“We’re getting ready to step into the unknown from Sequim,” said Kyle Johnson, on the eve of departing for a big adventure.

The Johnson family drove to California to say goodbye to family members,and from there they will go to New York to train for two months, and then they will spend at least three-and-a-half years in Mwanza, Tanzania, as volunteer lay missioners with Maryknoll.

This will be the first time anyone in the family has been to Africa.

According to its website, Maryknoll is a Catholic nonprofit mission movement “now comprised of four organizations,” which “has been the heart and hands of the U.S. Catholic Church’s overseas mission work for more than 100 years.”

Kyle and Anna Johnson and their three children — Josephine, 12, Collin, 10, and Charlotte, 8 — said they are looking forward to making new friends and finding out how they can be of help in the city, in the administrative region of the same name, which Kyle referred to as “the Gateway to the Serengeti.”

Located on Lake Victoria, Mwanza is Tanzania’s second-largest city, with more than one million people.

Kyle said his children asked if they could swim in the lake, but it is too dangerous because of the hippopotami and crocodiles. However, they plan to work up to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Johnson children have been studying Swahili on the Duolingo language app and will be attending an international school which teaches in English.

The Johnsons said there are many international aid workers in Mwanza.

The family has committed to living in Mwanza for three and a half years because, “that’s how long it takes to create a sustainable program and get embedded in the community,” Kyle said.

The Johnsons will initially serve an existing ministry, but as they meet people and find out what the community needs, they plan to develop their own program.

“Maryknoll is community-driven,” Anna said. “It might take six months to a year” to learn how best they can help, but when they do, “the focus is on sustainability,” she said.

The Johnsons said that their goal is to create a local needs-based program that will continue to exist after they leave.

During an extensive interview and placement process, Maryknoll representatives look at specific skills of volunteers as well as their family situation, and place them where they are most likely to be of help. Anna is a nurse by trade with a teaching background, the Johnsons said, and Kyle has skills and experience in business management and economic development.

In January 2022, the family volunteered at a ranch retreat for orphans in Mexico. While there, they discovered that there had been no medical training at the place, so Anna put together a first aid plan — one that was translated into Spanish and left in place when the family returned to Sequim — as well as first aid kits for backpacks.

“As a family we loved it,” the Johnsons said. “We worked all together. It gave us a tremendous purpose.

“It put our life here in perspective … [and helped us] focus on what was really important.”

Being together as a family and being of service with a shared commitment, family members agreed, were some of the important elements of living a life of purpose.

The Johnsons said that though it took careful planning and economic consideration, it is possible for anyone to make such a major change in their life if they want it enough.

Anna quoted Mother Teresa, saying, “Doing small things with great love” is enough to make a positive change in the world.

The Johnsons will host a blog where they will periodically post updates on their work and experience. To keep up with the Johnson family, email to kjohnson@mlkm.org.

To contribute in the name of the Johnson family, visit mklm.org/support-us/donation-page.

Learn more about Maryknoll’s lay missioner program at mklm.org.