{"id":3940,"date":"2022-10-26T14:44:12","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T18:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/?p=3940"},"modified":"2022-10-26T14:44:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T18:44:21","slug":"chris-larena-johnston-missionaries-to-ireland-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/?p=3940","title":{"rendered":"Chris &#038; Larena Johnston &#8211; Missionaries to Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Many Answered Prayers at a crucial time<\/strong><br \/>&#8220;And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.\u201d Philippians 4:19<\/p>\n<p>Greetings loved ones! Please forgive me for this September<br \/>newsletter coming so late to you! If you\u2019ve been following our updates on<br \/>Facebook, you know a lot has been keeping us quite busy.<\/p>\n<p>First of all I\u2019ll start with an update on Liam. We finally got him<br \/>in for surgery and he\u2019s currently recovering from that. The poor kid had<br \/>been dealing with a hernia for months and we didn\u2019t realize it until August.<br \/>We took him in to the doctor and they said it would \u201cheal on its own.\u201d Once<br \/>the hernia doubled in size, that answer didn\u2019t sit right. After much research,<br \/>Larena found out that this type of hernia not only doesn\u2019t heal itself over<br \/>time, but if it becomes incarcerated could lead to a life threatening situation.<br \/>On top of that, the longer you wait from diagnosis, the greater the risk of<br \/>incarceration! It was a stressful battle, but Larena was able to finally get<br \/>an appointment within a week. As the date approached, we were<br \/>anticipating the feeling of relief on the other side of the surgery. However,<br \/>the week leading up to Liam\u2019s surgery Anora came down with some sort<br \/>of sickness that had similarities to the E-coli infection that put her in kidney<br \/>failure just two years ago. We took her in to get checked and they found<br \/>trace blood and protein in her urine. She eventually bounced back, but we<br \/>think she may have picked up a respiratory infection at the doctors office,<br \/>which she then brought home to Liam. The poor guy got sick with a high<br \/>fever and trouble breathing the night before his surgery, meaning they had<br \/>to postpone his surgery! This was super stressful for us, because Larena<br \/>had fought so hard to get the surgery date. Thankfully we only had to wait<br \/>another week. This past week we were able to take a 3 hour drive out to<br \/>Dublin and finally get the surgery he needed. Interestingly enough, when<br \/>they got in there they found that he actually had two hernias in one! The<br \/>surgeon said he must\u2019ve been in serious discomfort. Well, he\u2019s home now<br \/>and recovering. The challenge now is keeping him from running too hard,<br \/>jumping on something, or falling as he climbs all over things. This kid is<br \/>so active, it\u2019s hard to explain to him that he may pop a stitch if he\u2019s not<br \/>careful. Please pray he recovers fully, thank you!<\/p>\n<p>Praise God the work on the ministry space in town is going<br \/>really well. We have had a hard working crew helping us paint and prep<br \/>the space each week. The main room and entry way has been primed and<br \/>painted, along with the kids ministry room. We are getting close to being<br \/>finished painting the kitchen and bathroom areas, and my office space has<br \/>one full coat of primer on it now. It has been so nice having a painting<br \/>crew join me each week. One girl, a Lithuanian who has been living in<br \/>Galway for many years has been helping paint 1-3 times a week for the<br \/>past few weeks. She loves helping, and is super excited about our vision<br \/>for building a community of believers among the young people in Galway<br \/>City. She has also become a huge answer to our prayers for someone who<br \/>would be willing to baby sit the kids!    <\/p>\n<p>The word\u2019s getting out about what we\u2019re doing, and people are<br \/>stepping up to help in huge ways. A few weeks ago I got a message from<br \/>a girl named Jill, who used to run the youth program at a church up the<br \/>road from GCF. Her and her husband Conor had been living up north in<br \/>Donegal for a while, but were moving back down for a few months to have<br \/>their baby in Galway. She remembered me talking about this city center<br \/>dream years ago and offered their help in any way I needed it. Conor has<br \/>been with me at the space each week, painting, assembling furniture, and<br \/>helping hang the TV. He\u2019s been a tremendous help and I\u2019m so thankful<br \/>for him. It was great to reconnect with him as well, because years ago I<br \/>was his designated mentor as he went through CCI Academy courses.<\/p>\n<p>A woman named Anne also contacted me a few weeks ago and<br \/>saw online that we had a space in town. She was super excited to hear<br \/>about it because she (and many others) had been praying for something<br \/>to come to Galway City Center for years. We knew her from our previous<br \/>church and she told me about a few people who lived in town who she<br \/>would want to invite to our services once we started. These are people<br \/>who were either too far away to get over to any church outside of the city<br \/>or they might be too intimidated to step foot in a church like that. The<br \/>cozy atmosphere of our \u201chome church\u201d style would speak to these people<br \/>a little better. Anne has been coming in each week to help clean and<br \/>prepare the space for ministry. She has also offered to make decorative<br \/>signs for the walls. Just the other day, Anne came up to me and handed<br \/>me an envelope for the ministry. Inside it was \u20ac500 for furniture! It\u2019s the<br \/>first Irish investment! We are just so blessed by her generosity, her<br \/>excitement for the ministry, and her willingness to help and invite others.<br \/>As she worked, she started sharing very helpful and creative ideas about<br \/>ways in which to reach the community. As a local Irish woman, we value<br \/>her suggestions tremendously. It\u2019s important for us to meet the needs of<br \/>the local community &amp; connect with them in a way that is most efficient.<\/p>\n<p>Thank God for all of the excitement surrounding this church<br \/>plant, and for the many people who have come to help. We\u2019re so grateful<br \/>for these folks, and for others like David, Aaron, and Michael who have<br \/>also helped us paint and move heavy objects. We\u2019re also thankful for<br \/>everyone who has invested financially in this project. We only have 30%<br \/>of our startup budget left to raise, and just \u20ac12,000 left to raise for the<br \/>ongoing annual budget. Thank you for being a part of this amazing dream<br \/>come true. Thank you for sharing our video and website with your church<br \/>leadership teams. Thank you for all of the connections, for stepping up<br \/>and going above and beyond in your donations towards this ministry, and<br \/>for your constant prayer and intercession! Thank you for being there with<br \/>us every step of the way! We are so thrilled about this exciting season that<br \/>is finally is upon us! God bless you all. ~The Johnstons<\/p>\n<p>Prayer<br \/>Requests<\/p>\n<p>We would be honored<br \/>if you would pray with<br \/>us concerning:<\/p>\n<p>Please pray for Liam\u2019s<br \/>healing, that this situation on<br \/>will be over in Jesus name.<\/p>\n<p>Please pray for the<br \/>continued work needed to<br \/>be done for the space to<br \/>be ready to have a Sunday<br \/>service!<\/p>\n<p>Please pray the people<br \/>who have supported this<br \/>work, that they too will be<br \/>blessed for everything<br \/>they have given to help us!<\/p>\n<p>Please pray for the<br \/>following individuals we<br \/>are currently ministering<br \/>to on the streets:<br \/>Thomas<br \/>Costa<br \/>Nadia<br \/>Brian<br \/>Martin<br \/>Pray for salvation and for<br \/>breakthrough!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many Answered Prayers at a crucial time&#8220;And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.\u201d Philippians 4:19 Greetings loved ones! Please forgive me for this Septembernewsletter coming so late to you! If you\u2019ve been following our updates onFacebook, you know a lot has been keeping us &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/?p=3940\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10063,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","item-wrap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4FGTq-11y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10063"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3941,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940\/revisions\/3941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcimissions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}