Rivers, Houses, and Ministry Trips

Two months have flown by since we got back into Costa Rica. At the moment we are still living here on the YWAM facility in our little room and it has been quite the adventure. Our place backs right up to the river and every time it rains the river becomes a raging torrent. But when it is nice we get to enjoy the wild life. So far the boys have seen a good sized crab trucking down river, a nutria, a possum, and numerous tropical birds. Plus the raccoons that do laps on the tin roof in the middle of the night. (Not to mention the good number of rats that frolic by the river.)

Our old house Before...

and after!

Our house sale/purchase process is moving ahead steadily.We've been working really hard on our home on the south side of San José and it has already sold. Now we are waiting for the bank so we can sign papers and get our check. Praise the LORD!

The house we hope to buy!

Once we have the money in the bank we can start moving forward with the purchase of the new home close by the YWAM center. We went back up last week to chat with the owner and take a few photos. The house is everything that we have prayed for and we are very
hopeful that it will soon be ours.

We greatly appreciate your prayers for the loan process. We will need to get a loan for about half the value of the house and getting loans here is very complicated and difficult. Plus interest rates hover at around 9% average. We are praying for a miracle and trust that God has something wonderful for us.

Gabriel, Riah and a good friend

Bit by bit we have been entering back into base life and ministry. In many ways it has been very good to live here at the facility because it puts us in contact with many of our single missionaries who live here as well. The boys got right back to work on their tree house and have added a second floor. So far we have had no major accidents although there have been a couple close calls.

Karen has stepped into the role of Personnel Coordinator where she oversees our long term staff, helping to ensure that our base community functions well and that people are able to move forward in their passions and giftings. I (Douglas) am serving again as part of the leadership team and I have stepped into oversee some of the logistical areas of the base as well. Our missions community serves as a platform for a half dozen different ministries, at least as many training courses, and hosts some 50 short term teams annually who come to serve in various locations around the country. Our roles help to ensure that things run smoothly and that our missionaries don't burn out from exhaustion.

Karen and I with some friends from YWAM.

In addition to our work here at the center we are moving forward with our vision to set up a frontier missions team. Although it is not official, we have two couples who share our passion for the unreached who we hope will be joining our team. Together with two of our potential team members, Vernon and Maylenn, both Costa Ricans, we were able to travel north to a small community near the border with Nicaragua. We were able to speak with representatives from several churches who want to get more involved in missions. We talked about local opportunities as well as the challenge to take the Gospel to those who have never heard it.

Sharing about missions with a local church.

God is opening up doors for us to share in churches around the country and we hope to be doing more of this sort of trip in the near future.










Looking towards the next few months we want to communicate a special need. In early September YWAM will be hosting an international conference in Kansas City, Missouri. This would be a great time for us to reconnect with fellow missionaries from around the world, hear what God is doing in our mission and also a time to be refreshed. We have felt that as much as we are not looking forward to traveling again so soon this is an important conference for our whole family to attend. They will be having a special program for the kids and it is such a crucial time for them to connect with other missionary kids like themselves. With airfare and hotel the cost should be around $2,500. This is an extra expense beyond out normal donations and we will have to raise all our own funding. So if you would like to make a special donation please just click on the "Make a Donation" tab above for more info.

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support!

Blessings the Johnstons,

Douglas, Karen, Gabriel and Zachariah

13 months later...

After 13 months of living out of suitcases, visiting 6 countries on 4 continents, sitting with refugees and sipping tea in Lebanon, sweating through summer in Cairo, 3 months climbing the hills of Amman, and then experiencing winter in the great Northwest of the USA, we finally arrived again in our beloved Costa Rica!


  We spent the last few weeks of our time in the US doing a road trip. Through some fellow missionaries in Costa Rica we made a connection with a couple who works for Disney who gifted us 2 free days at Disneyland which was a dream come true for the whole family. It was spring break for a couple of states so the lines were a bit long but that didn't bother us a bit. From LA we headed east and visited some of Karen's family in Arizona and then on to Texas to visit my family. We boarded the last flight of our long journey last Saturday and arrived safely here in Costa Rica.

We have spent the last couple days reconnecting with friends and our life here. As well, we have had to start the lengthy process of picking up where we left off thirteen months ago. Our first major hurdle is finding permanent housing. At the moment we are living in two small rooms that our mission center is providing. After living out of bags for so long we are definitely ready to settle down some place more permanent. As some of you might remember, several years ago we were able to purchase a small home on the south side of San José but unfortunately the mission center is on the east side of town and travel between the two areas is quite difficult. As we enter into this new season of ministry we have felt that it is very important for us to have a home that is easily accessible for people from the center so that we can use our home for discipleship and ministry. The afternoon after we got back into the country we headed out to see what was available in our area and we have already seen five houses and found one we are hoping might be the house that God has for us.

We ask for your prayers in this process, first that we would be able to sell our other house quickly, second, that we can get approved for a loan for the balance. And third, this will mean an increase in our monthly expenses so please pray for God's provision as well.

Ministry wise, the focus of this next season will be on gathering a team of like-minded people who are committed to seeing a mission movement begin here in Costa Rica as Costa Ricans are sent out to reach those who have never heard the Gospel around the globe. We recognized while were in the Middle East that the vision that we have is much larger than we can hope to accomplish on our own and that together with a team we could accomplish so much more. We have 2 couples and a single fellow that have been on our minds for a long time. Please pray that God will give us clarity and wisdom in this process of team building.

We are excited for the new things that God will bring in this next season of our lives here in Central America and we will make sure to keep you all up to date as things move forward. Thank you all again for your prayers and support.

Douglas, Karen, Gabriel and Zachariah