Troy & Naomi Johnstone

Last week I had the privilege of helping teach a seminar to our students and a few guests. TERM (The Emmaus Road Message) is a Creation to Christ presentation of the Bible, for those who know little or nothing about the Bible. We want to make sure that our students understand the Gospel, and are able to clearly share it with others.

John has taught this material many times and all over the world. I have been able to help teach the seminar the past four times here at our Bible school. This time was different for me as we were using a new manuscript. Previously we had used The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus which was geared for people from a "Christian" background or culture. This new book, which won't be in print until next year, is for people from a polytheistic (many gods) culture or background. It is a major revision, as there are many different assumptions that must be made and more foundations laid before trying to explain who Jesus Christ is.

"In the beginning, God..." (What beginning? There was no 'beginning'. And which of the gods are being mentioned here?)

Without these changes, taking extra time to carefully lay down foundational truths about God being unique, Jesus could easily be added on to one's religion as just another god. You must make sure that people understand that He isn't just another god, he is the one true God.


Students following along with the study



Comments from students after the seminar:

"The Emmaus Road message is a good tool to help tie together all the events in the Bible into the most important theme of the whole book. As Christians, sometimes we don't see why certain events or stories are in the Bible until we realize everything happened because God was preparing for this one day when Jesus would die on the cross for all of mankind."

"I have a better understanding on how to share my faith with others and answer their questions. I feel better equipped to talk to people about Christ."

"The Emmaus Road study has been beneficial to me because it helped me learn more in depth what God has done for me and how all the Bible stories tie together. Now I can explain the Bible to others."

"It's really made me reflect on what I believe. I have grown up in a Christian home, but some things I never really got. The rat (illustration of our sin) on the cross was very symbolic to me. I finally realized that God poured out His wrath for my sin on Jesus for me."

"Thank you so much for your lectures. It was the most biblical teaching in my life."

"I learned a lot of how things tie together that I did not know before. Answers to questions that I was afraid I would not be able to answer if someone asked me to explain something."

"This study has been beneficial because it really helped me understand why Jesus died and why all the other things in the Old Testament had to happen."

"It's been beneficial because now everything fits together. It's like a puzzle and in the end it makes a beautiful picture. I believe in God and the Bible, but now the Bible makes a little more sense."

"...I really appreciate being taught about it. I can now talk more about God's Word to people, because I understand it so much better!

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this new book!

Labels: Ministry Update

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This had been a long and busy week. I often had to get up extra early to be in the classroom at 7:40 AM. Saturday rolls around and we are all tired and ready for a day of rest. Hoping to sleep in some, I didn't even bother to set my alarm, but my internal clock gets me up at 6:40. The bad thing about internal clocks is that they don't have a snooze button..

At least I was able to snap this shot of the sunrise at 7:07 this morning.

Labels: Photography

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I recently started using a couple of free web statistics services like Statscounter.com, which can track visitors on a map for you. Here is where visitors to our site have come from over the last few days.



I like looking at these maps as I know who some of the markers represent. They may be friends and family in those areas, like an uncle of mine in BC, an old roommate of mine in Brazil (at least I think that is who it is..), an old classmate of Naomi's in Belgium..

"But", you ask, "who in China would be visiting our site??" It is Naomi's brother, Andrew. He is in China for a few weeks working with some manufacturers on some visual aids for GoodSeed. These visual aids will be used around the world to help better understand the gospel. While he is there he is also having a few adventures that you can read about on his blog.

Hey, thanks for visiting. And leaving a marker on my map.

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Ellie proudly wears her Official New Brunswick Sou'Wester rain hat. She knows that she is a Maritimer at her core, just like her dad.

Labels: Ellie

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Palestinians wielding guns and firebombs attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday, following remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that angered many Muslims...

Later Saturday, four masked gunmen doused the main doors of Nablus' Roman and Greek Catholic churches with lighter fluid, then set them afire. They also opened fire on the buildings, striking both with bullets.

In Gaza City, militants opened fire from a car at a Greek Orthodox church, .... Explosive devices were set off at the same Gaza church on Friday...

Firebombings left black scorch marks on the walls and windows of Nablus' Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches. At least five firebombs hit the Anglican church and its door was later set ablaze. Smoke billowed from the church as firefighters put out the flames.

In a phone call to The Associated Press, a group calling itself the "Lions of Monotheism" claimed responsibility for those attacks, saying they were carried out to protest the pope's remarks in a speech this week in Germany linking Islam and violence.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214128,00.html

Can they not see the irony of carrying out violent attacks to protest being called violent? I wonder what they would do if they had a chance to meet the Pope.. would they hold a gun to his head and force him to say that they are not violent?

