056 - Lessons from a Gift I Can Never Repay with Greg Johnson

In this episode, Greg Johnson shares his journey from a youth minister to the director of Stonewater, a retreat facility that focuses on youth development through outdoor adventures. He discusses his love for the wilderness, the importance of connecting faith with nature, and how his experiences in the outdoors have shaped his relationship with God. In this conversation, Greg Johnson shares his profound journey through health challenges, including a kidney transplant, and the lessons learned along the way. He reflects on the valleys of life, the importance of family connections, and the power of community support during difficult times. Greg emphasizes the significance of appreciating life and the moments we have, as well as the selfless love demonstrated by his sister, who donated her kidney. 

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Chapters

• 19:15 [Ad] The Balance of Gray
• 20:05 (Cont.) 056 - Lessons from a Gift I Can Never Repay with Greg Johnson
• 36:56 [Ad] The Signpost Inn Podcast
• 37:42 (Cont.) 056 - Lessons from a Gift I Can Never Repay with Greg Johnson

Transcript

McKenzie Smith (00:03)
On today's episode of My Valley, His Victory, we have Greg Johnson. Greg was adopted as a child and raised in the PNW. He has a background of more than 36 years of vocational youth ministry, mountain guiding, and a bit of rescue. Greg has also invested those years in leadership development, working with student leaders and corporate teams. He is currently the director of Stonewater, Youth Dynamics' largest adventure base and retreat facility near Leavenworth, Washington.

Greg enjoys time with his wife Ursula, along with their four grown kids and two spouses. He likes to work hard and play hard. He enjoys his church community and anytime he can be outside adventuring. The mountains continue to play a pivotal role of his faith journey. Thanks so much for being with us today, Greg. Yeah, absolutely. So I know you just read your bio, but go ahead and share just a little bit more about yourself and who you are with our listeners.

Greg Johnson (00:51)
Thanks for having me, really appreciate it.

Yeah, there's a lot of years there to cover, but I absolutely love the wilderness. My mom got us out there at a young age and just exposed us to so many different elements from skiing to hiking. And I just so appreciate my upbringing in that environment. And it just stuck and we continue to get our kids out and enjoy life as we know it in the Pacific Northwest.

Love the Leavenworth village except for the Bavarian town that we avoid on the weekends as 10,000 people show up on that week, any typical weekend in the winter. But yeah, we love our community. It's a little town called Plain about 30 minutes north of Leavenworth.

McKenzie Smith (01:49)
Okay, very cool. So you said you do a little bit of skiing, a little bit of hiking, kind of what's your thing, where do you really feel your heart come alive in the outside, in the outdoors?

Greg Johnson (02:00)
As far as specific activity.

McKenzie Smith (02:04)
Yeah, if you had to pick one, what's your thing?

Greg Johnson (02:06)
Yeah, probably telemark skiing at this point in my life. It's changed over the years from climbing and mountaineering and such. But telemark skiing as a kid, going out with my parents, we used to have pine tar parties. So the wood skis, they'd wax the skis down with this nasty black stuff and put wax on skis and then go out for these wine, wine tours on the weekend on cross-country skis. And so I'd follow them along. But it soon became

you know, pretty slow for a teenager or coming into being a teenager. And I said, I need some more speed. So I joined the ski team and race for a while. And then I was up cross country skiing and these two ladies were telemark skiing. And I was just amazed. And they were two Canadian gals. And I asked them if they teach me. And they did. And, you know, back then they were only two inches wide. I think the skis, they were just skinny as I'll get out. But

McKenzie Smith (02:43)
Yeah

Greg Johnson (03:05)
enjoyed learning and progressing in that and just found my love in the backcountry and my love for telemark skiing.

McKenzie Smith (03:14)
Yeah, I know you said you've kind of done it all. Is there anything in the outdoors that you haven't done that you had, you know, a desire to do at one point in your life?

Greg Johnson (03:25)
Yeah, I'm still anxious to get on a kite board and out in the water. I've windsurfed in the past, but those kites just seem incredibly fabulous. I know they're quite dangerous with cords getting tangled around your neck, but hey.

McKenzie Smith (03:37)
my gosh.

Yeah, have you jumped out of a plane? Because that sounds like something that you would do.

Greg Johnson (03:48)
No, I've paraglided a couple of times, Hawaii and Chamonix, and it's always a thrill. Of course you have to go with somebody. When my wife and I were quite young, we went to Europe and we went up to the booth because it looked fantastic to paraglide. And so we went up to the booth and said, we'd like two tickets, we want to go paragliding. And, know, in broken English and all this business, we realized, you need a guide.

McKenzie Smith (04:12)
You

Greg Johnson (04:16)
We intended to just grab a sail and jump off a cliff, you know? I don't know.

McKenzie Smith (04:21)
What?

No, I wouldn't do that if I had never done it before. I need someone to go with me.

Greg Johnson (04:29)
Yeah,

thankfully we did.

McKenzie Smith (04:31)
Yeah, my gosh. So is she as just as in love with the outdoors and all the things as you, or kind of where does she draw the line of some of these big big adventures?

