My Testimony
By the time Chelsea Johnson was two months old she had camped in the South of France, “papoosed” up the Pyranees, strolled through Las Ramblas in Barcelona, dined at a sidewalk café in Paris, ridden a hovercraft across the English Channel, and traveled the countryside of England. By the time she was five she and her baby sister had lived two years in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the South of England. Chelsea was a missionary kid, dragged from country to country while her parents preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music. Upon returning to the United States in 1995 the Johnsons settled in Lawrenceville, GA and continued to minister in music in the Atlanta area. Chelsea faced the challenges of being a “preacher’s kid.” As a teenager, she became acquainted with the ways of the world and spent many years becoming increasingly familiar with people and places that preferred darkness to light.
Despite the family’s belief in Jesus, her home was not a peaceful one. Chelsea’s younger brother, whose life was a miracle, came with many challenges that left the family emotionally, physically, and even spiritually exhausted. He had cerebral palsy and enormous degrees of violent, behavioral issues. The whole family suffered one way or another and the result often involved anger, vitriol, and strife, which fueled Chelsea’s own anger and her rebellion. Chelsea had spent so much time feeding the lusts of her flesh that her spirit man was starving and too weak to combat the attacks of the enemy on her life. By 18 years old, Chelsea had been in 3 rehabs and jail twice. She was facing 16 years in prison if she was arrested again within her 3 year felony probation period. Chelsea couldn’t recall a time in her life that she didn’t believe God was for her, but most of the time, felt too much shame to fully surrender because she lacked faith in herself to change entirely. She couldn’t separate the image of her Heavenly Father as it was with her angry earthly Father. Despite all of this, she never ceased to pray and continued to receive grace and mercy from the Lord, whom she acknowledged in all of it.
Chelsea got sober at the age of 21 and remained sober 4.5 years. During this time period, she worked in ophthalmology while earning her Bachelor’s of Fine Art Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design, of which she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2016. At the age of 25, she had grown weary of attending AA meetings where people had gone without a drink, but still lived in bondage to fear and other things. She was not sure she needed to remain sober, since most of her drinking always occurred underage and in rebellion, so she decided to attempt drinking casually as a mature adult. It turned out she was unable to drink casually, as she’d hoped. She began, what would become, a downward spiral into the throws of addiction. After graduation, Chelsea rewarded herself with a solo trip to Europe and the United Kingdom with very little money and a return airline ticket for 3 months later in tow. She desired to use her degree and skills to raise awareness on the issues of Human Trafficking in plain sight, a burden she’d carried close to her heart since 2007. It was in the Red Light District of Amsterdam that the entire trajectory of her life changed. This is where Jesus made His pursuit of her undeniable and that she learned she was not too far gone and had not been disqualified from the Father’s love. She was amazed that the Lord, in all of His lovingkindness, was coming for her in her wilderness. She could finally believe He was not mad at her, would meet her where she was, and had much better plans for her life than she could ever fathom. It was truly the goodness of God that led her to repentance. It took several years of falling and getting back up again before the day came that Chelsea decided to fully follow Jesus, “no turning back”. She released everything that came between her and the Lord and spent 7 months in a cocoon of sorts seeking to learn the ways of loving God with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength. As she sought to abide, hear, and obey the Lord, He delivered her from the grips of alcoholism and every addiction. In this time, she experienced the supernatural way that God invites His people to partner with Him in prayer, healing, and evangelism. She regularly volunteered with ministries, such as People Helping People (providing hot meals, groceries, household supplies, toiletries, and ministry time) and the Savannah Sunshine Girls (ministering weekly to dancers in strip clubs) and began to realize that she was made to love God and to love people. She was able to acknowledge a deep longing for something more in her day to day life and told the Lord to “use her”, offering a ‘yes’ in obedience to whatever He placed in front of her.
Immediately after her prayer of surrender, Chelsea received clear instructions from the Lord to move back to her hometown to be in ministry in 6 months, and though she had no connections there or grid for what ministry would look like for her, she took the necessary steps in obedience and established her heart for what was to come. Five months later, out of the blue, she was offered a full-time ministry position at Good Landing Recovery discipling women in addiction as a house manager and program technician. It was exactly what she’d asked of the Lord. She wanted to be amongst women who were broken and desperate for the truth, no matter how offensive it may be to their flesh. Within the first month of taking on the role at the faith based recovery program, Chelsea received word from the Lord that her next step would be Africa. She was truly shocked to receive this news so soon after her huge transition, but had always felt a pull towards Africa without knowing how to respond to it. She sought the Lord regarding this huge next step and felt that she would serve where she was for a year or so and that He would lead her from there. It was true. Fourteen months later, the Lord faithfully confirmed the calling on her life to the nations and established every step along the way. She spent the Summer of 2020 in a season of consecration, adoration, and healing with the Lord before training for months with the missions organization. She went to the Middle East for a few months in 2021 and returned to the States to raise enough financial support to launch her to the field in Kenya by January 1st of 2022.
Chelsea, an anointed worshiper, currently lives and serves in Kenya with a Missions And Prayer School (MAPS) and House of Prayer. Each week, they train and equip students (of a rigorous 2 year program) to share the gospel from within an Islamic worldview, in Arabic and Apologetics, in devotional prayer and Bible study, and in intercession for local issues, open doors for the gospel, awakening in the Muslim world, for Israel, and more. Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38,“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” The Kenya base is one from which indigenous African evangelists and church planters are trained and sent into the 1,000 unreached tribes of Sub-Saharan and North Africa with the gospel. Outside of the House of Prayer, Chelsea seeks to build deep and meaningful relationships with the many Muslim women and their children in her village. Chelsea’s mission is to minister the love of Jesus to the lost through worship, teaching, and discipleship. She plans to remain in Kenya as long as the Lord will allow and just recently received her official work permit for 2 years and will be handling Social Media and Marketing to build the House of Prayer in their area. “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 1:11