Europe 2010

I posted a new blog to my personal account. I would love for you to read and follow that one. I am going to be posting there now that I am home from Europe. You can find it at http://lexijohnson.blogspot.com

I have been thinking a lot lately about how following God's call looks to other people. Not only people who don't know God at all, but also the people who do.
Have you ever thought of how Joshua and the Isrealites must have felt? God gives Joshua the orders for how they are to take this city. It's a crazy plan! Marching around then blowing trumpets and shouting, not your usual military plan. But Joshua listens and obeys and has his army march and march all week long.
Sometimes I feel like Joshua. Like I am marching around the wall of Jericho over and over. Like I am doing this unheard of method because that's God's plan.
I wonder if Joshua had to listen to the people of Jericho taunt him. The bible says that the gates of Jericho were closed and no one was allowed in or out because they feared the Isrealite army. I wonder if after a few days they thought the Isrealites were crazy! If the fear they had turned into a joke. Day after day they just march around and then go sleep. I wonder if they thought this was some psych-out method. Whatever they thought, I don't think they could see God's plan.
Now you can only expect the people of Jericho to not get the plan Joshua was given from God, but what about the Isrealites? I wonder if they all supported Josh 100% or if some of them went along with it, but grumbled about it. I find this to be the harder of the two. If the people who don't know God can't see why I am doing things in this illogical way it's just what I expected, but when people who are Christians can't see why I am marching around a wall day after day, to me that is far more discouraging. I think it's frustrating from both sides.
I find it much easier to follow God when I hear His call, when I am the one He tells the plan to. But what about the Isrealites? What about the people who have to take my word for it that this crazy plan, these far out unheard of and often times not the most logical methods are what God is calling me to do. I feel compassion for them. I hate being in their shoes. I would much rather know the plan, hear from God for myself, than to be called to follow someone else's call. When I feel like God wants me to do something crazy or even just something out of the way, not the most logical, I need to have compassion for them. They don't know my relationship with God, they just have to trust that God will show them that I am not crazy.
But what about when they don't care? What about the times where they don't care if it's Gods plan or not! They are not marching around the city for a week, they are just going to attack because that is how it's done! That can be so taxing on the person with the call because there is no way to explain it if the people want a reason and the whole "I feel God calling me to do that" reason is not cutting it. They want logic, they want a plan of action, they want all the things of human nature. Human nature and the nature of God are on two different waves. If they want a human logical reason they are not going to get it. There isn't one. When you take God out of the conversation that elimiates the only reason for doing this plan.
I have learned that you have to accept the fact that most people will not get it. And I can't make them get it. I can't show them what is going on inside my spirit. I wish I could, it would make things much easier, but that is my relationship with God, it's between me and God. It's far too intimate and precious to be accessable by anyone anytime. I have learned that I listen to God's call because I answer to Him and Him alone. So if other people don't get it there is nothing I can do about that. That doesn't mean I can stop marching around the wall. It doesn't matter how many people are standing there telling me I am wasting my time, wasting their time, wasting God's time. If I hear a word from the Lord I will keep my eyes on Him and march on.
Not always will you face this lack of understanding when following God, but when you do stand firm. When other people don't get it at all and become a discouragement to you have compassion on them. They are frustrated just like you because they can't see why you would waste your time on that. Stay focused on God and He will give you the strength and cofidence to continue on. Are you willing to take part in the crazy adventure God has planned?



We are in Dublin and I have been here since Saturday. I got to worship with the Ranelagh Christian Church Sunday morning and had a bible study last night! Tonight I am going to another bible study, it will be the last one I have with this church. Kent, Kyler, and Austin (3 friends from church back home) are coming out tomorrow morning to start their Europe adventures! I will travel Ireland with them for a few days while Grant heads up north. I am excited to see what God has in store!