Greg Johnson (04:43)
Well, she was a librarian and raised in Arizona and incredible bookworm. She absolutely loved to read. So it took years. We dated for four years before we actually got married. She learned more of the outdoors and I learned to communicate better and just a good, you know, we're polar opposites, but she did move into a guiding position. She had gone out with

the girls one week and during that week I'd be with boys out in the backcountry. She's climbed several volcanoes and so she came into her own for sure. Beautiful telemark skier until the kids came and then it was much more to juggle.

McKenzie Smith (05:21)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's fun. Polar opposites, but definitely can still share a little bit of the same hobbies and get involved. So that's always fun. So share with us a little bit about Stonewater and youth dynamics and kind of your journey there.

Greg Johnson (05:50)
Back in 87, I came on as a hotheaded young adult looking for adventure. And I realized that I love Jesus and I love the woods, but how did those two come together? And my mentor and best man said, you know, you really need to try this. It was called Reach Out Expeditions at the time. Still part of Youth Dynamics, but the wilderness arm was called Reach Out Expeditions. And so I...

Started going on with summer staff for several years, moved into a guiding role pretty quick with my rescue background and whatnot. So did that for probably the first 14 years. I became expedition coordinator, ran all the mountaineering, rock climbing. I was a staffing manager, several different roles within the organization. we finally kind of settled in on the 21 day at risk wilderness trip.

We would take at-risk youth. We'd go out for 21 days, sharpen character, you know, the drill. Seven-day winter trips where, you know, you'd get them up to the corner and you'd tell them there's a lodge just, you know, a mile away, less than a mile away, and they would not believe you and flip you off and turn around and ski the other direction or throw their skis across, over the cliff or many, many, many, many, many stories. But that's where I found

Lots of good progression with students, lots of training, obviously, and that was my primary role for many years. And then I left for some corporate.

Team development with Fortune 500 companies, and that's a whole other part of my life, but Stonewater became available. It used to be an Alpine Boys Ranch. It used to be a residential boys' home. And we had prayed for years and years about having a facility that we could stretch our arms a little bit and bring students to us. We were in a residential home out on the coast. We had to drive three hours.

to do any adventure. And it became available in a super significant God story that allowed us to acquire it, 158 acres. And they used to have horses, and we were like, we have not done horses ever. But the wrangler that worked with the boys back then said, this is a good program. Can we come alongside?

McKenzie Smith (08:20)
Yeah

Greg Johnson (08:29)
We waited a few years just to get our bearings and ask God what he wanted for the facility. And at this point, we pretty much do everything under the sun. So we have managers, excellent, highly trained managers in the horse program, the rock program, the rafting program. And each of those managers take on those students in the technical side of training, as well as resource allocation.

side. Yeah. So they're one day to our two capstone programs is the LLT Life and Leadership Program. It's a six week for 16 to 18 year olds. They live and breathe with our summer staff, come alongside, be discipled. All of our team takes turns just ministering to them and then our ABS, our Adventual Bible School.

McKenzie Smith (08:59)
Okay. Okay. Very cool.

Greg Johnson (09:29)
That's a five week in the spring and in the fall. So those are two longest programs, but we have many seven days and five days. And we kind of craft the program, if you will, to the objective of the group leader. So it's not necessarily an open enrollment where individuals sign up except for the horse camps. That's more of the traditional individuals sign up. But we really

McKenzie Smith (09:45)
Okay.

Greg Johnson (09:55)
value follow-up. really value someone to take what they've learned in the wilderness, take it home with them and continue to talk and be ministered by it.

McKenzie Smith (10:06)
Yeah. So is this mainly like a summer thing? Does it operate all year round?

Greg Johnson (10:13)
Yeah, because Stonewater is so large it does too because of the homes that were on site for those boys, we turned into retreat facilities. So one building sleeps 50, one sleeps 25. And our winter is packed every weekend from more or less the end of December to March. Groups love to come out. We have cross-country skis. We made an ice climbing wall. We have the infamous

I shouldn't say it, but we have raft boggling. We blow up our retired rafts, put about 20, 30 people in that thing and careen down the tube hill with them. At night with tiki torches down each side, it's pretty fun. The word's getting out though. We're getting folks just calling up and saying, we want to try that. Anyway, so all year round we do adventures. We're training in the spring. Probably the slowest time is in the fall, but that's...

McKenzie Smith (11:02)
you

Greg Johnson (11:12)
That's strategic planning and rest time and so on.

McKenzie Smith (11:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

And there are different arms of youth dynamics, right? Like there's, I believe I am familiar with one in Boise. Is that right?

Greg Johnson (11:28)
So Youth Dynamics started back in 1970 as a more or less a drop-in center, a place where kids can come to hang out together right by the high school. They'd have food, typically pizza, and then somebody to share the gospel. And that's how it started in Anacortes, and it grew to other communities. And there's about 15, 16 communities now from Moses Lake to Arlington, all in the Pacific Northwest.

McKenzie Smith (11:57)
Okay.

