Don's Story

Don, Kendra, Zoe and Liberty Johnson

God has been preparing me for this type of focused evangelistic endeavor for some time.

In 1993 I took my first foray into missions. I traveled from my home in Canada to San Jose, California to volunteer with CityTeam Ministries as an inner city youth worker. It was supposed to be just a summer thing—something to get out of my system before moving on to a “real” job—but it didn’t work out that way. I ended up staying with CityTeam for five years.

During that time God molded and shaped me and opened my eyes to His great passion for reaching the lost. To further that end, I enrolled at San Jose Christian College (now William Jessup University) and received a B.A. in Bible and Theology with a major in Missions and Intercultural Studies.

The training at SJCC and experience with CityTeam was indispensable, but something even better happened while I was in San Jose. I met the love of my life, Kendra, and we were married in the fall of 1997.

In 1998, Kendra and I moved to Portland, Oregon. I attended Multnomah Biblical Seminary while she continued her studies at Warner Pacific College. God used our time in Portland to greatly impress upon me the spiritual power of proclamation as well as the huge practical potential of mass communication.

The professors in the Evangelism program are great preachers and worldwide leaders in reaching others for Christ. At the same time, I started working with evangelist Bob Cryder, who had recently started hosting a call-in talk show on a secular radio station, 1080 KOTK in Portland.

I started out doing research for "Hot Potato Radio" and soon joined Bob and his partner, Dave Cetti, on the air. It didn’t take me long to realize that I loved hosting talk radio. Trying to convince callers from across the religious spectrum that Christianity is the one true religion was one of the most enjoyable things I had ever done.

After two years in Portland, Kendra graduated and I decided to finish my graduate work at Biola University in Southern California. Hosting talk radio had shown me that I needed more apologetic skills, so I entered Biola’s MA Apologetics program.

We moved to Whittier, California, where our beautiful daughter, Zoe, was born in April, 2001.

A few months later I graduated and, after a brief stint back in Oregon doing the radio show, I accepted a job as College Career Director at the Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach, California in January, 2002.

We have been there ever since. Kendra and I love the people and the area.  And being a college pastor is great. The young adults I work with constantly challenge me with their good hearts and keen minds. They also provide access to the huge mission field of local college campuses and we have had a great time doing open forums and other outreach events with them.

My church job is a part time gig, so in 2003 I founded Don Johnson Evangelistic Ministries in order that I might have the opportunity to do ministry full time.

Our second daughter, Liberty, was born in August, 2004 and in 2005 Kendra took over as Children's Ministry Director at our church so we are a busy family but we enjoy (almost) every minute of it.

I look forward to seeing what other exciting things God has in store for us in the future.