Author Archives: Naomi

Ministry Update :: August 2023

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Dear Friends,
We’ve stayed close to home this summer, but have somehow kept very busy still as we’ve tended to our garden, enjoyed time with friends, attended Naomi’s cousin’s wedding, and kept up with work and church responsibilities.

Ministry News

No Ordinary Story Series Audiobook
Last week we began recording book five of the eight book set, so we’re past the halfway point! It is slow going as we have to do at least two takes on everything, and we can only do a few hours a day before voices start to give out. I am discovering how many words I mispronounce! Naomi also spends time in the recording studio as she is the voice for all the Scripture in the book series.

Speaking Opportunities
I’ve had a couple speaking opportunities this summer, one at the church we regularly attend, and another one this weekend at a supporting church 1.5 hrs north of here.

Bible School in Texas
The last week of August I’ll be traveling to Texas to help teach a Creation-to-Christ course at 3D Training Center (Disciple, Develop, Disperse), a small 1-year Christian school. We will be kicking off their school year by teaching By This Name to the student body of around 20 students.

A Note from a Pastor
We recently received this note from a pastor in the US: “ I wanted to write to encourage you that your book has had a tremendous impact in the life of our church…. Many people, most likely hundreds, have come to know Christ in the last 15 years.”

Partnering with Missionaries Overseas
A few weeks ago, a missionary couple stopped by to pick up a large quantity of books for their ministry in Mexico. They, along with another visitor, joined us for a bite of lunch. As we all sat around, hearing about ministry in Mexico and how GS tools were used there, our other visitor commented, “This is what GoodSeed does!” As he observed in person how we partnered with this one couple to enrich their ministry and knowing that GoodSeed helps many more, he could see that GoodSeed is a multiplying ministry – helping others multiply their efforts for the Gospel.

Family Happenings

Ethan had a good week at a fly fishing camp with his grandfather who was the speaker for the week. This was followed up with Ethan volunteering at the camp for the next week which he really enjoyed.

Naomi, Ellie and Ethan volunteered at VBS at our church for a week and Adelaine has kept busy nannying twin girls of some friends of ours

We built a new greenhouse.

Prayer Requests

Family stuff:

  • That Ellie will be able to find a suitable job.
  • A replacement vehicle for Troy. If you know of something, esp. something AWD and less that $5000, please let us know.
  • That each one in our family would know Christ better and desire to serve Him.

Ministry stuff:

  • For Troy as he speaks this weekend and travels to and ministers in TX next week.
  • That we can get the audiobook recording finished. This project has had so many interruptions and obstacles.
  • For John Cross (Naomi’s dad), as he is making good progress on his writing of another book – Draft 1 almost complete.

We want to thank you for joining us in prayer and support for our ministry with GoodSeed and our family.

Troy & Naomi

P.S. A few photos from a family camping trip a week ago.

Ministry Update :: No Ordinary Weekend

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Dear Friends and Family,
We apologize for the long silence since our last Ministry Update. It’s not because we’ve been snoozing on the job, that’s for sure!

We’d like to ask prayer for a very important retreat taking place this weekend.

Beginning Friday, we will be helping at a retreat called No Ordinary Weekend. This evangelistic event is organized by local businessmen and women who have a desire to see people they know come to a clear understanding of the gospel.


For the second year in a row they have sponsored friends, family members, employees and business associates to attend a camp with their families, enjoying lots of fun activities and having some time away and, most importantly, to hear the Bible taught clearly so that by the time they leave, they understand the central message of the Bible. Last year we had about 90-100 adults. This year we are expecting around 65 adults. The children (roughly 50 of them) will be in a separate program during the teaching time and will be taught through GoodSeed’s childrens’ book, The Lamb.

Helping with the teaching is where Troy and I are involved. I will be a reader for the Scripture verses and Troy will be looking after sound/powerpoint/etc.

We’re very excited to see what the Lord will do through the lives of the attendees. Many who are coming are not believers; some who are coming are very shaky in their faith; others desire to simply understand a clear gospel.

Troy and I know several individuals who are coming whose salvation we’ve been praying about for many years. Will you pray that many will come to know the Lord? That the Holy Spirit will convict and illuminate the Scriptures for those who are in spiritual darkness? And that many others will be strengthened and equipped in their faith?