Greg Johnson (11:58)
So those kids, some of them are drop-in centers, some of them meet at a church, it just depends on the location. But those are what we call our internal, our YD kids, right? They get discipled every week by one of our greater staff. And then there's three, four adventure bases now. Two in Idaho, a Salmon River base, outside of Boise in Horseshoe Bend, Camby, Oregon, and then

is the largest in Leavenworth. And they primarily run the extended overnight adventures. So we see those community kids come back year after year after year. And then typically, some of those kids will actually step into the life and leadership program, the adventure Bible school, because we don't want them to, as soon as they graduate high school, they still need to be discipled. And some go off to university, granted, but some even join us for summer staff roles.

later on as well.

McKenzie Smith (12:58)
Yeah, okay. So it is though mostly youth, given the name Youth Dynamics, it is all programs for under 18.

Greg Johnson (13:00)
you

Yeah, 11 to 19 typically,

but I'm a firm believer that our young adults, our summer team, our Adventure Bible School, and I don't know how many countless trips I've run with adults. You know, we kind of have a 80-20 rule that we don't want to go over 20 % of adult trips, solely adult trips. But we will for sure take adults into the mountains and on the water and so on. They're great trips.

McKenzie Smith (13:37)
Okay, very cool. I love that. It's such a great resource for the youth and for young people to get out and to be discipled. I love that you said you make sure that the people that are discipling them go home with them and that they're followed up with. Because I think a lot of times we can go to these summer camps or we can go to these events or mission trips, you name it. We have a really great experience, but then there's kind of nothing after that.

Greg Johnson (13:44)
and

McKenzie Smith (14:07)
in a lot of places.

Greg Johnson (14:09)
Yeah,

we don't want the candy bar high where they're just going to go back. especially with adjudicated youth, know, some of those families are pretty messed up. And if there's not follow up and their parents, I literally have had parents send their kids to a long course. And then there was an issue on the course and we had to get a hold of their parent and their parents are in Hawaii. And, you know, it was just an excuse to babysit their kid. And it's pretty unfortunate that those things happen.

McKenzie Smith (14:20)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, man. So I know you've been on, I mean really your whole life has been being on adventure it sounds like and being out in the mountains and you know, recreating outdoors. Talk to us about how all of these things maybe play a role in your relationship with Christ. You know, take the work piece away from it, being in the outdoors.

Greg Johnson (15:03)
Yeah. Well, for me, it's where I'm closest to him. It's where I hear him, talk with him, praise him, commune with him. I think I learn about his provision, his power, being electrocuted, if you will, out there, being protected.

just about his love. I it's just tremendous. you know, what's, I think anybody that goes out into the outdoors, whether they would say it or not, would have a connection with Christ because it's his creation. You know, I think about some of the lessons like running the river and there's so many obstacles and temptations to go down, you know, maybe this rapid or something.

But if we're not able to read the river...

How do we navigate that if we don't know how to read the river well? So a question we ask on the river is who's your guide? Because obviously if there was no guide in the boat, you'd do attempted on your own and you'd probably get yourself in trouble. But when we're reading the word, it's similar to us reading the word. When we're reading in the word, it's life is hard to navigate, but that word helps ground us and keep us. It's like reading the river.

we can understand life a little better. Or climbing is another one. We're tied into the rope and that route, you could choose five different routes, 10 different routes, whatever that is, but you're tied into the rope. And some people choose not to be tied into a rope and want to do life solo. And you'll literally see, we'll have kids out there climbing and there'll be a soloist that comes up beside these kids with no rope.

But it's a fabulous time to talk to those students about you could try life on your own. I tried life on my own, rock climbing on my own, and I broke some ribs and punctured my lung, and it was not fun. But just so many analogies over and over and over again about connecting with Christ out there.

McKenzie Smith (17:18)
Yeah,

yeah, no, those are helpful. never, I mean, I've been a passenger in a raft boat, have never, you know, had to guide or even would know the first thing about guiding a raft trip. so...

That one does definitely, you know, doesn't stick as hard as the climbing one because it's like I watch those movies, you know, all the free solo and the people out there doing all these crazy things. And it's like, yeah, that's really cool. But there's a lot of risk involved with that. And there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of, you know, and.

Greg Johnson (17:54)
Thank

McKenzie Smith (17:57)
Yeah, I just think that's good, like being tied into the rope. gives us at least some safety and gives us a route and all the things. I think that's helpful.

Greg Johnson (18:07)
Yeah, where in Tearing we use, you know, the map and compass and really emphasize, yeah, we give them a choice. Do you want to, do you think it's more important to read the map, being able to read a map or use the compass? And, you know, you'll get both answers left and right, but if you correlate the map to the word of God, if you, if you can't read that map, if you can't understand where the river is and the ridges and

goalies and so on, you're gonna be pretty messed up out there. And likewise, walking in this world, if you don't know the word of God and you're not studying the word, that's what grounds us, that's what shows us direction. It's, you know, he's our ultimate.

wisdom in all this.

McKenzie Smith (18:53)
Yeah,

yeah, amen. That's good. That's good. So can you share a story with us about a way in which maybe God has spoken to you or revealed himself to you in the outdoors?

Greg Johnson (19:09)
yeah.

Well, probably the biggest one is just coming to acknowledge him as my king in the outdoors. My adolescence were spent in quite a bit of chaos. Drugs, alcohol had taken hold. Long story short, I just had to get away from my friends. I needed a change. I don't even know how I got home some of the nights, but I knew it was going downhill pretty fast.

