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Birth
John Duckhorn was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during Word War II. -
Family Split Up
When he was 6 months old his parents got divorced. His dad was in the army. -
Hearing loss
When he was 5, they discovered a hearing loss. In those days, they didn't know what to do with kids that had that problem, because he could speak, but not always understand, so he became a poor student. -
Education
Started school when he was 4. Catholic schools. Good interest to understand his religion. He was the only one in the family who went to church. His mom and her new husband moved a lot around Wisconsin from 1949-1952, and then came back to Milwaukee. -
High School
He went to the same public school from 1952 to 1959. Pulaski High School in Milwaukee. He excelled in speech class and won a speech award when he was a senior in HS. He began to think that he could go into communications, be a radio announcer or a comedian. -
Conversion
After a hard situation with his biological dad in California, he went back home and contacted John Fisco (a pastor that one of his friends introduced to him during the summer of 1959) and on Tuesday night, October 7th, 1959 he became a believer in Jesus Christ. He prayed with Fisco. His life was radically changed. He went to Fisco's church and went to every Wednesday night bible study as well as all the Sunday and monday meetings, and he helped him to grow in his faith. -
After conversion...
He began thinking about a bible institute or school. He felt he knew nothing about the bible. He was supposed to go to school in January 1960 to study to be a radio announcer. But he was so excited to learn about the bible, He found in Milwaukee a little bible school called New Tribes Bible Institute, he went to talk to the president of the school, and he said that he would take him because he was a new believer and he felt it wasn't right to reject people because of education. -
New Tribes Bible Institute
The director of the school in Minneapolis said that they couldn't hold his place for the radio program. Then, he decided to study the bible and forgot the radio school. It was a very easy thing to do, because he believed God wanted to use his life. He started school in September of 1960 at New Tribes. -
Missions?
People enjoyed hearing John giving his testimony and sharing the gospel. He began to think that he might someday become a christian worker. The program lasted a year and a half. After Bible school, he went to further missionary training with New Tribes and did not do well. He was learning phonetics and how to hear sounds to write them down to learn a foreign language. He was at the bottom of the class because of his hearing loss. He still wanted to serve the Lord, and be a missionary. -
First confirmation
When he met with the leaders, they said, "get a passport, we're going to send you to Colombia, South America." He couldn't believe it. So he began to prepare to go to South America. They were sending him with a mexican older missionary, who had much experience among south american tribal people. They called it a Paul-Timothy relationship (José Moreno). It took over a year to get his passport. -
In the meantime...
During that time of preparation he was trying to get a job. But he couldn't because his availability depended on the time that he could receive his papers to be able to leave. So he didn't work for 10 months. During that time he saw Dona (his now wife) a lot, and they talked a lot about serving the Lord together, as husband and wife. -
Now what?
During that time, he began to think that he had no future with new tribes mission. They have no place for people who can't work among indigenous people. He believed that God had a place for him, and that he was not going to give up. -
First Time in Colombia
He had trouble learning Spanish, because of hearing loss. He made many trips to the low lands of colombia to visit tribal people. He knew that he could never learn a native language. The man he went to Colombia with did not want to have to help him. He spent a lot of time in Bogota walking and praying, thinking that he could work among the Colombians. He was always thinking on the little towns in the mountains and the need of the gospel. -
Key encounter
One day, when he was tired of speaking Spanish, he took a bus to Zipaquirá, the salt cathedral. While he was there, he saw a group of young people (americans) and went to talk to them. They were from Emmaus Bible School in Chicago. They were doing outreach activities. They also told John about the assemblies and how commendation worked for them. John agreed to everything they said, so he realized that he had a lot in common with them. They had bible studies in English in Bogotá. He joined them. -
Changes Coming
He went back home in the fall of 1965. He began to look for a chapel and to attend. He liked everything they said about how the missions functions. When he came home he didn't go to an assembly, only a couple times to Wauwatosa Bible Chapel. -
Married
John and Dona got married. From September to January they received training at New Tribes. -
Going Back to Colombia
They went together to Colombia. They wouldn't work with tribal people. Therefore, if they left New Tribes, in order to stay in Colombia, they needed to be accepted by a religious organization that the Colombian government would approve. -
Resigning New Tribes
The leader of New Tribes in colombia was not kind to him. He told him to forget the idea that he was going to be a Bible teacher. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Without telling Dona, he went across Bogota to talk to Carl Lehman (another missionary) who helped him to solve the situation so they could stay. -
Last Trip to the Jungle
In his last trip to the indigenous community, he stayed in Villavicencio waiting for a truck, he couldn't get one for 2 weeks. He stayed at an orphanage. Dona came down and as a sidelight of that, they were looking at the kids and they started considering to adapt someday. -
First Adoption
Michael is adopted from the orphanage in Villavicencio. -
Going Back Home for 15 Months
Jerry Miller was John's old friend from the other church that became an elder at Wauwatosa Bible Chapel. Carl Lehman visited Jerry and told him about John. John started speaking in the chapel and after 6 months they gave them a letter of commendation. He visited the New Jersey area meeting the assemblies and CMML. They signed papers. They visited Dona's parents in California. They spoke almost 12 times on the way. They got familiarized with the assemblies. -
Return to Colombia
They went back to Colombia and stayed at Marcia Van Der Laan's place. She is an Emmaus alumni, missionary who was part of the team of missionaries who were in Bogotá by that time. Some of them were Carl and Joan Lehmann, as well as Sandi Stirling. -
Troubles among Missionaries
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Exploring New Opportunities
Trip to Bucaramanga, Santander to "Spy Out" the land. -
Moving to B/manga
After exploring the place together with some other missionaries, John identified great opportunities for the ministry there. When he came back to Bogotá, he told Dona about it and they decided to move. -
Preparing a Team
Carl brought a team to B/manga and invited John to meet them. There were different missionaries visiting the area. Among them were the Loudons, Richard Yarrall and Gordon Martin. -
Team Work Starts
After some visits, a team is formed and they start establishing different tasks for the work. Some of those tasks included the new Emmaus Correspondance School office. Carl Lehmann encourages John to work as closely to the team as possible. -
Summer Team's Visit
Gordon Maryin was the team leader with International Teams,. They had a summer team and a one year team in Bucaramanga. -
First Sunday Meeting in B/manga
After some months of evangelism and reach out as a team, they had their first sunday morning meeting with only two people. They met at the Emmaus' office. -
Malaga's Work
After having some exploratory trips, he was able to connect with people in a small town called Málaga. Thus, he started visiting the place more often. -
Exploring the Mountains
John Duckhorn explored the villages around for new ministry opportunities. -
First Meeting in Málaga
After some consecutive trips to Malaga and some discipleship to key people of the town, they had their first sunday meeting. -
Growth in the Churches
Emmaus Correspondance School was crucial for the growth of the believers and the equipment of leaders for the churhces. -
Leaving Colombia, Back in the U.S
Due to the hearing loss, John was not able to keep up with counseling and understanding people. Therefore, he waited for the Lord to confirm the time to get back to the US and look for more opportunities to serve the Lord. -
Ministry in the U.S.
Once back in the US, he kept serving the Lord at Wawatosa Bible Chapel until this day. He served as an elder for 25 years, but also served at summer evangelistic programs with spanish speakers. -
Current Situation
John spends his time preparing sermons and discipling others. He still travels around and visit some chapels in the area that invite him to speak. He loves the packers and that's part of his discipleship program. It's time for him to pass it on to someone else. God willing, I'll be that person.