About Us
My name is John Withington. I am originally from Akron, Ohio. I was a professional barber right out of High School, and was born again in April of 1995 at the age of 24. While praying about the will of God for my life, I supernaturally received the calling to become a missionary. God led me to attend Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1997. I graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center in 1999. Shortly after graduating from Rhema Bible Training Center, I left for India to fulfill my God given calling where I have lived ever since.
About Naomi my wife. She is from India. She's a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur in Northeast India. Her tribe 100 years ago were "head hunters", before the Gospel came to her people. Her great grandfather Puchung Shadang was one of the first four converts from her village Grihang to accept Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. He went through great persecution in those early days.
The people from the village came to Puchung with knives, and tried to force him and his family to reconvert back to their old ways. Because of his strong faith in the Lord Jesus, he refused to go back to his old ways and customs. He said to the men, "you can kill me and my family, but we will never reconvert back to our old ways." Because of the severe persecution in the village Grihang, they left the village to another place out in the field under a tree. Even then people from the village burned down his farm, and house.
Today he is recognized as the faithful pioneer of his strong faith in Christ. And still even though he is with the Lord he is being honored throughout the Tangkhul people!