But I was raised to enjoy the back country and appreciate the wilderness. So that's where I went to retreat. And so every weekend, every chance I had, I went to the woods to struggle, fight with God. And even though I didn't know what I was doing out there or what I was arguing about with them, but nonetheless, there was one time that I...

went up. There's a mountain called Mount Shucks in the North Cascades. I went out by myself and threw my tent up on this ridge and fell asleep. It was about two in the afternoon, just tired from hiking and the exhausting week. And I had this dream that I was above all the clouds and the only thing sticking up were these big peaks sticking up above the clouds. And about 4 p.m. I woke up and that's exactly how it was.

Sun was kind of glistening off because it was on its way out and just these summits of Glacier Peak and Baker and a few others sticking up. And I just stood on a rock and just cried out to the Lord and asked him to take my life there. Obviously it wasn't easy, you know. It doesn't just necessarily flip a switch and everything doesn't say anywhere in Scripture that life's going to be gravy.

That was the day that I asked him into my life. So that's probably the most significant story of how God revealed himself to me in the outdoors. There's so, so many others.

McKenzie Smith (21:22)
Yeah. Where did you have a, you know, a basic understanding of the gospel at that point growing up or? Yeah, like how did you know that that was God, I guess?

Greg Johnson (21:34)
Yeah, I was raising-

Yeah,

I was raised Lutheran, so you know, I knew all the right answers, but the hypocrisy that I saw, I'm like, what's, you know, this is a joke. This isn't for real. So I left that, but I did have a foundation for sure.

McKenzie Smith (21:54)
Okay, okay, cool. Yeah, I was just curious, because I was like, if you had never heard much about God, and then that was the moment, that's really cool. I mean, it's cool regardless, but I was just curious what your background was before that.

Greg Johnson (22:09)
Well, and that's the interesting thing, you know, when a person's out there, faith background or not, there's something bigger than them and they know it and they feel it, but it's hard to put your finger on it, you know.

McKenzie Smith (22:20)
Yeah,

yeah, for sure. And it's hard to know like what that bigger thing is. You know, I think that's the question that a lot of people ask is it's like, how is, how do we know that it's this, that this is the right answer, you know? And so I think a lot of people in the outdoors feel that they just don't know what to call it.

Greg Johnson (22:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, I

say is this bad pizza or is God actually doing something here?

McKenzie Smith (22:40)
Yeah, can buy pizza. I like that.

So you live in Washington, a super beautiful place, and it sounds like you've kind of always grown up in the outdoors and been able to do all these cool adventures and be in the mountains and be on the river and, you all these things. What is a practical piece of advice that someone could use to start connecting with God on an everyday basis through connection, through creation, without being in these super awesome places like the Pacific Northwest?

Greg Johnson (23:13)
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I was just in Arizona going, I really want to climb that mountain, but I know I'm just going to get pricked by a prickly cactus. Well, the first thing you can come on a trip with us, and we'd love to show you the ropes and, you know, show you, give you some training and take you out. But, you know, some practical ways, I think, is just to leave your phone. Just leave your phone. Turn it off and go outside.

McKenzie Smith (23:25)
haha

Greg Johnson (23:42)
maybe go on an easy hike, maybe if it's even in the park. And some really silly but practical things that you could do is just lay on your back. When I was soloing across the cascades, I was getting anxious and the wind was blowing, I was by myself and it was, I think called Cougar Pass. You know, that's not a pass that you just wanna hang out in very long, but I was hanging out there overnight and.

But the wind was blowing through the aspen. We have some aspen on the east side of the slope where I live. I'm sure you do in Utah as well. But the leaves are roundish. And when the breeze blows, they slap together. And if you close your eyes, they literally sound like the biggest rock concert you've ever been to. It's just clapping. It's just this praise. And it says in scripture, the trees will clap their hands.

McKenzie Smith (24:32)
Hahaha

Greg Johnson (24:40)
And I'll never forget that moment. But every time I walk in Aspen's now and even other trees, I'll hear that wrestling in the trees and close my eyes. And they're all giving praise to our father. And that's just such a beautiful, beautiful picture. Or laying on the ground and pretending you're an aunt and just all the intricacies of, you know, what's on the ground.

McKenzie Smith (24:56)
Yeah.

Greg Johnson (25:05)
You know, we just tromp through the woods going, okay, I got a meeting in two hours and I'm just going to go for this walk because I have to, but just being able to stop and just enjoy the small things in life, if you will. Yeah, one of the biggest pieces is, and this is going way up in the mountains, but you know, when I guide the volcanoes, you stand at base camp and literally they consume your every...

McKenzie Smith (25:19)
Yeah, absolutely.

Greg Johnson (25:35)
every being from three quarters of your view is mountain, right? The same mountain, three quarters around. And as the sun sets and dusk happens and then night happens, if you're on some of the closer to the urban area volcanoes, you'll start seeing the twinkling of the city. And you know, when you're in the city and you're

driving back and forth. I don't care if it's Portland, Seattle, probably even Utah. And you've got a special peak that you like to look at. Usually the city is so all consuming that the mountain, can kind of look up and put it in between your fingers. there's that mountain. absolutely love that. Look at it. it's so pretty. better watch somebody just right in front of me. Right. The stuff of the world is so consuming that we only get a glimpse of that.

