Warren Howard Johnson

Eulogy for Warren Howard Johnson,
husband, son, father, grandfather, friend of God

April 24, 1953-June 14, 2021

This is really my understanding of Warren’s walk with Christ. He never dwelt on the things that happened before that glorious day in 1995 when the Lord encountered him, but I want to recount the facts here for background for the wonder of the man he became in Christ Jesus.
He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 24, 1953, to Norma Joy Knotts Johnson Hardgrove and Warren Howard Johnson, Sr.
He has two brothers, Richard and Michael, and one sister, Judy. He is also survived by his mother and step-dad, Jim, and his step-mother, Mary Emma Case Johnson, and his cousin, Danny.
Unfortunately, his cousin, Larry, preceded him in death and we remember him today. He has two sons by birth, Scott and Wesley, two sons by heart adoption, Vladimir Tkachuk and Mark Thoele, one daughter, Wendy, and one daughter by heart, Johanna. We have eight grandchildren.
Warren’s parents did all they could to raise him well but by the time they divorced and his father remarried, Warren was filled with a rage that tainted his entire life up until the time he was born again.
He was gifted with the ability to pick up any brass instrument and play it, but settled on the trombone.
He followed his father’s footsteps into the Navy during the Vietnam War era. He always said he could see the Lord’s hand on his life even then because he was prevented from shipping out to
Vietnam. He first served on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Forrestal and later in the Meditaranean on a carrier destroyer escort. He captained a duty boat which ferried crew to shore and back for leave and I suspect he developed his love for fast boats and the water then.
Scott Johnson, his eldest son, was born during this period, and I know Warren cherished all the time they were able to be together.
Upon discharge, he finally landed on mechanicing as his first profession. He also had a gift for understanding transmissions and he excelled at this, even owning his own shop for a while until he hurt his back.
His younger children, Wesley and Wendy, were born of a subsequent marriage. Part of Warren’s brokenness caused him to run away from the
responsibilities of child raising, but one of the first things that came to him on that glorious day he was saved was a passionate love for his children. Hallelujah!
He also loved music and played the bass guitar. In addition he was a mean hand at smoking meat, having placed fourth in the only competition he ever entered. His barbeque sauce was so good he got as far as planning production before he shied away. He had a restaurant in Warsaw for a while.
Truck driving was the job I think he excelled at the most and he was so very pleased that both his son Wesley and his adopted son Vladimir respected him enough to choose that career as well.
Thank You, God, for truck driving! Because in 1995 Warren was driving his big rig across Interstate 80 in the upper Midwest. He had been listening to
Adrian Rogers on the radio and finally in the middle of a snowstorm in Indiana he pulled over and broke down. He cried out in desperation to God to rescue him from the misery that was his life. And he was flooded with love and he felt the rage he had endured his whole life leave him to never come back. Peace came over him when he finally accepted that the only solution to his messed up life was in his laying down his life at the foot of the cross and following Jesus.
He never gave more than a few details about his encounter with the Living God, but he was indelibly marked in his spirit and in his heart and in his mind, that all was garbage except for knowing Christ.
Wait, you might say, I knew him after that; he still got angry and hurt my feelings and etc and etc. Joining yourself to the Lord is not an instantaneous transformation into a godly person, as most of us
painfully know. The Lord let him know recently that He had delivered Warren from absolutely all of his sins and tendencies for sin in that movement in that truck. But Warren had walked right back into them. God in His mercy and grace had proceeded to walk with Warren throughout the rest of his life, guiding, leading, and sometimes driving him onto the path of righteousness and love.
One sin was gone forever in that moment—the desire for alcohol. He had been a desperate alcoholic. One shame was removed as well—his near illiteracy. I’m not sure how many people knew the depths of it, but much of his energy was spent in covering it up.
He acquired an NIV Bible and the Holy Spirit began to teach him, not only the meaning of the words but the meaning of the sentences, concepts, and what are called the doctrines of God.
The longing of his heart was to find someone who understood the Bible the way the Holy Spirit had taught him and he finally found that kindred spirit in Mike Bickle, at the International House of Prayer of Kansas City.
But back to that night.
The love of God pierced through his defenses and the shame about the way he had abandoned his children and he immediately was cleansed and forgiven and filled with the desire to be their father. Reconciling and making a relationship with them took lots of time and patience but God did this for them all. He moved to Louisiana to be closer to the two youngest and had most recently begun to get to know Scott.
His life was consumed with studying the Word and one of the consequences at this time was a compassion for the unborn child. On his days off he rode on his motorcycle to the closest abortion clinic, in Jackson, Mississippi, and witnessed to everyone coming and going. One day he was out of a job when Planned Parenthood closed down the Jackson clinic.
This is where I came in. The Lord led Warren to begin ministering to young teenage boys—to instill the love of Jesus and a respect for young girls in them so they would never be a part of a pregnancy that was not planned. I went down to the foodbank/storefront ministry he had going in our little town—innocently enough—to volunteer. Little did I know that what he needed was a wife— because a single man ministering to boys was suspect even then. God thought this was a good idea too. Only one date and Warren had bought a ring. Only five weeks and he had got a wife.
All was not rosy for us after we married. Nothing ever is when you allow the Lord to take control of your life. He had so much to teach us about love and selfishness and relying on money and material things.
One of our biggest lessons was forgiveness.
Even though Warren was living in the general forgiveness and the love of the Father, forgiveness of others was one important thing he needed for maturity into a son of his Father in heaven.