The media just reports the events, but I think they are too afraid to actually point out the irony.

As my dad used to say.. "It boggles my mind!"

Update: Some Australian media had insightful editorials here and here.

Labels: Rants

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Saturday, Sept. 16 marks 100 days until our second child's due date, December 25. That is still a long time.. and people are already looking at Naomi and asking if she is due soon. Naomi is a petite woman (at 4'10" [ "and 3/4!" as she would say]), so every ounce the baby grows, Naomi shows.

Labels: Naomi

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Just back from the UK, Ellie's Grandpa is around for the next couple of weeks. Naomi's dad will be teaching our students about the Gospel next week (and I'll be helping some) as well as visiting a few churches in southern Ontario. But, he still makes lots of time for his first grandchild too.

Labels: Ellie

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Dear Friends and Family,

We have been keeping very busy lately with our 46 new students. But we wanted to update you on a couple more personal items before time got away on us.

New Baby
Naomi went in for another ultrasound yesterday. Once again, the baby’s growth seems to be doing well. There is a bit of concern over whether the location of the abruption will affect her ability to give birth naturally, since there may be danger of haemorrhaging. We will have to look at that whole issue in a couple more months. In the meantime, we’d appreciate your prayers in this regard. On the whole, we are encouraged. Naomi often finds it necessary to take a few moments throughout the day to pray and remind herself of God’s care and goodness to us. It is easy for us to be overcome with worry and “the unknown” sometimes. We really do appreciate your continued prayers.

New Basement
We also want to update you concerning our Basement Project. We have been so encouraged to see people supporting us in this way. Currently, we have had $1600 come in. Thank you to those of you who have prayed and given. Our goal is $4500, so we still have a little ways to go, but we are excited to see it coming in. We hope to have the actual building process completed by the end of November. It will be so nice to have the extra space to make room for the littlest Johnstone.

Once again, we want to thank you all for your many emails, cards and phone calls, assuring us of your thoughts and prayers for us. We have been so blessed in our friends and family.

Troy and Naomi Johnstone

Labels: Ministry Update

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Photo taken one moon-lit night over our opening weekend. Many dark clouds, but each with a silver lining.

Labels: Photography

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Ellie was being particularly silly the other day and Naomi was able to record it with our web cam. She seems to get a big kick out of watching her reflection in the tv.



watch the video

4.6 MB

Labels: Ellie

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lol =8)

Ok.. very few people will get this, but for those who do, you can order a shirt with that cartoon on it!

Labels: Linux

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Horses that is. Tonight I took Ellie out to play on the basketball court and we witnessed the last two horses being loaded up on a trailor. So ends 20+ years of having horses here at WOL Canada for our camps. It was kinda sad to see them go.. Of course, Ellie thought they were cows.

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"Tactor!" Banging on the glass and pointing, Ellie sits on the back of the couch and window sill as she watches someone on the lawn mower.

Labels: Ellie

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On September 11, 2001 I was working in a bakery at a grocery store the morning the terrorists made their move. Every half hour some of the workers from the next department would gather around the radio at the other end of the bakery and listen to something on the local rock station (the only station we could get with all our equipment around..). They looked very grim as they listened. I was working some equipment getting bread ready for the day and could go over to see what they were listening to. Finally, after a couple hours I was able to go over at one of these half hour intervals.

"What are you guys listening to?"

"Someone has blown up the Twin Towers in New York City!"

"What!? I've been there.. there are over 50,000 people in those buildings!"

While the rest of the world was watching things live on TV, I was stuck in a bakery with only a radio and a stupid rock station where the jockeys read the news like they were introducing a band at a concert. "Wow.. Big news huh? And now back to your favorite hits of the '70s, '80s and '90s!" I ate my lunch in my car so I could at least listen to live coverage on CBC radio. It wasn't until that night that I finally saw video of what had happened.

I'd actually been there twice. On two separate occasions some friends and I had taken road trips that eventually led us to New York. Both times we had gone to the top of the south tower. The first time was sometime in the early '90s, and the second time was the summer of 1999.

On our second trip, we had noticed many changes... the biggest being that there was now lots of security that hadn't been there before. That was now in place thanks to another terrorist attempt to destroy the towers in '93. The line ups were longer too, probably because of delays from the extra security.