But when we're on the side of the mountain, it's huge. when you look at that evening time when the twinkle of lights come up in the city, I can fit the city in my fingers. And the stuff of earth becomes small and the mountain becomes all consuming. And that's the way I look at it as far as God goes. When we're close to him, he is all consuming. And the stuff of this world is small. And I absolutely cherish that metaphor. But I think it's so true that we get so caught

McKenzie Smith (27:02)
Yeah, for sure. Our perspective is everything. And it's like, whatever you look at is what's going to be, you know, that. And so, yeah, that's helpful. And I love the wrestling of the leaves and, you know, that.

It's like they're clapping and they're praising God. I've never, never heard that before and now I'm not gonna, I literally sit here and look out my window and see, see the leaves all summer long rustling in the wind and I'm definitely going to look at them differently now. Right now they're all dead and they're on the ground, but they normally, you know, so yeah.

Greg Johnson (27:27)
Yeah.

It's kind of like

you can't see it now, right?

McKenzie Smith (27:41)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Thank you for sharing that. So switching gears a little bit into the title of this podcast, My Valley, His Victory, would love for you to share a valley or a season of wilderness that you experienced and just what God taught you or maybe prepared you for in that season.

Greg Johnson (28:03)
That's not fair. I got a couple years on you.

McKenzie Smith (28:07)
I know, hopefully you have some wisdom for us.

Greg Johnson (28:11)
Well, I

don't know, I learned the hard way.

McKenzie Smith (28:14)
Pay me too, so.

Greg Johnson (28:16)
Hey.

Well,

I was adopted, that was a valley when I found out I was adopted. Huge, significant, I think that's one reason why I turned to alternative medicine, if you will. Falling asleep at the wheel going 65 miles an hour over the pass and coming out unscathed was a wilderness moment of everything being stripped away. Almost getting killed by an avalanche.

breaking of the ice above the waterfall before careening down 2,000 feet was a god moment and just a wilderness time for me and where I was with my family. I think the biggest one is the recent kidney transplant. You think, there's thousands of people that get transplants all the time. It's a big deal.

You know, kind of because I'm so active, it was a hard pill to swallow for me specifically.

McKenzie Smith (29:30)
Yeah, can you share with us a little bit about that journey and just what, yeah, just maybe more on that story.

Greg Johnson (29:40)
Yeah, I was just doing my thing, getting out when I can and myself and another employee of Stonewater. We went out to ski the chutes of Mount Adams. It was kind of an annual annual thing for me and whoever I can grab to climb to the summit and then ski off the left side in the spring corn, know, beautiful spring day. So we're cruising along and

And at this point I've been having cramps and just lots of cramps. A little bit of fatigue, but I'm thinking, okay, I can do this. But he ended up waiting for me for a half hour at this stop and another half hour at that stop. And then I'm going up the headwall, fairly steep. I don't know what it is, maybe 40 degrees at best.

There's this large guy and this small little girl and they're just passing me. And I think I'm working really hard, but people are just passing me and I'm like, hmm, this is not normal. And then I get to the fall summit and didn't want to continue. And that's not normal either. It was a beautiful sunny day. And he, he went ahead and continued to the top because I knew I had to ski down and then hike a quarter of the way down.

get back to the cart anyway. So I'm scratching my head a little concerned about why I was so fatigued and two or three weeks later another friend we went up to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier once again to enjoy the spring corn and likewise he was he was waiting for me a lot and at the at the camp at the top I just was miserable huge cramps couldn't move.

very unlike what I would normally experience. So I get back home and my wife Ursula says, know, maybe we should maybe have a massage therapist look at you. So she calls a friend of hers and the gal kind of listens to the symptoms that I was having and says, no, I'm not gonna work on them. need to have them get looked at by the doctor. So I get looked at, get some blood work and then.

I don't know, that was a Thursday and Saturday I'm eating my breakfast on a Saturday feeling just fine. And he calls and says, go to the emergency room. I'm like, what are you talking about? I feel fine. I'm just eating my breakfast. Leave me alone. So I go to the emergency room and that's the end of story. As far as the diagnosis anyway, they said I have kidney failure and I think I was about 30 % kidney function at that time.

But as they say, once it gets down to 15, it just really drops fast. So I can't remember the timeframe between then. But what they did do is put me on dialysis, I think at around 15%. Spent close to two years on going into town three days a week to get hemodialysis done. And I think for the most part, I had a decent attitude.

I take my computer there and I would work on some stuff and get quite a bit done. You know, a bit frustrating, wondering when this all would pass, not even understanding what it means to go into full-on kidney failure and try to get a transplant. But as we researched more and heard more, they encouraged us to do home dialysis. So I would be at home, tied up all night, getting dialysis done.

Very, very dark time in my life. Couldn't do anything, couldn't go anywhere necessarily, always tied to that.

