Keeping Faith with the Faithful
The church has been a part of Roy Johnson’s life as long as he can remember. From early Sunday school experiences and youth group, the life at First Presbyterian Church in Maywood, Illinois, was an important part of how he spent his time. “By the time I finished high school, it just came home to me that this was a way of life I wanted to follow,” Roy remembers. “Partly it was just the time I spent there, but partly it was the very human and Christlike way my pastor reached out to people.”
His future wife, Wanda, was also active in that church. Friends since fourth grade, they realized later how much they shared, and by the time he felt the call to ministry, they knew they wanted to share their lives with each other. They were married during World War II, after which he went to McCormick Seminary. They began their ministry in 1950 in a double parish in rural Minnesota and served three other churches in the Minneapolis and Chicago areas before retiring in 1984.
Wanda helped in many ways throughout his ministry, “doing anything that needed doing,” Roy recalls. “She was a great musician and could fill in on piano or organ whenever she was needed, or even as a preacher a few times when I was sick. Wanda could do anything in the church from top to bottom, even being the janitor at times. If I have any claim to success as a pastor, it was due to her and her love for the church.”
“Wanda and I knew when I went to seminary that we were choosing a life that wouldn’t make us rich, but it’s what we both wanted. In fact, she taught piano and organ for forty years to supplement my income and enable us to raise our three children,” the oldest of whom had Down syndrome.
After retirement in 1984, the Johnsons moved to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where they had vacationed for decades. In 2001, when both suffered health problems they went into a nursing home, where Wanda died. Roy recovered and moved into Grace Lodge, a Christian retirement community in Rhinelander. When rent was raised in 2003, Roy asked the Board of Pensions if it could help. Thanks to the gifts of faithful Presbyterians to the Christmas Joy Offering, Roy has been helped ever since.
Earlier this year, on his 85th birthday, the Rev. Roy Johnson sent a letter thanking the Board of Pensions for the generosity of Presbyterians all across the church “as they reach out at the Christmas season. Each year, those of us who are retired have been overwhelmed at being remembered in such a loving way.” For generations, Presbyterian pastors have followed their calls to serve the church without close calculation of what resources would await them after retirement, and Presbyterians have given to the Christmas Joy Offering to keep faith with this openness to the Spirit. We have the opportunity now to uphold that precious heritage of family love. Through generous gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering, let us now lovingly remember in their retirement those who have given so much of their lives and gifts to the church.
To learn the Offering's support of Racial-Ethnic schools see Schools
