The Mission of a Man
In 1969, I received my orders for South Vietnam. Being raised in the church I thought it would be a good idea to attend church services before leaving for South Vietnam. Little did I know the Holy Spirit had gone before me. While service was in progress the pastor’s wife (Mom Goodwin) had placed a map over a portable chalk board and pointed to a particular place on the map indicating where I would be stationed in Vietnam which was on the border of Cambodia. As she continued to prophesy, she turned to my mother and said “I will bring your son back home alive. Fear not, because your prayers and your life of supplication to me, I will bring him home safely.” Being raised in this church I have seen for many, many years the move of God’s Holy Spirit and His gifts. I have always been convinced that when God spoke by His Holy Spirit that what ever He said I knew it to be so.
Hearing that prophecy spoken by Mom Goodwin I had an encouraging sense of protection and I knew that God would be with me. One of my first encounters of this type of protection was while eating lunch in a mess hall not far from our flight line. I was in the process of finishing my meal when I realized that I was just sitting there at my bench staring out of the mess hall. This took about 15 seconds which normally I never did. When finishing my meal I usually went directly out of the mess hall to the garbage can. But this day, I just sat there for about 15 seconds and the next thing I saw was a bright red flash and then a “boom” sound behind it. After a few seconds, I picked myself up off the floor and realized that we just had a rocket attack. I then, walked to the garbage can which is where I would have been had I not been restrained by the Holy Spirit. While observing the situation I noticed a G.I. laying there by the same garbage can where I would have been. The medics were attending to him while he took his last breathe. Within a few seconds he passed on. There were at least 15 people in the mess hall; however, no one was injured. All we had was a tin roof and a mosquito netting covering the mess hall, and yet 90 feet away another G.I. died from the shrapnel of the rocket. It seems that God protected me and those who surrounded me. This was a constant reoccurrence for me and for those around me in Vietnam.
While preparing for a mission on the flight line another incident occurred. It was my turn in rotation with my back up to walk point on this particular mission. We were approached by two other point and back up teams (which had seniority over us) and they were to lead the mission. However, because they had seniority, my team got bumped to the last ship. While scouting, the first team walked along a horseshoe-bend trail and came upon a bunker complex. The V.C. in the bunker opened up on the first team and hit the point man and his back up which would have been me and my back up. The first team was at the front end of the horseshoe-bend and my team was at the back end which put the bunker near the center of the horseshoe. Seeing that the first team had been hit, my back up man (Harrison) told me that he was going to “frag that bunker, cover my six.” As he rose up to throw a hand grenade into the bunker the V.C. opened up fire again. This time, not only were we receiving fire from the V.C. bunker but the machine gunner in team 2 opened up on us thinking we were the enemy being that we had crawled so close to the bunker to frag it. Harrison and I both hit the ground and bullets were flying all around us from our own people. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Our web gear, AK vest, and all that we had on us was jumping up and down as the bullets began to hit. After the initial contact settled, we noticed that there were no holes or rips in us or our web gear. We both looked at each other like “what happened??” It was amazing. The Holy Spirit had, once again, delivered to my mother His promise. On several occasions I had people take my place on ambush control and they never came back alive. On another incident while riding in a vehicle, the vehicle behind me hits the mine. This protection of the Holy Spirit continued throughout my stay in Vietnam.
The third incident, which was the most life changing of all my experiences in Vietnam, I just had written my mother a letter indicating to her that I was extending my tour for another year. In the letter I explained to her that I had found myself and that I had finally had definition and a purpose in my life. I told her that I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and for the first time I felt that I found who I was and who I should be. At least for this moment in time, this was my destiny. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the adrenaline – the rush of combat. The next day, after I sent this letter to my mother, I received a cassette tape from her in our afternoon mail call. I put the tape in the tape recorder, anxious to hear a familiar voice from the states, but I was not prepared to hear what she had to say. Along with “I love you son, I miss you son” she had greetings and salutations, etc., etc., etc. Then there was a pause on the tape, and then she said to me, “While praying the other night the Holy Spirit told me that you would be coming home sooner than you think.” I remember saying, “Wow”. Her words were not what I wanted to hear. I had plans and future plans for my immediate future but I knew it was from the Lord and what he says shall be. I knew there were only three ways to leave Vietnam: In a body bag, wounded, or date of departure. I knew I wasn’t going home in a body bag because I knew the Holy Spirit told my mom and the church that I would be coming back safely. I also knew that I didn’t have a date of departure as I set out to extend my tour. So I knew that, by the process of elimination, I would probably be wounded.
While on my last mission (which I didn’t know was my last) the first team had run into a hasty ambush, taking out three of the members of the first team by RPG. That day I was on the second team and I moved my team to their left flank to provide protection while the medics assisted the wounded. After 30 minutes or so a medivac arrived and hoisted out (by jungle penetrater) the three wounded. As the medivac chopper began to pull away at tree top level we begin to take V.C. gun fire. While lying on the jungle floor I assessed the situation and realized that the combat that was taking place was not that severe and that everything would be just fine. I lay there nonchalantly and then this voice came to me. It called my name and said “Johnny, move back or a bullet will hit your head.” While I looked around to see who was talking to me – no one was close by – so I sort of shook it off. The voice came to me a second time and said “Johnny, pull back or a bullet will hit your head and you will die.” Again, I refused this voice for I did not fear the situation here. I thought to myself I will not pull back for I see no need to do so, but the fear of this voice was beginning to take a hold of me. It was not the fear of combat. It was the fear of this voice. The voice came again for the third time, it was a final time. It said to me, “Pull back or a bullet will hit your head and you will die. This is the last time that I will speak to you.” For a split second I hesitated in pulling back. But the fear of that voice gripped me and I knew it was true. I knew the bullet was on its way. I spun around 180 degrees and pushed off with my right foot to pull back when the bullet hit my right foot, spinning me up in the air. It seems that my ankle was where my head was a split second before. That small hesitation cost me but yet it did not cost my life. I crawled back through the bush and leaned up against a tree and called for a medic. After the medic patched me up the rest of the team continued to push back the V.C. where they could call for a medivac ship to penetrate me out of the jungle. As I was getting on the jungle penetrator I handed my car.15 and my AK vest with the ammo to the Lt. and he in return handed me his .45 pistol in case we got shot down on our way to 93rd evac. As I was being lifted up through the jungle the V.C. began to open up on the gun ship and myself. While the gunship could no longer continue to hover without taking a serious amount of damage, the pilots took off dragging me through the jungle canopy. I emptied the clip on my .45 and I just said “Lord get me out of here, safely like you promised and I will serve you.” Eventually, the crew chief and others were able to pull me into the chopper and take me safely to 93rd evac.
This was the beginning of an incredible and marvelous journey. I’ve been back to Vietnam twice, smuggling bibles into the country and extracting Vietnamese people and their families to reunite with others who had escaped Saigon in 1975. I’ve spent many times in Africa building churches, providing clothing, and other assistance. Ministered in the Philippines, Thailand, and spent 10 years smuggling Bibles to the Christians in underground churches in mainland China. What an experience and what a thrill of life to say “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.
I am in a continual pursuit to promote the Gospel to the Nations.
Sincerely,