Midwinter Word of Witness

Last week at our denomination's Midwinter Conference, I had the honor of sharing some of my story. If you'd like to watch it, here you go...


Word of Witness: Kelly Johnston from Covenant Communications on Vimeo.

I'll be honest, I was pretty nervous to do this, and felt that there are much more profound stories of God's provision that could have been shared. It was also hard to fit my story into just a few minutes. I would have loved to have bragged on my church and community a little more; I should have given props to my husband, without whom I really couldn't do this; I could have shared some of my struggles a bit more, too. But somehow it all came together, and I just hope that my words and witness were an encouragement to someone!

New Adventures in the Last Few Months

It's been quite a while since I posted anything here! It's been an interesting few months - here's the quick version:

While unemployed for a few months, I decided to act on a dream of mine and opened an Etsy shop. I worked and worked to create a variety of table linens with life-inspired, hand-designed prints. It has been so much fun creating beautiful things, sharing them with others, and receiving compensation for my hard work!

Then, at the end of November, by the grace of God, I was able to act on another dream of mine! I was installed as the Interim Pastor at the Evangelical Covenant Church in a charming little town in northeast Nebraska. Greg and I have now been settled in Wakefield for almost two months and are enjoying life here.

It has been challenging and fun to plan worship, preach on a regular basis, teach Confirmation to four wonderful junior high students, hear the stories of the people who call this church home, work with leaders in our congregation and in the community, and prayerfully discern where God is leading this body of believers.

Slowly but surely, I am finding a rhythm for how life works as a full-time pastor. I know that I need to not just use my head but use my hands and stay in touch with my creative side. I had to take a break from creating new inventory for my shop, but hope to get back at it soon!

Thank You Notes

I have a love/slightly-despise relationship with thank you notes. On the one hand, I sincerely enjoy expressing my gratitude in my own hand writing. On the other hand, I have a lot of guilt about the thank you notes that don't get sent. Five years after my wedding, I can still remember a few of the thank you notes that were returned to me because of a wrong address; I was unable to re-send a few of those, and I still feel bad that those people weren't thanked! Plus, there are certain very generous people in my life (primarily my parents and my inlaws) to whom I owe approximately 1,492 thank you notes each. That's a lot of catching up to do.

One of the things that makes a thank you note extra special is when it's made by hand. I made most of the thank you notes for wedding gifts using paper leftover from our invitations. This photo is of the most recent set that I made, using hand-carved rubber stamps I designed. I was really blessed by several folks when I graduated from seminary, and I just had to send them something special, so I made these.