Yeah, so pretty humbled. They said you'd need a kidney transplant. So I'm like, well, how do you go about that? You know, we were reading things like 10 year, they're waiting 10 years to get a cadaver kidney. And I'm like, 10 years? No, thank you. So I put out, I put out some emails and I had about 10 people say, yeah, give me my kidney. And I had to weed through that and go, eh.

don't think I want your Depending on their lifestyle. But yeah, yeah, a little bit. But so the kidney transplant center called and said, you know, you're kind of crazy. We don't get like all these people. We can't test all these people like choose one or two, would you buddy? So anyway, they did test.

McKenzie Smith (34:22)
Hahaha

Can beggars be choosers in that moment?

Greg Johnson (34:49)
couple folks and what ended up happening is and hence when I gave you my bio I said I was adopted. Well I found all my biological mother and then father and their families at age 31 and lo and behold my sister Ginger, half sister Ginger, she was a perfect match and that was amazing.

So we went down that long journey of testing to see if everything was a good fit. And there was complications over and over and over again. And because of COVID, we couldn't do it locally. And I ended up having to go to San Antonio a few times. But I went from 15 % down to 4 % during that time. So I'm barely functioning at this point.

But the hardest part I think is my half sister Ginger is an amazing human being. She has eight kids, six of which are adopted, two of which are disabled. One is on a feeding tube and she is an advocate. speaks around quite often about foster care. She just has a huge heart.

for the foster care system and trying to change that, how dysfunctional it is. Anyway, the day before she came to San Antonio to give me a kidney, she was in Children's Hospital with one of the disabled kids. I'm just like, no, you can't do this. And she is so joyful. She says, of course, of course I can. I want to. So she came down, gave me her kidney. Anyway.

What a huge blessing. So that was two years ago almost today that I had that kidney transplanted. It took another year to feel like I was in somewhat condition to go for longer walks and back to getting after it.

McKenzie Smith (37:02)
Yeah, wow, good ginger. She sounds like the human we all need to aspire to be. Gosh, just seems like just such a selfless, beautiful woman who's willing to do anything for...

Greg Johnson (37:10)
No kidding, yep.

Well, what's

funny is she's at her house and she's as busy all the time. She is. It's just a heavy, heavy load. I don't know how she does it personally. But she got the call and she I still have it on my phone and she. Face time me or something, telling me how excited she was that she got.

because there was a bit of complication there, but she finally got approved and it was go time. And she was so ecstatic that she was able to give her kidney to me. Like, I want to give something up. I'm going to be happy about it. Not me, not usually. So anyway, bless her heart for sure.

McKenzie Smith (38:01)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know that you said that it happened when you were 31, but how did you find your family? how was that introduced into the situation? Because if you wouldn't have known them, then chances are you wouldn't have this kidney. So, yeah, how did that happen?

Greg Johnson (38:30)
That's not part of this podcast. No, no, it's a fun story. So my mother birth, I mean, my adopted mom told me when I was 12, didn't know what to do with that. I think that's when I kind of made some poor choices. At 21, she gave me a little piece of paper that said your father was a guitar player and just very non-detailed, you know.

McKenzie Smith (38:31)
Okay, well you don't have to answer it if you don't want to.

Greg Johnson (39:00)
description of the biological side. And we were going to have kids and we're like, maybe we should look into this a little further because if there's any medical things in the history. So we started reading books and they were encouraging and discouraging. It'd be one year successful, five years unsuccessful. And I was adopted with my sister who

She paid the big bucks to have, you know, a professional go out and find them. And it ended up being a nasty can of worms, horrible, horrible, horrible how that all transpired. And I'm like, I want nothing to do with this. But, you know, it's still a tug on our hearts. We should probably do this. So we were going to do an ice climbing video for the deaf in Colorado Springs. So.

worked at the Center for the Deaf in Colorado Springs for a bit and you know, videoed the equipment and all that business and then we went out to Ure, Colorado and

Anyway, great, great time. But just before I flew out that day, I took the one page. What do you know when I put the simple basic things that I didn't know and put it in the mailbox seven days later, I get home and.

and pushed the voice recorder and says, hi, Greg, I have great news for you. And she had put in the birth mom had put in her registry. What was it? Four months, four months before that. And the reason why she waited is because her whole family was in the alcoholism rut.

and things had changed there and they had owned business and they were doing fine. So she decided it was a good time. But anyway, it just happened to be a match. And then that same night I listened to the next voice recording and said, Hi, this is Susan from the registry and just, you know, excited to, you know, hook you up kind of thing. But then I got a phone call and it was, Hi, this is Susan or Suzanne.

and I'm looking for my biological son. And so I'm thinking in my head, you need counsel. Yeah, because I'm looking for my biological mom, not even thinking that she was it. Just oblivious to the point that she's actually circumnavigating the system and trying to call me directly. I said, you're not supposed to be doing this. Anyway, I was super nervous and I said, I can't talk to you. I got to go. Bye.

And I literally left the house. I was a wreck. Anyway, I called back later and we made an appointment literally the next day and I drove down to Kirkland. Anyway, and then she said, I'm not going to tell you about your biological father until we have you for a year. Good to know you. And then she told me about him and. Yeah, brothers and new sisters, and it's been a huge blessing. All believers on my biological father's side anyway, just incredible.