Location:Dublin, Ireland

One of the things that just gets to me, makes my spirit mourn with great sadness is the blind. Not the physically blind, but the spritually blind. It is so sad to see these people who can't see what they are doing. They can't see they are on an express train to destruction. They are living in the illusion of the world. They are living their lives thinking they are just doing what they want, having fun, life's a party. They can't see the danger that is overtly obvious when looked at through the lenses of Christ. They have jumped off a 20 story building only thinking about the free fall for the first 19 stories. That part is fun right? Think about how fun falling would be if you had absoutly no idea or comprehension of the consiquence that waits to meet you as you hit the ground. You would think that you were so alive, so free, having so much fun, flying! But from the street the onlookers watch in horror knowing the fate of the jumper. My heart can hardly take it.
But as much as I want to, I can't save them. I can't show them the death that they are headed for, not when they are blind. I can't love them enough to save them. I can't make them see. Only God can do that.

So why am I even here? If I don't save them, if it's nothing I say that saves them then why am I here? As a missionary it's not my job to save people. It is my job to follow God 100%. To give all of me to God to use HOWEVER He likes. Jesus Christ is the ONLY one who can save people. The only one who can make the blind see. The only one to bring this hope and make people holy.
It is a hard task to watch all these jumpers. To watch and know they don't have to jump! To try to save them all myself. I won't save anyone that way. I didn't live a life free of sin, I didn't pay the cost for them, I couldn't. All I can do is live for the one who can save them. Walk with the one who can save them. Speak when He tells me to, listen when He tells me to, let them treat me poorly when He tells me to. Paul says in 2 Corinthians "I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls." I feel the same way. I want God to use me like He used His own son. That means pain and hardships for me, but I will gladly take them all for your souls. Sometimes the only way I can help in saving people is submitting to God and letting thoes people put me through hell. Sticking with them when they say and do some of the most hurtful things to me because God still has me there. Trusting God will not abandon me, that I will grow even closer to Him in the pain. Jesus was God's son and He went through the worst of it! When God chooses to use me in this way I can only praise Him. I know that He will take over inside of me with the strength to endure it all. He can make them see. He can save them. And I can submit to Him. Spend and be spent.
I pray that God shows me all the places in my life where I am still blind. All the places in my life where I have not surrendered to Him. I praise Him, for everytime I jump He catches me by His grace.
Let God use you no matter how much it hurts you. When God puts people in your life who ridicule you, disrespect you, hurt you deeper than anyone before then run to God. If He keeps you there, then praise Him! He is giving you the invaluable oppertunity to have to rely on Him because you are not strong enough alone. He is using you like He used His son. And when the time comes that you are released from this persicution, praise Him! Find a renewed spirit in Him. You can't save the jumpers, but God can. And God can use you. Let Him use you for anything He wants, no matter how much it hurts. Gladly spend and be spent.

We just left Cork. Ireland is so beautiful! We are in Galway now. God is good!

-Lexi

Location:Galway, Ireland

From the last two posts you may be able to tell that I have started a different approach to updating you all on my trip. I feel you get a better picture of what is happening here if I write about the thoughts I have been having about the spritual side of all this. That being said here are some of the things I have been thinking about in Paris.

Paris, the city of love! There is so much love in Paris. I see it everywhere I look from the locals and tourists alike. Everyone is madly in love. Sounds good, right? Well it would be good, great even, but they are not madly in love with the right thing.
I was listening to a sermon on the train ride into Paris Sunday morning and it was about when love is wrong. Really? Love? How can that be wrong? Paris was a beautiful example of this love gone wrong.

