Jan Johnson began a podcast God dropped into her heart in April of 2024.

It's a place with real people sharing their real faith. and But God moments.

Jan Johnson crafts stories that explore faith with authenticity and depth. Her fiction blends warmth and humor while grappling with genuine questions about God and belief. In both her novels and Bible studies, she creates work that feels grounded in real life stories that resonate with honest struggles and joys, and Biblical teaching that speaks directly to readers' everyday experiences.

She and her husband Ed live on a sheep farm in rural Oregon where they raised ten kids- yours, mine, ours and theirs.

She is a retired teacher of all ages- preschool thru highschool.

Since she has retired, her greatest joy is building relationships and sharing Jesus.

Website:

https://jan-johnson.com

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Jan.

It's such a great pleasure to connect with you.

For those listening, what part of the world are you in today?

I am in Oregon, which is in the Pacific Northwest.

I live on a farm.

My husband raises sheep and you pick blueberries.

Wow.

So was farming always a natural part of life growing up?

Not in my life.

Since he was in fourth grade, he wanted to be a farmer.

How long have you both been married?

We're going on 37 years.

That's a friend for life.

How did you guys meet?

Actually, I met from a friend of mine had introduced me.

They had an adoption connection.

And so, and she says, Oh, he loves kids, you know, and my first husband died.

And so this was five years later.

Anyway, and I had three kids.

So she was looking for somebody that liked kids.

He had two natural, two adopted, and then we ended up having three more together.

So 10 kids.

What nurtured the bigness of heart to have so many people around you?

I don't know.

God puts crazy in some people.

What have been, if there is more than one advantages, now that you get to look backwards?

I love relationships.

And so you have a variety of them.

I especially love my adult children.

Now, just because growing up, they didn't all get along, but they pretty much do now most of them.

And I love to see them interacting.

I like how they react with me almost as a friend now.

Yeah.

So I like that part.

I'm intrigued by you in podcasting mode and you being the interviewee, right?

Right now, when I listen to the podcast, you're sitting in a very high level of silence and listening, right?

So if that is accurate, is that part of feeling at parenting and then being successful and then getting to this place?

Or was that always part of who you are?

I don't know.

Probably when the mass of children were around, I don't know how much actual listening I did because there were a lot of interruptions.

Somebody needs something or somebody's in a fight or somebody's, I don't know what.

So maybe now as adults, yeah, lots of listening first.

Tell me about your husband's experience.

What did he say it was like with everything that he was managing or was he gone while you were doing the work?

He was mostly out farming all day while I was doing the work.

Yes.

As long as there was daylight, he would be outside.

And then, you know, some days he'd come home and I'd thrust a child at him and say, take them, I'm done.

How did you come to meet Jesus?

I was raised a Christian.

My parents divorced when I was 13, but my mom was very in love with Jesus and raised in a Lutheran home.

When I became an adult, after I graduated from college, my brother got saved.

And I mean, you can go to church, but not really know who God is.

I mean, I had this really pretty good understanding of who God was in a connection, but I didn't.

I thought of Jesus as like, well, you know, he died.

He's gone.

The Holy Spirit was, I don't know, just out there.

In college, a friend of mine invited me to Catholic charismatic prayer meeting.

And it was the first time I had actually heard the gospel.

That's where I got saved.

I was into a really good, strong teaching, um, discipleship church that, that really filled my spirit.

And then when I married Ed, he was Catholic, which is interesting because I was not, you know, I was Protestant.

And so it was kind of was an interesting combination.

So I spent a lot of years in a Catholic church, but I think God placed me there because there were a lot of things that I knew that they didn't, you know, like a lot of, I started a women's group and they had, most of them didn't even have a Bible.

So starting a Bible study and teaching them really what was in there and who Jesus really was and outside of the structure, you know, of mass, learning how to pray in a different way and music.

Do you actively play an instrument?

I play flute.

So you meet Jesus, there's a challenge, not so bad, but there still is a challenge of understanding who Jesus is to you, but having to still be in the path of your husband, and then there's the children.

So you're navigating that as well in terms of teaching them.

And then there's just the fact that you, this is the first time you're doing this, right?

How did you keep your sanity?

You know, looking back on it, it's just, I'm a fixer.

I'd look at, challenges as opportunities.

So I think part of that motivated me to keep going.

What's on the horizon for you?

Right now, I really like doing my podcast, just talking about Jesus.

I just, I have started another podcast and I, God just does, I'm probably with you too, but he just does drops, God drops, you know, he says, I want you to do, and you go, you what?

I have those moments.

I do.

He wanted me to start a podcast called Women of the Northwest, Ordinary Women Leading Extraordinary Lives.

And so I did up to a hundred episodes and then he drops in, I want you to start a second podcast.

It's a faith-based one.

And I'm going, are you kidding me?

Cause I'm already doing this and I'm doing a bunch and I was in the middle of writing two books that he told me to write and all of this stuff.

And then I did my next episode with someone who was a Christian.

The other podcast was not overtly Christian, you know, I mean, I might do God drops here and there or something, but my audience was pretty broad.

Five years from today, you're listening to this conversation because I invite you back onto the podcast.

You don't remember what we spoke about.

So you go listen to it, right?

For reference, what's a message you'd leave for future you?

I would say keep trusting God because you may not see what the answer is and you may feel like he's distant and he's not listening to you, but always, always, always trust him because he knows he hears your prayers.

He knows who you are and he has an answer.

And sooner or later, you're going to figure out what it was.

He always comes through.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share with our amazing audience?

Just what a privilege this has been to be on.

I really feel honored that you've chosen me to be a part of your team.

Thank you.

Thank you for being part of the foundation of what we're doing here.

So Jan, a pleasure.

I treasure.

Thank you for being on what is inspired by 12 Minute Conversations.