McKenzie Smith (42:24)
Yeah, wow. That's, I can't even imagine what that would be like. And just, you know, having like a whole new family at the age of, I mean, I'm 30. And so that'd like me getting a brand new family right now. And, you know, still having your own family and how do you navigate? Yeah, that's a lot. But it's really cool that you were able to find them and that you were able to.

connect with them and learn, you know, probably answer some of your questions and settle some things in your heart. And obviously it led you to your sister, Ginger, who gave you your transplant. And so, wow, look at God go. Because without this, this, this, and this happening, like, who knows what the outcome would have been.

Greg Johnson (43:08)
for sure. And just the

Yeah, yeah, and just the brothers on the biological mom side and the brother and sister on the father's side and just all of the relationships are so unique, but I still am in contact with each one of them. love each other and it's it's just a gas. But who would would have known? I would have never known.

McKenzie Smith (43:26)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's super special. So kind of going through this season of being sick, not feeling like yourself, you know, and, and then having this diagnosis, going through a couple years of, you know, just not even really having answers are probably getting better. And then, you know, obviously you're transplant. What is kind of the

the thing that that kind of came out of this like what what was the lesson maybe or what was the the thing that God just really spoke to you through this

Greg Johnson (44:12)
Can you please turn that off? Betty, can turn that off, please?

McKenzie Smith (44:25)
Yeah, I was just asking like, you know, looking back on this season and in this journey that you went on, sounds like it was a three or four year long, long journey. What is what is kind of the takeaway from you or, know, what what do you what have you learned out of out of this experience or, you maybe what has God taught you?

Greg Johnson (44:26)
Sorry, say again.

Well, the biggest one is...

I guess the skin of Christ, you know, when I think about it, it always comes back to, wow, Ginger sacrificed her kidney for me. No strings attached, no complaints, just out of love. For me.

And as much as I want to honor her and follow her example, I can never repay her. I mean, God, God sent his son to die for me. It's in the flesh. I just got to see it and experience it for real. Now, all I want to do is seize the day and appreciate all that God has provided.

whether it's outside with my kids, I was incredibly overtaken with joy, but also an urgency to capitalize. Because when I was in the corporate world, working on that side, it consumed my life at 16 hours a day plus. And I just lost a lot of time with my family.

And so it has been very intentional to love on my family and spend as much time with my kids as I can. When I go out walking or skate skiing in the morning or whatever, I literally stop. And I'm just so thankful that I get an experience being alive for starters, not to mention everything else. But there's a. In the midst of the despair.

There's a song that my son-in-law sent me and it's by Martin Smith. And I wrote it down just because I do want to share it on this because it was so instrumental and because I literally wanted to pull the tubes out of me and say, I'm done with this. And it says, is that okay? It says, do not hide me from your presence.

McKenzie Smith (47:01)
Yeah, please.

Greg Johnson (47:04)
Hold me from these shadows, I need you. Beauty wrapped your arms around me, sing your song of courage, I need you. Over the mountains, over the sea, here you come running, my lover, to me. through the valley, through the dark of night, here you come running to hold me till it's light. And so,

Two in the morning, four in the morning, man, I would play that song so loud and the sun would come up again and...

We do it over and over again until we got out of this. So anyway.

McKenzie Smith (47:54)
Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for sharing that and for sharing those moments of utter despair, you know, because I think that they happen to each of us in different ways and, yours was, your health was being attacked and your life was being attacked and gosh, I've never had an experience where...

I just haven't, you know, felt good, like, you know, for such a long period of time. yeah, I just can't imagine. so.

Greg Johnson (48:32)
I think everybody

has earthquake moments, so every single person at some time in their life. And I mean, I didn't expect this to not even in thousand years would I think that this kidney thing would be a thing.

McKenzie Smith (48:47)
Yeah, yeah, well, and it's such a long, you know, it was such a long, long journey to you know, it's not this isn't something that, know, was a, you know, people have surgery and then they heal, you know, this was, you went through two years of dialysis, and then you had, you know, surgery and then the healing process and, so on and so forth. And so, you know, this was an extended period of, of despair as well, you know.

Yeah, thank you again so much for sharing that. And what was the name of that song? I want to write it down so that I can put it in the show notes. Song of Solomon. OK, yeah, I got the artist. I just didn't have the name. want to check out the whole thing and then I'll make sure to put it in the show notes for the listeners too so that they can they can check it out. So kind of looking back on your journey and.

Greg Johnson (49:21)
It's called Song of Solomon, actually, by Martin Sp-

McKenzie Smith (49:40)
going through this season, what is a piece of encouragement or a word of advice that you would give to someone who's maybe experiencing something similar?

Greg Johnson (49:52)
Yeah, that's a good question. It took a while, took a long while actually, but it's a season to appreciate. You know, when I was going hard and I had to sit in that stupid dialysis chair down in the city for three hours or whatever was, I came to the realization of

It's okay. Just take advantage of the moment you have just to sit here. You know, I tend to fill my life with stuff so much agendas, adventures, you name it, but just to stop. So appreciate the season for what it has. I guess find the nuggets. You know, they're they're few and far between. Sometimes you have to dig a little bit, but there's nuggets in there for us all that we can learn from.