It wasn't until the next summer that my interest in photography was rekindled, so I didn't even have a cheap disposable camera to take pictures of the incredible view from the top (panorama 1, panorama 2). We do have one picture from that trip.. some enterprising person decided to get money from the poor people waiting and waiting and waiting in line to get up to the top by having them pose in front of a large mural. Once at the top of tower you had a chance to purchase a picture for something like $15. Crazy price, but I'm glad we bought it.

Us in 1999 - The small town tourists in the big city.

The view was incredible.. You could look down on all the famous sites and buildings that had been featured in countless movies and shows I had watched. You could look out and see this tiny Statue of Liberty in the distance. It was so amazingly tall, nothing else you saw in this vast city came close. The brochure you get when visiting claims that this was the highest observation deck in the world.

"Take in the most exciting city in the wolrd - from a quarter mile high in the sky!"

On a typical day in the late morning to the afternoon, there could have been anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 people in the towers. Considering I come from a town of 6000 (and that is when someone is having a family reunion), that was a mind boggling number to me. In fact, those buildings usually had more people than any city in my home provice. Thankfully, there weren't that many people in the towers on September 11, 2001.

These are the things that went through my mind as I stood in a bakery in Alberta that morning. I suddenly remembered the faces of some of the people I had seen working in that tower. The lady who rode the express elevator up and down all day. That other lady in a booth on the top floor who charged us too much for a bad photo. Security guards. I wondered if they were there three years later.

I also wondered if people were up on that same observation platform looking down as a plane did the unbelievable.

What were you doing that day?

Labels: ramblings

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Awhile ago we asked people to pray for 45 students. We had 45 register on Friday September 8 (44 new students and one returning student who will graduate in December). On Saturday, the brother of one of our male students, who came up with his family, decided that instead of going home he should enroll as a student! He said that he hadn't even thought of going to Bible school, but once he was here he knew that this is what he needed and what God wanted. That makes 46 students for this year. Thank you for praying, and praise the Lord God for answered prayer!

This is by far our biggest class of students, especially compared to last year when we had 25. These students come from all over and from many different backgrounds. We are excited to have our first two Albertans attending the school this year, one of which is a good friend of ours.

Dr. Wendell Calder is our keynote speaker for the weekend and guest lecturer for the first week of classes.

I have heard some interesting traveling stories.. two young men came from Nova Scotia in an old car that broke down several times and actually was rejected for a safety inspection two days before leaving! Thankfully, they and all the others traveling a long way made it.




Where they are from:
1 Brazil
1 Korea
2 United States
1 British Columbia
2 Alberta
2 New Brunswick
5 Nova Scotia
32 Ontario



Our international students proudly holding their national flags





In addition to the new students we had a couple of alumni from previous years drop by for a visit.
Nathan graduated only a few weeks ago, but he was back for a bit and stole my camera for a flattering self portrait

Laura was a student in our very first year (5 years ago!). She is showing us her new diamond ring!

Labels: Ministry Update

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We are down to 48 hours before students start to arrive for the fifth year of our Bible Institute. As of right now, we are expecting 45 students!

Naomi had another good appointment yesterday. Both she and the baby are doing well and the doctor is very encouraged by their progress. Last night we went out to celebrate the 24th week of the pregnancy. At this point if the baby was born prematurely it would stand a chance of surviving.

Upcoming things in our lives:
Sept 8-10 Opening Weekend
Sep 18-22 Troy will be helping teach a seminar on the gospel (www.goodseed.com for more info)
Oct 2-6 Open Air Evangelism in Toronto and other cities in southern Ontario.

Thanks for your prayers!

Troy, Naomi, & Ellie

Labels: Ministry Update

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Ellie still pushes her basket around and occasionally likes to get inside it. This time we parked it next to the books and she sat in it for awhile "reading" to herself.

Labels: Ellie

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I have added a new section of pictures to my photography page. It is some of my macro photography of insects. I'd appreciate hearing what you think of them. You can see the set here.

Labels: Photography

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I'm not usually one to play with my photos much, but we wanted to do some experiments with this one. Which one do you think is better??

Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment. Click the "comments" link below to put in your 2 cents.

Thanks!

Labels: Photography

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Somewhere under the blankies is a little girl holding a bottle of milk. If she doesn't get her milk right away she is almost as mad as some of my co-workers if they don't get their coffee right away. They, however, don't hug small blankets to their face while drinking coffee.

Labels: Ellie

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The fifth year! The first (small) group of Bible Institute students arrive today. Six students are coming in a week early for leadership training and from this group we will be selecting the Resident Assistants who will work with our deans. The rest of the students (40ish) will be arriving next Friday and then the year is truly going. Pray for us as we continue to get things ready for the start of this new school year.

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