They told Dr. Terry Johnsson he’d amount to nothing. But instead, he rose all the way to the Presidential Honor Guard, serving three U.S. presidents! Listen to this story about the power of prayer, miracles and a man who defied all odds.

<p>They told Dr. Terry Johnsson he’d amount to nothing. But instead, he rose all the way to the Presidential Honor Guard, serving three U.S. presidents! Listen to this story about the power of prayer, miracles and a man who defied all odds.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Voice Of Prophecy

Shawn Boonstra

Dyslexia to the White House

Welcome to Disclosure, a brand new radio offering from the good folks at The Voice of Prophecy.

This is a radio show that's actually been on the air now since 1929, and that's a pretty long time.

Obviously, I haven't been on the air since 1929.

And if that's not obvious because this is radio and you can't see me, let me assure you, I don't go back to 1929.

I didn't even exist for another 40 years.

But the Voice of Prophecy might actually be the longest-running faith-based broadcast in America today, maybe even the world.

The paint's not even dry on this show, But I'm really excited about some of the things we're going to be able to offer you.

In particular, I'm really excited about our program today, because we're going to be meeting somebody pretty special.

Some years ago, I met a remarkable man whose story has inspired countless thousands of people all over the country and around the world.

A man who was, well, essentially written off by some educators when he was just a little kid, but he eventually went on to move in some of the highest circles of power in America.

Terry Johnson hails from the beautiful state of Oregon and I am really excited that I think we have got him on the phone right now.

I am here Sean, it is just fantastic to be here and I'm just thrilled about this program.

I kind of am thrilled too, you know, until the board calls and says I'm fired, I'm going to be thrilled about this as long as this show keeps going.

Is the Rain Festival still on over there?

In fact, the funny thing here in Oregon, since I've been gone for around 20-something years, I forgot that a true Oregonian does not carry an umbrella.

That's how you can tell who's from here and who's not.

And so I'm trying to break into that culture all over again.

Yeah, because it really is it's kind of a drizzle there in Oregon, isn't it?

But it's a steady drizzle that goes on all year instead of Southern California where you get 18 inches in half an hour in January.

Yeah, in Oregon we used to say, you know, you don't tan in Oregon.

Hey, Terry, I want to cut right to the chase.

You have lived 1 of the most amazing lives I've ever heard of.

I've been deeply inspired by what God has done in your life.

You've got a professional career that's very successful, you've had a successful academic career, you've touched the lives of thousands of people, and so I'm assuming that if we go way back in history we're going to discover that you were the golden boy in elementary school, The kid everybody knew was going to make something out of himself.

Well, actually, I probably was more of God's Forrest Gump.

Trust me, I look back and I'm just amazed at what God was able to do throughout the years.

Well tell me about it, because I think I want to start at the beginning of your story and have you lead our listeners into some of the amazing things that God has worked in your life.

So let's go back to your childhood and start us down the path to the amazing things that God did for you.

My parents are around 7 generations Louisianans, and my dad had served in World War II.

And since he spoke a little bit of French, he was stationed in France, and when the war had ended, they were coming back.

Eventually, the ship was going to make its way over to the port of New Orleans, but they went the long route, and to make a long story short, they had to stop in a place called Portland, Oregon, for some boat repairs.

And my dad, coming from the Flat Bayou country, driving up the Columbia River, had seen stuff that he could not even explain.

Basically it was 80 degrees out on the deck but he's seen snow-capped mountains all around him and he just couldn't even understand that.

But the 1 thing that he looked at 1 of his buddies and said, you know what, if I ever get a family, 1 day I want to come back here and show them this place.

Oh, so really you're living your dad's dream by being in Oregon.

It is just absolutely amazing how that whole thing just came about, and That's exactly right.

You're back in sort of home country then.

I'm back in home country after I've been gone for almost 20, well over 20 something years.

Well, it's just amazing because mom had, and this ties into the story, that mom and dad, they were living in Baton Rouge at that time, and mom and dad had gotten married and they're living in Baton Rouge they had 5 kids at the time Wow and mom was catching the city bus and a lady was on the bus but she was dressed a little bit differently a little bit warmer clothes and mom, you know, in Louisiana, there she was, that's, you know, that's winter clothes.

And the lady said, Oh yes, I'm just here visiting my mom and I'm going back to Portland, Oregon.

And then my mom thought, Hey, that's where my, My husband always talked about that.

She said, if you'd ever like to come and visit or even live there, they have no opportunity for kids to go to school.

She went on and on, especially for people of color, which was very difficult in the South at that time, in the 40s.

And so Mom just said, you know what, I'm going to tell my husband and took down the lady's information and do you know that 4 weeks later my mom got on a bus, not knowing his soul, left my brothers and sisters with my father and she went to Portland to go to go explore this place.

Wow, so she had a little courage in her soul.

A little courage in her soul and she loved it.

She had gotten a job within 2 weeks of being here, got a house, rented a house out, and even had bought a car by the third week.

And then she sent word back for dad to bring the kids that the place was all set to go.

You're just going to go and look and meet your new friend?

Now if anybody listening has not been to the Pacific Northwest, I do understand this.

Once you've seen it, you know you have to live there.

It's 1 of those, especially if you hit it here in the summertime, you're like, oh this is paradise.

Yeah, on the 2 days it doesn't rain, right.

That's how we ended up in portland are my family at least and so they had 5 kids like I said already and this was the early early 50s by this time and what had basically happened is that literally when mom was almost 40 years old she felt she had a cold and went to the doctor and the doctor just basically said I hate to tell you this but you don't have a cold but you are actually pregnant.

Oh no, that's not what, yeah, that's 1 of those surprise announcements.

So there I came along, and a 15 year difference between myself and the next youngest.

I was the first in 6 generations born outside of the state of Louisiana.

1 of the things that's shown with me is that I was always an energetic kid.

My brothers and sisters were more like aunts and uncles to me and spoiled me to death.

I've been this, you know, little baby baby and all this stuff.

And what kind of came, started to come together a little bit is that when it came time to learning to read, I was struggling just a little bit.

And they couldn't, you know, so they thought, well, in those days, you know, they would just classify you as a slow learner or, and so that's what they kind of just said, well, he's just a slow learner and just, you know, just keep him going.

And to make a long story short, by the time I had gotten to the second grade, all I can remember is this, is that the teacher had divided the class into 3 sections, because this poor teacher, due to budget cuts, she went from teaching a class of 19 second graders to a class of almost 50 something by herself.

I hear people today complaining if it gets to 30 kids but 50?

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Dyslexia to the White House

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