John was born in Atlanta, GA. Because his father was in the Air Force, he moved around during most of his childhood. He lived in Hawaii during part of his elementary school years and returned later during college. He accepted Christ at age ten and soon felt God’s call into full-time Christian service and specifically to missions in Japan. Then God gave him an opportunity to experience missions in Japan during his last two years of high school, via the U.S.A.F. He was able to accompany missionaries to farming and fishing villages.
He returned to Hawaii during college and met a young college student named Charlene Miyamoto. Their relationship grew, and they eventually got married. That was almost 50 years, four children, and nine grandchildren ago.
John graduated from Misawa Dependent High School in Misawa, Japan. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Golden Gate Baptist Seminary and a Master of Religious Education from New Orleans Baptist Seminary. He also spent several years in Doctoral Studies at Southwest Baptist Seminary.
God clarified John’s call in ministry in Hawaii among people of all cultures. He spent forty years as a pastor in Hawaii including four churches on three islands and eleven years as a prison chaplain. After retirement, he continued to minister by sharing God’s word to Japanese tourists during weddings in paradise.
John has always had a heart for people in distress. When there was a need for a person to lead out in ministering to people in various kinds of distress: floods, hurricanes, lava flows, virus scares; God called John to that ministry as the Director of Disaster Relief.