Introducing

Dave and Debbie Johnson

            Dave and Debbie Johnson have been Assemblies of God missionaries to the Philippines since 1994 and 1996, respectively.  They met in the Philippines and were married in 1997.  The majority of their ministry to Filipinos over the years can be summarized in the following areas:

Reaching From the beginning Dave has been involved in evangelism, directing a team of Filipinos that have cumulatively conducted at least 675 evangelistic outreaches, mostly in the Bicol region of Luzon, the Philippines’ main island.  Nearly all outreaches have been three nights long, and all have been done in partnership with local AG churches.  They have prayed the initial sinner’s prayer with tens of thousands of Filipinos over the years.

Planting Many new AG churches have been planted through the ministry of the evangelistic team.  Others have been planted as part of Dave’s role as church planting director for the local district that they serve.  In 2007, God gave Debbie a vision for training workers to plant house churches, and she and her co-workers opened seven church planting schools, with one or two more on the drawing board.  To date, fifteen Church Planting Schools have been started and around 100-200 house churches have been planted with more being planned.

Training When Debbie first came to the Philippines, she served one year as the English teacher at the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines.  Since the year 2000, she has been a faculty member at the Evangel Bible College near their home in Daraga, Albay.  From 2003 to March, 2009, she served as the president of the school.  When they return, she will continue to be involved in the church planting schools.  Dave’s role at the Bible school has been much smaller, supporting Debbie as the president of the school and assisting where needed.  He will be involved in the Church Planting Schools when they return. 

Leading From January, 2002, to January, 2004, and from June, 2005, to June, 2009, Dave has served as the country moderator for the AGWM missionaries in the Philippines.  In this capacity, he has worked closely with the AGWM area director, Bill Snider, and the field executive committee in forming and implementing missionary policies and procedures, maintaining a field strategy, and serving as the field liaison to the national church in a nationwide church construction program that has seen around 62 church buildings constructed and a total capital investment of more than $500,000.00 as of June, 2011.  He has also been involved with developing and maintaining a close relationship to the national church senior leadership.

Translating From 2000-2004, Dave served as the Managing Editor for the Full Life Study Bible (also known as the Fire Bible or Life in the Spirit Study Bible) Tagalog Translation Project, with the goal of providing this fine Pentecostal Study Bible to Filipinos in their national language.  This translation involved translating the notes, articles and many other things, although not the Bible itself.  It was finished in 2004.  In February, 2009, Dave and others have begun to translate the same Bible study notes into Cebuano, one of the other major languages in the Philippines.  They projected publication date is May, 2012.

Writing  In 2009, Dave published his first book entitled Led by the Spirit: the History of the American Assemblies of God Missionaries in the Philippines, which tells the story of more than 300 missionaries that have or are serving in the Philippines, dating back to 1926.  It is a thrilling story of what God has done, yet is balanced by relating some of things which should not have been done.

Background  Before coming to the Philippines, Dave, who is from Michigan, served as an AG evangelist in America and Debbie, a native of Washington State, served short term missionary assignments in Korea, China, Israel, and in the Ukraine.  Dave holds a doctorate in missiology from the Asia Graduate School of Theology—Philippines, and Debbie has a masters degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of Washington in Seattle.  Dave is also a US Navy veteran.

Life Beyond the Ministry  Dave and Debbie both enjoy reading, playing board games, drinking gourmet coffee, and fellowshipping with their ever expanding circle of friends, both Filipino and Western alike.  They regularly take both a day off and an annual vacation. Dave enjoys weightlifting, basketball, and walking, and Debbie likes music.  They have no children but enjoy Sam, their 75 pound purebred Doberman, and Cindy, whose canine species has never been determined.  The Johnsons plan to return to the Philippines in September, 2011.  Sam and Cindy are waiting for them there.