I think that because we as human beings were made in the image of God, we can't help but to love. It is our nature to love. It is something everyone of us has. But what I am finding is that while every one of us may have it, one of the main differences in people is what we love.
So, if we all have this instinct to love why is the world not one big group hug? Because we don't all love the right thing. How sad and hurtful this must be to God. What a slap in the face! He made us with this capacity to love Him and what do we do with that invaluable gift? We use it to love everything but Him. How hurtful that must be to God to see us all choose ourselves over Him. So what does He do now that we have taken this ability to love and trampled it under our feet? He sends His son to come down, pick it up off the ground and not just dust it off and hand it back to us. No! The damage was done, in order for us to get this gift back Jesus had to die. So we slap God across the face with this gift He gave us and He sends His son to die so we can get it back?That is love.
So if people are not loving God what do they love? I could list a whole number of things like power and money, but I think it all boils down to one thing: we are madly in love with ourselves! It is so engrained in our culture that we don't even realize it. I thought to myself "I'm not that good at loving myself, I am really hard on myself!" But in this sermon the preacher pointed out that the evidence of this self love we all have is found in things like making sure there is enough hot water for you in the shower, or making sure that the room temperture is how you like it and little things like that. You may not like yourself, or be nice to youself, but I would bet that you love yourself.
Sadly, this is the love displayed in Paris. During the pouring rain I watched as the people with umbrellas pushed me (without one) into the street so they could not only have the umbrella covering them, but the sidewalk covers too! This is self love. On the metro I see people pushing others back to get the last seat for themselves. This is self love. At resturants I see people weaving and cutting the line as much as they can to get their order in first. This is self love. It breaks my heart to see us all waste this capacity to love on ourselves!
But you can't really stop loving yourself, right? You can't stop taking care of youself and your well being, right? Well, to me that is irrelevant. We need to be focusing on how we CAN love God. How beautiful would the world be if we all just simply loved God? If we threw ourselves whole-heartedly into loving God with all that He gave us. If we didn't worry about not doing this or doing more of that and just dove in 100% to loving our creator! I think all the other things would fall into place. We wouldn't have to think about doing the "right thing" we would be living and breathing the right thing! We wouldn't have to worry about loving other people, that would all come naturally from our overwhelming love for God.
It's time to stop the cycle of loving anything but God. It's time to let our love from everything else come out of this overflowing love for God. So stop trying to split up your love between yourself, your family, your friends, your significant other and God, and give it ALL to God. Anything less than all you have is not enough for God. When you hand it all to God He will fill you up. Your love for all the other things will flow from your love for Him making your love for all of them pure, strong, and true. Love doesn't run out when you let God have it all.


We are in Dublin now and plan on being here until Friday and on Friday traveling around seeing the country of Ireland a little. We will be back in Dublin soon after.i can't put into words the feeling my spirit has finally being in Ireland! I have felt called here for so many years and God is faithful and has brought me here at last! What a journey it has been! God has His own agenda for this trip and I am so greatful!

Location:Paris, France

Another update written on a train. So when I post this one we will be in Paris!

I liked Berlin so much! I didn't know what to expect but I fell in love with the city! It has so much history, very recent history. The theme of walls has been on my mind for obvious reasons.

Berlin had a wall to keep people contained, but the wall did not solve any problems. It pushed them away for a while but walls only hold for so long. They don't solve the problem, they just hide it, block it out, push it away, but behind the wall the problem is still there.

I feel like we build these walls in attempt to save ourselves from sin. It's something WE can do, something we don't need help with. So we build up walls to try and fight sin in the only way we can. But it's not a fight at all, sin is bigger than any wall we can build. The thing with sin is that it can't be undone, it can't be erased, it has a price that can in no way be avoided. The wages of sin is death. The price we all have to pay is death. We all have to die, everyone. Until each person comes to this realization that they can't win their battle, that they will die, they can't understand the cross. But once we realize that we will die, that we have to die then we can make a choice of how we die. We can either fight this our entire life until sin claims the debt we owe, or we can choose to die to ourselves. We can choose to give our lives right now to Christ and let Him fight our battle for us. Christ can pay the price, He did pay the price.

So why are we still building walls to keep out what Christ already defeated? Why are we fighting this on our own when we have chosen to let Christ fight for us? When will we be able to see that we HAVE defeated sin through Christ? We are already paid for. Sin has no debt left on us, nothing to hold us for. I'm not saying that once you find Christ you won't battle sin anymore, but the truth is you don't have to! Your ties with sin have been cut, you don't have to live in sin because you have been set free! Before you were tied to sin because of the payment you owed, but once you find life in Christ your price is paid, sin has nothing to hold over you!

This in no way means we stop fighting. We are in the middle of a war! But we don't have to be on our own team fighting the forces of evil alone. We are fighting in Christ, through His power. We are fighting on the team that has already won!

So whatever sin you are fighting alone, realize Christ has defeated it! Give Him the battle, let go of the walls you have built to fight it. Let the power of Christ "tear down this wall!"

Location:Somewhere between Berlin and Paris

We are on a train right now half way between Frankfurt and Berlin but by the time I get a chance to post this we will be in Berlin. I wanted to post a few of the thoughts I have been having lately.

