Troy Finds a Good Thing!
In a bold move, Troy William Johnstone shocked the world by asking Naomi Leigh Cross of Olds, Alberta to marry him. Troy and Naomi met two years ago at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Schroon Lake, New York where they were both attending the one-year Bible program. Troy reports that it was an instant hit, at least for him. Naomi reportedly took much more convincing.

Troy
Troy grew up in the small town of Sackville, New Brunswick. His parents, Bill and Starr Johnstone, raised him in a loving, Christian home. After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Allison University, Troy worked in several different jobs. He became involved with his church in various capacities, acting as chairman of the Missions Committee for a length of time. For the past year and a half, Troy has been on deputation with Word of Life Fellowship, with the desire to serve the Lord in full-time ministry. He will assist WOL in starting a one-year Bible school in Ontario. This school will be vital in giving young adults a solid Biblical foundation.

Naomi
Naomi is the daughter of John and Janice Cross of Olds, Alberta. She had the privilege of growing up in a missionary family serving in Florida and Papua New Guinea with New Tribes Missions. John Cross was involved in developing the Summit short term missions program as well as writing/directing several award winning movies (“Ee-taow!”). Eventually, the Lord led him to write a book called The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus and start a new ministry, GoodSeed. For the last few years, Naomi has been serving in this ministry doing computer layout and design for various GoodSeed projects. She has been involved in the creation of a companion Workbook and a youth edition for “The Stranger.”

East Meets West
Naomi and Troy were first introduced to each other through some mutual friends at Bible School.

A summer of working as camp counselors in Owen Sound at the Word of Life camp provided the unofficial couple more time to become better acquainted. Unfortunately for them, the summer came to a close, and it was time for Troy to go home to New Brunswick and Naomi and her brother to move to Alberta, the other side of the country!

After months of communicating via email and telephone, Troy moved to Alberta in May of 2001 to spend time with Naomi and her family while preparing to serve full time with Word of Life. Finally, on the night of December 17th, Troy dropped down on one knee and asked Naomi to become his wife. Naomi reports that it was very sweet and very romantic! Troy has been frequently heard quoting Scripture out of Proverbs. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing; And obtains favor from the LORD.”

The couple has set their wedding date for April 27, 2002. That doesn’t give Naomi very long to plan! They are both very excited about the future God has in store for them.

Eastward Ho!
After a short honeymoon, they plan to head across country to New Brunswick, stopping in Ontario for a few days. They will spend five weeks with friends, family and churches in New Brunswick. Please pray for them, that God would raise up those who would become prayer and financial partners in their ministry.

Troy’s main focus at the Bible Institute will be in the area of Administration, Admissions, Alumni, Marketing and general discipleship among the students. Naomi plans to support and assist Troy in their ministry with Word of Life, taking on any responsibilities that she can to assist Word of Life.

Troy and Naomi realize that there will be many adjustments in this next year with moving to a new town, working with new people and of course, adjusting to life together. They ask for your thoughts and prayers for the future.

Praise:
– For providing Troy with a new job for his remaining time in Alberta. Naomi
has a new job as well, working every second week in the church office. This
schedule allows Naomi to spend every other week focused on her work with
GoodSeed.
– They were able to obtain a much needed laptop for use both in the office
and on the road.

Pray:
– That Troy and Naomi’s wedding would go smoothly.
– For safety in travelling.
– For special and profitable times with family and friends along the way.
– That they would be able to raise their support to the needed level. (Note:
They need to raise $1500 / month.)
– That people would commit to praying for them in their ministry and new
marriage.

A man’s heart deviseth his way:
but the LORD directeth his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

I have found this to be the case over and over in my life, and once again, there has been a change of plans. In talking to Gary Stairs, the Executive Director of Word of Life Canada, it was decided that I should continue to work on my deputation and paying off my Student Loan. The plan is to start full time ministry next Spring/Summer instead of this Fall.