McKenzie Smith (50:34)
You

Greg Johnson (50:50)
It's super hard. Sometimes that comes from other people though. The encouragement, the encouraging word of someone that or that song, you know, that song was a nugget for me. Call on his name because, you know, over and over again, I was like, how am I going to get out of this? How am I going to get through this? And it had nothing to do with me. I just needed to lean fully on him.

McKenzie Smith (51:03)
Yeah.

Greg Johnson (51:19)
Also, just being community, think isolation kills in my mind, as I've seen it. You know, as the kid sits downstairs and plays video games nonstop and his mom has to give him a little jar so he can pee in it so he can keep playing. Right. Like that's so dysfunctional. the the. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty depressing, actually.

McKenzie Smith (51:40)
Parents do that for their children?

Greg Johnson (51:46)
But to be in community where there's people that can keep you accountable, you know, in my deepest despair, you know, if nobody was there to encourage me, I'd still wallow in it until it was too late, right? So, because there are people around you that can encourage, whether you want to take that encouragement or not is another story. But and lastly, just the the Lord will provide a way. He just will.

McKenzie Smith (52:09)
Yeah.

Greg Johnson (52:17)
And it may not be what you think the way is, but he'll provide a way.

McKenzie Smith (52:23)
Yeah, definitely. I like that you added that it may not be the way that we think because I think so often that is the way that happens. And so we have to not have a lot of expectations and just be okay with a way and not one way. When someone goes through something like this, you know, being a major health diagnosis or

Greg Johnson (52:38)
Yeah, that's right.

McKenzie Smith (52:48)
you know, just something that really is a really big, big valley like this. I do always like to ask the question of what are some ways that you were encouraged by other people, you know, in that time? Like, if someone was listening that has a family member that is going through this, are some of the best ways that they can support or, you know, encourage that person? Like, what was helpful for you from other people in that time?

Greg Johnson (53:18)
Well, it's so funny. I this is humanity as well. I think the thing that sometimes folks or people want to do is, I totally understand what you're going through. When I had this happen to me and they instantly pivoted on themselves. And so it does the other person no significant good.

to listen to somebody else with another ailment. They're stuck in their stuff and they just need encouragement. Somebody that says, me more. How can I support you? Can I get you anything? know, actual encouragement and support and not.

you know, their stuff.

McKenzie Smith (54:09)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, no, that's helpful. That's helpful. I just know, you know, so often we don't know what the best way to love someone in a situation is. And so I always like to ask the question from your perspective. So appreciate you.

Greg Johnson (54:26)
Well, and even, you

know, surgeries, you could say, well, I had surgery too. you know, everybody handles all of those situations differently. And just being receptive to listening well to what's not being said as well is significant. Because I just was with somebody this week. no, no, no, I am just fine. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. And she was not fine.

McKenzie Smith (54:42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Thank

Greg Johnson (54:55)
So how do you navigate that? Are you good with that answer? The only way to find out is to ask a little more probing questions.

McKenzie Smith (55:03)
Yeah,

I know I'm convicted every time I read Job about, you know, it says that his friends sat with him for like seven days just in silence before they, you know, said anything and I'm like...

we can't even wait seven seconds. you know, and I know I've mentioned this on here before, but one thing that, that I've, that's been helpful, helpful for me with, with certain friends or with certain situations is asking them like, do you need help or do you need to be heard? You know, whenever friends are having problems, because I know I just automatically jump to help. And a lot of times like people aren't looking for help.

Greg Johnson (55:18)
Yes.

Yeah.

McKenzie Smith (55:43)
They

just want to be heard. And I know I'm a problem solver by nature. And so that has been a question that I've learned to ask people because sometimes they don't want my help. And I'm actually doing harm through offering that. so, yeah.

Greg Johnson (55:58)
Yeah.

Well, even I think touch is in that same vein. Some people express encouragement through touch and some, you know, some gladly accept it and and desire it like just have your hand on my shoulder. That's just going to be so comforting. And other ones, it's just a complete repellent. What are you doing? And do not touch me.

McKenzie Smith (56:22)
Yeah,

yeah, for sure. Greg, thank you so much for just being on here and for sharing your story and walking us through the season and sharing a little bit about youth dynamics and all the things. I truly appreciate it and shout out to Devin for recommending you and connecting us.

But yeah, tell us where we can find more about youth dynamics or maybe if a listener wants to connect with you, where they can find you in the space of the university these days.

Greg Johnson (56:59)
Yeah, well, probably

the best places on our website. And it's a little confusing because there's a Youth Dynamics in Montana. We are not that Youth Dynamics. We are Youth Dynamics. our website is y is in Yankee, is in Delta.org. So yd.org is Youth Dynamics in the Pacific Northwest website.

And you'll see a plethora of different, you know, drop downs and areas that we operate from. But I'm specifically at Stonewater and there's a there's a bio page and the whole bit. So that's the best place to find us. And we have the the Instagram, Facebook. All those connections are found there as well.

McKenzie Smith (57:49)
Yeah, well, thank you again so much, Greg, for being here and for sharing your story.

Greg Johnson (57:54)
Yeah, thanks for having me on. appreciate it and have a great week.