luggage shows up as well! Well, I think I am going to get a snack and hang out with my parents before I go to bed!
God Bless,
Matt Johnson

Cleveland Ohio and Louisville Kentucky!

This past weekend was dedicated to spending time with my forwarding agents in Cuyahoga Falls and my exit interview (or "PDI") with Team Expansion. (The picture above is the proverbial "Cuyahoga Fall". Yeah, it's man made, but still more impressive than Springfield Falls here in Illinois...) Thursday through Monday morning I was in Cuyahoga Falls with Jonathan and Jen hanging out, watching movies, playing Settlers of Catan, and making sure we were on the same page as far as missions stuff goes. It was good to see them once more before I leave. They play such a huge role in my ministry. It is so great to have your best friend as your forwarding agent. It is good to know that someone who is 100% behind my ministry is handling my finances. Well, enough buttering up the Claytors... Tuesday I was at International Services (IS) in Louisville all day. I spent the day in meetings with all sorts of different members of IS. They are the support staff here in the States serving all 300+ Team Expansion missionaries on the field. They are also a huge part of my ministry. They have made my transition to the field pretty painless. I can't thank them enough. It is hard to believe that I am leaving in just over a week. I am having all of these crazy emotional swings. One minute I am extremely excited, the next nervous. However, I know this is where God wants me right now, and that gives all of this an underlying sense of Peace!! Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and support. Please pray for safe travel next Friday as I fly to the field! I look forward to sharing all God will be accomplishing through me as I minister to the people there!
All for God's Glory,

Matt Johnson

Goodbye!

Final Touches

It is hard to believe that a year and a half after applying to go full time with Team Expansion I will be leaving for the field. I have a few finishing touches to put on some things before I leave. Health Insurance paperwork must be filed, plane tickets bought, and I have to decide what I am going to do about Social Security. These are some of the things you never think about when going in to missions. There are others like: who will be included in my living will, what kind of life insurance do I want on the field, who gets power of attorney in case something were to happen to me? However, all of the paperwork must get filled out before I can begin to serve overseas. Well, I can't tell you how excited I am especially since my departure date is now just less than a month away! I hope to say formal goodbyes in person to as many of you as possible. Please continue to pray for me when I reach the field as I will need your prayers more than ever. We are in this together. And in the end, may God receive all the glory!!

Matt Johnson

Deperature Date!!!

Wow, I have been waiting to write this post for about the last 8 months. I can't believe I am finally doing this. Well, after talking on the phone at length with my team leader, we decided it would be best for me to go ahead and go to Venezuela on a tourist visa. This means I will have to hop out and back in to Venezuela every 3 months. We are still hoping my transient visa comes through, but if that doesn't happen we will begin working on a visa as an English teacher. Well, I will be buying my plane ticket this week and will be flying out sometime the weekend of March 23-25th. Thanks for all your prayers. There are a few more things I have to finish up before leaving so please pray I can get these things done in a timely manner.

All to the Glory of God,

Matt Johnson

Dare2Share

I had the privilege of attending a conference with my youth group last weekend. This is the first time I have been to a conference as an adult chaperon! I guess it sort of made me feel old. Anyways, it was an excellent conference on how to share your faith with someone. They gave practical tips and ideas about how to present the gospel message easily and effectively. I was exciting to watch groups of kids go and evangelize on Saturday for a few hours. Youth: Keep up the good work!

Fasting on Wednesday!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I will be fasting for my Visa this Wednesday, January 31st! I sent out an email explaining things and asking for my supporters to fast with me as well! I have had some people respond already and I am very excited and encouraged by that! Let me know if you have any prayer requests that you want me fasting about on Wednesday!

All to Glorify God,

Matt Johnson

Test Video

Video Capability Added!

Well, now that I have discovered the beauty of videos, I don't think pictures will ever be the same. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post these videos directly into the blog rather than as page elements on the side. I hope to have videos once every few months so you have more to see than just text and pictures. Hope you enjoy!

Online Photo Album!

Blogger has recently added a way to link my photo albums to my online journal. On the links portion of the page to the right, you can click and access my photo album. I plan to keep this updated once on the field so you will be able to see some of the pictures I have taken. This will serve as another resource in addition to my newsletter to keep you informed of what I am doing in Venezuela! Right now, I just have a few trial photos in the album. When I get pictures from my Mexico trip I will update the album. Thanks for the continued prayers and support!

God Bless,
Matt Johnson

Another Great Trip!

Well, the trip to Juarez, Mexico was a huge success. We were able to build houses for two families as well as present them with some house warming gifts. I really enjoyed the opportunity to serve and brush up on my Spanish in the process. I will definitely post some pictures when I get them. Right now I am in Minnesota visiting with my future Venezuelan roommate. Well, he isn't Venezuelan, but I will be living with him when I head down there. I will update you all soon. I will also be sending out my 2006 end of the year report shortly as well. Thanks for all the continued prayers and support!
All the Glory to God,

Matt Johnson