Two years ago when I decided to go to the Bible Institute, I only had five months before class started – not enough time to set aside the money to cover the cost of tuition. At that time, I made the decision to get a student loan to cover most of the costs of the school. After I had completed my year of studies, I was in discussions with WOL about serving with them and the issue of my student loan was examined. It was determined that I would take the next year to work on deputation and pay off as much of the loan as I could. One month after that meeting, my father was admitted to the hospital and was in and out of a comma until his death this past January. It goes without saying that during this time I was not able to make additional payments on my loan.

With these issues in mind, it was recently decided by Gary that I should continue to work here in Alberta until Summer of 2002 to continue working on my loan and raising support.

The Lord has been faithful in helping me to do this by providing for me financially through many different people. A couple from the church here is allowing me to live in their basement rent-free and another family is looking after feeding this hungry young man. By His grace, I have been able to put down a significant amount on the loan already.

These additional months out here will allow me a little more time as I prepare for full time ministry. Right now my support is at 47% of my goal and I hope to be able to continue deputational work while here in the West. I have been able to make a number of contacts and have had the opportunity to share my ministry with a church. Please pray that I will have many more opportunities to share my ministry with others.

Another issue facing me and Word of Life Canada is that the ministry is virtually unknown in Alberta. In fact, there is a church here with the same name but with very different beliefs. Whenever I mention Word of Life, it is assumed that I am with this group until I fully explain the difference. I hope to be able to increase awareness of the ministry of Word of Life and the new school and put information into the hands of area pastors. Much of this will be foundational work for all of Word of Life’s ministries for others to build on as the ministry expands in this area. I have already had a few inquiries about the school and Word of Life in general and look forward to continuing this work.

It was also decided that some of the immediate needs of the B.I. project can be performed by me from here. In the coming months I will be working to contact prospective students as well as trying to track down Word of Life alumni that are residing in Canada.

It is my hope that the Lord will use me and help me to minister effectively during my time here in Alberta.

Thank you to each one of you who has kept me in your prayers. Many thanks also to you who support me financially. May God bless you all abundantly.

Alberta?
On May 20th I will be starting a two-week road trip that will end in Olds, Alberta. An opportunity has arisen to move to Alberta for a few months and while there I will be continuing my work on raising support. I have some missionary friends who have a number of contacts with churches in Alberta and I will be meeting up with our WOL area missionary out west to promote the new Bible Institute.

While on the way out west, I’ll be stopping in at the office in Owen Sound. It isn’t very often that I get to visit the staff there and get caught up with all the progress on the Bible Institute project and all the other things happening with Word of Life Canada. I really look forward to meeting my fellow staff and I look forward to being able to get started on the project myself!

Please pray for me as I move out west for:

• Safety as I travel to and around in Alberta,
• Opportunities to share my ministry and that my prayer and financial support would continue to grow,
• A job while I am in Alberta

Campus Days Report
On April 19, 20th weekend I traveled to the Schroon Lake campus with 8 prospective students from the Maritimes who wanted to see what the Bible Institute was all about. As part of the weekend activities, we were able to sit in on two classes where we studied a section of the book of Romans (taught by resident faculty Dr. Tom Davis) and Ecclesiastes (taught by that week’s guest lecturer, Mike Calhoun). I think it was a great experience for these young people to get a small glimpse of what it would be like to take a year and study the Word of God! One of them gave testimony that she hadn’t been sure what she wanted to do next year, but after attending the class on the book of Romans, she was putting in her application because she knew that she had go to Bible school for a year to study the Word!

16 Months To Go
The countdown continues for the opening of the Bible Institute. Recently some representatives of the school met with an association of local pastors to discuss the possibilities of students helping within their churches as part of their school year ministry. The pastors were quite excited about the possibility of having these Bible students to help with the various programs in their churches.

Praise God!

• We have had our first student applications come in! Pray that we have at least fifty students for our first school year.
• Three new supporters in the last few weeks.
• I was able to share my ministry with three churches in the last month in Bathurst, Truro and here in Sackville.

In His service,

Troy Johnstone