God has been working on my heart and showing me new things about Him and myself. I am growing and learning and having an awesome time with God. He has pointed out to me one of my faults. I have a hard time trusting God to overcome me. Now what I mean by this is that I have total faith that God can move mountains, part oceans and even errupt volcanos to fufil His plan. I even have faith that He will get everyone else right where He needs them if they realize that it was God who got them there or not. But I have a hard time believing that I won't mess the whole thing up and ruin God's plan and what God wants to be done will not get done because of my own stupidity. I realized how arrogant that was! Really? I thought that I was so great that the creator of the universe could not carry out His plan because of me? I never thought of it that way before but it was a really prideful way of thinking. I was worried that I would not hear God right or just not listen to Him and then cause the whole plan to fall appart. I laughed out loud when I realized the stupidity in my thinking, but I think lots of us find ourselves in that same state of mind. For me at least, it is easier to think of God overcoming nature, time, even the forces of evil, but when I am the obstical it just seems like too much! Like I am just to dumb to follow God, to stubborn to listen to His direction.
But God is bigger than me. That is such a simple truth that I just can't seem to grasp fully. God can not be stopped by anything, especially me! I found so much peace in this. A huge burden was lifted off my shoulders when I realized I am not holding this plan God has together, He is. It doesn't matter how dumb I am being, how stubborn I am, how blind I am, God will be in control and He will get me right where He wants me in spite of me. I realize now that He knows my heart, He can see that I want nothing but to be in Him and doing what He has planned for me.

So I am going to stop worrying about taking one wrong step and causing the whole plan to fall apart. I am going to start trusting that God's will will be done in spite of me. I am going to keep seeking God in all I do and let Him overcome my faults and mold me into whatever He likes.

Hope you understand what I am trying to say and that it benefits you in some way. I praise God for all He has done and is doing. He has given me more than I ever deserve. No matter what life throws at me I know that God is good and that is enough.

-Lexi

Location:Berlin, Germany

I said in the last post we were going to Paris next, but we have had a change in plans and are going to Berlin for a couple days! I am excited to see another part of Germany and keep thinking "Tear down this wall!" I guess being as I am named after Ronald Reagan, it is just in my blood to think that!

God is so good to us! He has just taken care of me through all of this trip. I have so much gratitude in my heart for Him! It amazes me how much He really does care.

Thank you to everyone praying for us on our journey. We need it!

-Lexi

We are still in Germany! Yesterday we went to another city for the day called Heidelberg (I think). We plan on leaving Thursday morning for Paris!

God has been teaching me so many things about Himself on this trip! He has been working all over the place. I don't get to see most of what He is doing but He shows me some of it! We are forming relationships with all kinds of people and most of them are accidental. A good number of the people we have met were not supposed to be where we met them and I think the fact that they were was a God thing. And really we were not supposed to be in any of the places we have been in until a later date. If the trip had gone in the order I planned it in we would not have met any of the people we have now. Praise God for putting us where we need to be when we need to be there!

Keep the prayers coming! Pray for the hearts of all the people we come into contact with. That they may see God when they see us.

Location:Mannheim, Germany

Rome was amazing!! We stayed at a little hostel right close to Vatican City! We saw the Vatican and the Colloseum and had a great two days!! We made friends with people from as far away as Austrailia and as close to home as New Jersey! I really enjoyed it!

We were going to leave Rome and go to Venice, Italy. We had met two girls in Barcelona who were vacationing and they live in Venice and we were planning on catching up with them, but when we tried to book a hostel not a single one was open that was priced under 100 euros each! With our budget of 70 euros a day TOGETHER (for food, transportation, shelter, all of it) we could in no way afford that. We then looked into a few cities in Switzerland and found the same problem! It was not that any of these cities didnt offer cheaper hostels, it was that they were all booked up! We finally settled on Paris. We were planning on going here later and just thought we could do it now and not have to worry about it later. We booked a cheap hostel and headed to the train station. We waited in line for ticketes only to find out that all the trains for Paris were full! So I guess that is not the path we were supposed to take either... So we decided that Germany was where we were supposed to go. Grant has a friend who is graciously allowing us to stay with her in Mannheim, Germany so here we are.