As a family and a ministry, we have increasingly felt the invisible spiritual battle going on. We have rarely had more “go wrong” in a short space of time than it has in the last several weeks. Here’s a few examples:

  • The house where all the books for this coming weekend were stored had a water leak right over top of the boxes of materials, destroying a good percentage of them. Thankfully, we’ve been able to get the materials replaced, though the damage to the basement has been distraction and concern.
  • Personally, we’ve had unexpected repairs we’ve been doing to our main bathroom throughout January. Then we became aware that our fridge is failing. Then our furnace died, right in the middle of the -30C (-22F) cold snap we’re having. (We’re so thankful for a fireplace to keep us warm!)
  • Our heating system in our GoodSeed office also went on the fritz for over a week due to some design problems, during the same cold snap. Up till a couple days ago, we were sitting in there working with winter coats on and space heaters at our feet.
  • We’ve had sickness, appointments, etc which are tiring and distracting.
  • We’ve had vehicle issues.

All these things have the potential of discouraging us, distracting us from our ministry, causing us to focus more on these temporal things, than on praying about and working towards eternal things. While we don’t feel discouraged, we have felt distracted!
Would you pray for us? We sure feel like we need it!

Thank you for standing with us and partnering with us in many ways, including prayer!

Naomi Johnstone, for the whole family

The long ride

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Olds, Alberta to Golden, to Kamloops, to Abbotsford, to Vancouver Island, to Abbotsford, to Quesnel, to Jasper to…  HOME.

  • 3233 km
  • 41.5 hours of driving
  • 13 days
  • speaking in two churches
  • 1200+ photos to sort
  • lots of memories with the kids!

We had a really great trip to the Left Coast to visit family, friends and supporters all along the way. It was a very busy trip with us on the road most days, but we did get a few chances to see the sights with the kids. Some of the highlights for the kids were the ferry ride to Vancouver Island and back, seeing fish and an octopus at the Undersea Gardens and seeing harbour seals in Victoria, taking Ellie to Lighthouse Park in North Vancouver, going to the pool in Quesnel, and meeting many new friends and little kids along the way. One of the biggest things for them was just being able to run around outside where it was warmer, even if it was raining much of the time. Reality hit when we came home to fresh snow…

We were able to share our ministry in two churches, one in Kamloops where an old friend is now a pastor, and the following Sunday in Quesnel. We also handed out quite a few GoodSeed books along the way. We were encouraged and refreshed anew as we visited with many along the way.

The kids did really well with the long hours in the car. Naomi worked hard to prepare fun stuff for the trip and each driving day they got a new activity or toy to play with. Watching DVDs also helped! We did have a problem on the last day of the trip when a stomach bug hit kids first, then us, while we were still hours away from home. All I’ll say about that is that I’m glad we had the forethought to bring large zip-lock bags.

We were very thankful to God for safety and no vehicle problems as we took to the road, especially going over several high mountain passes. We are also thankful to all those who opened their houses for us along the way. It was great to visit with family and friends, many of whom we haven’t seen in years. Thank you, Lord, for a great trip!

Gardening

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Posted by Naomi

I always thought of myself as having a black thumb, since house plants experience a steady decline from the moment they enter our home.

In other words, I kill plants.

So I figured any vegetable garden I planted would face a similar doom under my care. Instead, I discovered that I really enjoyed gardening. The excitement of planting a tiny seed and actually see the thing sprout, then the satisfaction of harvesting tasty organic vegetables in the end was definitely worth the minimal effort on my part (read: I get lazy about weeding). I’ve learned a lot about what not to do and a few things that I found worked well. The kids enjoyed helping me plant and harvest, especially Adelaine.

Ellie’s imagination would take off soon after work commenced and she’d forget that she was supposed to be helping.

And Ethan, well, Ethan was better at stomping on my plants than helping them to grow – at least the plants had to develop strong roots to withstand his trampling!

Adelaine, on the other hand, is a very hard worker when she sets her mind to it and she was a great help with planting my onions, shallots and garlic, and then later harvesting my potatoes. I have no clue how well my garden did – I have nothing to compare it to – but I would say we were at least successful at growing some lovely food and I look forward to another garden next year!