For Warren held onto much resentment and, yes, anger, toward both his mothers and his dad. He really needed to forgive them but first God had to reveal the truth to him: that all his life he had blamed them for his childhood and practically everything else that had happened to him.
One day, I don’t know when, the Lord revealed to Warren that his own anger and bitterness had been at the heart of his uncomfortable relationship with them. I can just see Warren’s face soften and verge on tears when he told me how he repented and was once again flooded with another wave of confidence in the mercy of God.
Warren knew he had to forgive his parents from the bottom of his heart.
So God in His mercy brought him back to the Kansas City area where both sets of parents lived. Warren grew in wisdom and self control during our time at the International House of Prayer.
He was able to become a faithful visitor in Mary and Warren’s home. Not only did he forgive but he began to allow the love of God to soften the relationship. He
would be eager to go sit with them while Warren senior was fading from this world.
Much of Warren’s maturing came from sitting under the teachings of both Mike and of the wonderful couple who mentored him—Olga and Tim Erickson.
It was during this time also that Warren became deeply attached to Vladimir whom we
affectionately call Volodya. We were honored to stand in for both his and his wife, Natasha’s, parents at their wedding in Kansas City—Ukraine and Belarus being a very long way for parents to travel. They faithfully kept up with us when we moved to the lake and we enjoyed their fellowship more than they could imagine.
But it turns out God had more work for Warren to do in the forgiveness department.
Warren’s stepdad, Jim, had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After much resistance from me, finally the Lord confirmed dramatically that we were to give up our home and ministry at the prayer room and move to Truman Lake to help Mom with Jim. For she dearly wanted him to be able to die at home.
Through our service to Mom and Jim, Warren learned not only forgiveness, but obedience, selfless service to others, and the ability to keep alive the hunger to know God through his love of scripture. He even over came gluttony in his final years, getting down to his nineteen-year-old weight before his final illness.
But what he overcame most dramatically was his very own self. Scripture implores us to lose our lives, give up our own rights and privileges, in order to
follow Jesus. Warren neglected his own health so that he could serve not only the man he took as his father, but also his Mom. He lay down his life for another and he was well aware of what he was doing.
We gained so much through our years serving Mom and Jim. And the very best was that we were able to bring Jim to the Lord and change his future forever.
Mark Thoele and his wife, Helen, gave us a chance to express our deepening love. I think of Mark as Warren’s “son of his old age,” like Joseph. They bonded immediately and Warren was able to pour out love and advice and knowledge of God that he had been unable to do for the children of his own body. Mark is very special to him. He even adopted Warren’s dog, Lucy.
One of last discoveries of love was this little country church where we had finally found a home.
God gave Warren the grace to forgive and God gave it to me as well. That’s when it seemed our work at the Lake was completed. For by this time Warren’s heart disease had so progressed that I needed to spend all my time taking care of him.
It turns out there was nothing more medical science could do for him. How to even count the many, many prayers that were offered at the throne of mercy and grace for my husband! Thank you so very much for all of your faithful prayers. When I was too close to the situation for much more than Help! and Thanks! I knew the faithful ones were praying.
Who can know the mind of the Lord? We prayed for Warren to be miraculously restored and healed but
at some point we also began to pray that he would be quickly taken home.
I wish you could have seen the joy and longing on Warren’s face when he talked about wanting to be with his Beloved Jesus. How he longed to be held by the One who always loved him and always will!
My beautiful husband is in the presence of his Beloved. And in just a minute or two, compared to eternity, I and, I hope you, will be with him and Jesus.
Be careful what you believe and who you trust to teach you about God. “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29) The only way to eternal life is through humbling yourself before the cross of Christ Jesus and gratefully giving yourself in complete obedience to His instruction and service. Love will abound to you still more and more as you
entrust yourself to the leadership of our Good Shepherd.
And only then, when at the end, whether you are old or young or seemingly just too young to die like Warren, you will be able to return to the One who made you, formed you in your mother’s womb, and knew every day planned for you.
Warren made that final passage with confidence that the One who loved him best was ready to receive him. Warren’s love was overflowing in his last months.
He became a whole new man, yet again. I remember the day I surprised him in the Word and he looked up at me with a radiant smile that could only have been from his presence before the Living God. He started insisting on cleaning the kitchen after I had cooked. He brought me coffee and learned to really
listen to me. He became a delight to be with. We would finally be able to enjoy any time we could grab together to sit peacefully and just visit. Our marriage had been rough but what else did we know? But God did a wonder in him, and in me.
Warren’s last gift to me was moving us back to Kansas City, so that when the time came that he passed I would be positioned to rejoin the International House of Prayer.
He physically went downhill very quickly. A month after arriving in KC he had passed.
On the last day he could walk we enjoyed the company of Scott and Chandra at breakfast. Mark brought his wife, Helen—and Lucy—to say goodbye. On the last day he was able to talk, he was insistent we call Wendy and Wesley so they could say goodbye. Tim and Olga ministered to him, HE gave
THEM reassurance he had forgiven all whom he needed to, and Volodya and Natasha offered a final blessing. I’ll never forget watching them kneel at his bedside praying for him. Within 24 hours he had died in his sleep.
Obedience and service are what many of us struggle with daily. But Warren was a man of God who was truly received with honor and open arms and the greeting: Well done. No longer servant, but friend.