Missionary author and speaker, Earl Johnson, will be speaking at the Evangelical Free Church in 100 Mile House on Wednesday, July 18.
Johnson has been a missionary on the west side of Vancouver Island for the past 68 years and says he’s witnessed to “anyone and everyone who lived out there,” the loggers, fishermen, lighthouses and First Nations villages.
Johnson recently released a book called Looking Astern: Reminiscing a Lifetime on Vancouver Island’s Rugged and Historic West Coast.
The 89-year-old says his book looks back on a lifetime on the coast, “places and people and providence.”
In other words, he says, it describes “the life of people and the life of God among us.”
He has spent the past month on a book tour.
Johnson was born on a farm in Saskatchewan and says he was “raised from my mother’s breast on the milk of the word.”
He and his family moved to Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, when he was 8 years old.
He then went to high school and bible college at the Prairie Bible Institute, in Three Hills, Alberta.
He spent close to 20 years working as a missionary on the Shantyman Mission Boat, before joining the Esperanza Hospital and Ministry Centre in 1972.
“I’ve been a part of that all my life,” he says. “My three children were born there.”
Johnson says his mission is simple, “the goodness and greatness of our God.”
He said it was his close friends Stan and Lois Hooks who invited him to the church and he is honoured to oblige.
Andrew Giesbrecht, the church’s pastor, said Johnson will be talking about his life and ministry and “sharing stories of his adventures thus far, ministering on and around the west coast of Vancouver Island.”
The event is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public.
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
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