I am so thankful that God keeps us on his path. He is in controll of all of this and it does not really matter where we think we are going, God remains faithful to us taking us where he leads.


Another change of plans has been happening over the last few days. My Photosafe broke. That is the device that I use to store all the videos from my video camera so I can record new ones on the memory card. It worked at the start of the trip and has been in a nice padded case the whole time but for whatever reason it has decided to break. This means we can not empty the memory card to record more footage. I spent some time in prayer and considered my options. I decided that this is God telling me to just live over here, to not worry about this documentary and to just love the people and show them the love of God. So, while it saddens me to not be able to film over here I have realized that this is was never about what I want to do. This trip is and has always been about what God wants so I praise Him for making things so clear as to what He wants from me. I am sad that I will not have videos to show you all, but trust that this is the best way.

"When a person's steps are directed by the Lord, how than can anyone understand his own way?"

Keep the prayers coming!

-Lexi

It is crazy how God works everything out. We have met people all along this trip and today I was thinking how if God hadn't redirected us via the huge volcano we would have run into any of these people! I don't know how God is using us to touch them, I feel like we are a part if the "planting seeds" stage, but one thing I have come to realize in the last few days is that it doesn't matter if I realize how we effect these people or not. Really, if anyone is effected it is not by us, it is totally because of God. It may have taken a volcano to show me that God is the only one that can change things and that He is in 100% controll. And I praise Him daily for that awesome reminder that this is His trip, not mine. I am so thankful that He showed me that at the very start.


We are in Milan now and the plan from here is to go Rome for a couple days then maybe Vience then make our way towards Germany.

Thank you all for the prayers!! Keep 'em coming!

Location:Milan, Italy

We are in Milan, Italy right now but here are some pictures from our stay in New York City!

In Madrid. We flew out of NYC Monday night and got to Lisbon, Portugal Tuesday. Yes Portugal, and yes we had no intention of going to Portugal, but thank God that he can take us where we need to be even if we have no earthly idea. I had never heard of Lisbon until Monday when the airport lady told us we could be numbers 19 and 20 on the standby list, the shortest standby list to anywhere in Europe. thinking there was no way we would make it but having to wait to fly back to Tulsa anyway, we figured why not. We then asked what country Lisbon was in at it had not crossed our mind that we were about to get on a plane and go to a country we know nothing about and where they speak a language we don't know. This was because neither one of us really thought we would make the flight. Then when the plane was boarding they called our names and we were as shocked as if we had won the lottery! That's when we realized that we have no idea what we are doing. It was such an amazing feeling getting on a plane to a place you know nothing about trusting God will keep you safe.
On the plane we sat next to a n Irish man named Leo. Come to find out not only was he supposed to be on our original flight he was also supposed to be on our flight Monday! We became friends with him sharing about our trip and then stuck with him the day we were in Portugal. We later found out his seat on the plane was not the one by us but a row back but another standby passanger took his seat and he decided to give sitting with us a shot. I think it was a God thing that we met him. We plan on visiting him in Dublin.

We are now in Madrid and plan on moving on tomorrow maybe to Barcelona. But as we have found out now that is all up to God.

Keep the prayers coming!!
-Lexi

Location:Madrid, Spain

We are in Queens for tonight staying with a gracious family that works with a Korean church here. Tomorrow we head back to Manhattan. We have gotten a really great NYC experience.. We've seen central park, statue of Liberty, ground zero, chinatown, times square, grand central station, the museum of natural history, mastered the subways (well, Grant has that is, I just follow him) taken the bus and a cab... All kinds of stuff. We still don't know if we will be able to fly Monday. Pray God makes His plan clear to us! Pictures will be uploaded tomorrow or Monday!

Location:Queens

We left Tulsa at 7 this morning and made it ti Newark, NJ at 11 only to discover a volcano has or is going off in Iceland causing all European flights to be canceled due to the ash. So here we are in NYC waiting for the next flight we can get to Ireland, and that flight is on Monday. We extended our trip because of this delay and are now coming home on June 2nd. So we will have fun seeing NYC and see what God has in store for us here! Keep us in your prayers and also the people of Iceland.

