1 of 5

"You are not Barbara Johnson! I have all her tapes and you don't sound anything like her!" the woman on the phone argued. She'd just gotten a call from someone identifying herself as Barbara Johnson. But why would Barbara, the woman whose books and ministry had been such a comfort, be calling her?

Hmmmm, the real Barbara Johnson thought, with a flash of mischief. I could keep egging her on. Instead, she threw out a dare.

"Go ahead, ask me the name of Barbara Johnson's very first book," the author said, knowing that the 20-year-old title was less known than her others.

"What is it?" the woman challenged.

Barbara said triumphantly, "Where Does a Mother Go to Resign?!"

After a few minutes, the woman is satisfied that she's talking to the real Barbara Johnson, and they enjoy a laugh together.

The phone is often busy at the Johnsons' house. Every December (her birthday month), Barbara gives a present to herself by taking two weeks to call people involved in her Spatula ministry whose loved ones have died. In 1998, her list had 320 names. Barbara, who says her age is "somewhere between estrogen and death," offers a word of encouragement before Christmas, a long-distance verbal hug to someone she may never meet.

"It's a boomerang effect," explains the best-selling author of 11 books (and co-author of three more), founder of Spatula Ministries (a support network for those with family members in the homosexual lifestyle), and popular speaker at Women of Faith conferences. "After New Year's, my mailbox fills up with thank-yous from across the country. My few minutes of saying 'someone cares' bounces back joy to me."

Thirty-three years ago, Barbara felt anything but joyful. Her husband Bill lay on the side of the road after a terrible car accident, with severe brain damage and virtually blind. (Barbara and her two youngest sons, following in another car a few minutes behind, were the first to find him.) The doctors were blunt: Bill was non-functioning, a vegetable. They suggested putting him in a veterans' hospital for the rest of his life—which the doctors expected to be only five more years.

The words of Psalm 27:1 ran through Barbara's mind: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

She told the doctors she wouldn't do it.

Over two years, a loving family's prayers and laughter, a psychotherapist's intensive memory sessions, and Bill's sheer determination culminated in an undeniable miracle from God. Eventually Bill went back to work as a mechanical engineer, with no debilitating effects of the head trauma.

next page... |  1 of 5

	What did you think of this story?
	Please to give us your feedback.

Home  |  People of Faith  |  Stories of Hope  |  Today's Culture
Build Your Faith  |  Laughing Matters  |  Archives  |  Contact Us

				Try 3 Issues of Christianity Today Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless. Give Christianity Today as a gift Order a gift subscription!