-Lexi

Location:New York City

We leave tomorrow! I can't believe it is finally here! I have said goodbye to most everyone, a few of my friends and my family will see me off at the airport. We have to be there at 5:30AM. Our flight leaves at 7. Keep us in your prayers tomorrow, it will be a long day of travel. We will get into the Dublin, Ireland airport at 6:55AM on Friday morning. I am so excited! Here we go!

We are only twenty days away from leaving! I can't wait! I really can't believe that this trip is less than three weeks away! I have known that God was going to have me go to Ireland for as long as I can remember and the reality that it is actually happening is making me feel amazing! I know that I am about to go on a trip that God created me to go on. This makes me think of Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." It is a blessing to live out this dream, to live out the works that God has prepared just for me. I believe that as Christians we do this daily, but usually we don't realize it or even see how we affect other people. I have been given this amazing gift, God has told me before hand that He is going to send me to Ireland and for my entire life I have known a small part of His plan for me. I can't describe the feeling I have now that I am so close to living out this part of the plan.
God has been working everything out so far and it always amazes me. The amount we need is down to only a little over one thousand dollars! I know that God will provide the rest of the money, seeing how he has taken care of every detail on this trip so far makes me confident that He's got this one covered too.

Please keep Grant and me in your prayers as we prepare for this journey. Also keep the people God will be putting in our path in your prayers.


Thank you all for reading!
-Lexi

Location:Tulsa

We have started receiving donations and I just want to say thank you to everyone who is helping us out! It humbles me every time someone invests in this mission. And thank you to everyone who is praying for us, that is a very important part of this trip.

We have our plane tickets purchased! That was very exciting to me and made this dream even more real! With only ten weeks until we leave, I know that time is just going to fly by!

Thank you for all of your prayers, and please continue to be praying for us! If you are just coming to this blog you can view the previous post to see a more detailed description of our trip.

God Bless-
Lexi

Hi everyone!

As you probably know Grant and I are going on a mission trip to Europe! We are leaving April 15 and coming back on May 31! That is less than three months away!! We are flying in and out of Dublin. The plan now is to spend the first few weeks in Ireland then moving to the mainland and taking our mission to the rest of Europe. We still have a lot of money to raise in order to do this!

So what's the mission?
There are a few parts to the mission of the trip. The main part, (obviously) is to follow God and do what He asks us to. We want to go where the people are. The mission style we are taking on is very relational. We want to have conversations with people and bring up God and His love in a very natural way. We hope to help people in any way we can. We have been contacting local churches in Europe so that we may join with them in their efforts. Our main goal is to show God to people everywhere we go.

While we are there I will be filming a documentary. Film is a passion of mine, and I think it is one of the gifts God has given me. I am excited to have a way to use this gift for God. The vision for the documentary I am making is for it to have two parts. One part will be focused on outreach. For this part I want to film people from all over the world, both locals and other travelers, answering the question "what is love?" I got the idea from the video project called fifty people one question. http://fiftypeopleonequestion.com/ While my video will not be exactly like that, or done with as nice of equipment, it has been inspired by that.

The other part of my film is more an inreach project. It will be aimed for young Christians. It is inspired by a quote by Oswald Chambers author of My Upmost For His Highest "We are made perfectly fit for the purpose of God...Beware lest you forget God's purpose for your life." I want it to show people that God has given you gifts and the best way you can show people God is to use the gifts God has given you. I will be doing this on our trip. I want to show in my film that my gifts are not the traditional "gifts of evangelism" but they still can be used to show people God. Documentary's have a tendency of changing from what the original vision is, so when I get to Europe if God gives me another story to explore I will listen to Him.



We still have literally thousands of dollars to raise for us to be able to go. I have faith that God will provide. God has worked out everything so far, and I believe He will continue to do so. If you want to be a part of sending us over to Europe we would greatly appreciate it.
Checks can be mailed to:

Garnett Church of Christ
c/o Deanie Johnson
12000 E. 31st St.
Tulsa OK 74146

PLEASE INCLUDE LEXI AND GRANT EUROPE MISSIONS IN THE MEMO!


We would be honored if you keep us in your prayers as we are preparing for this trip as well as while we are in Europe.

Thank you for your support.

-Lexi