By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Following some stress-filled times in the military as air traffic controllers in the U.S. Air Force, Nadere and Michelle Johnson are focused now on serving others.
So reported Joe Eletto at the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce luncheon earlier this month, where the couple received the chamber’s monthly military recognition “for their past service to our country and their ongoing service to the community.”
Nadere Johnson Photo
Nadere Johnson, center in back, with children in Uganda who are sponsored by Operation International Gift of Knowledge, the nonprofit he founded
Both Nadere and Michelle Johnson joined the U.S. Air Force in 1977. Four years later, Nadere made a career shift and Michelle stayed on, retiring after 26 years as an air traffic controller and later as a management analyst.
“When I joined the Air Force, very few women served as air traffic controllers,” Michelle Johnson said. “I didn’t even know what an air traffic controller was. It just sounded important.”
Turns out it “was very stressful as well,” she added, “and every time we moved to another area, I had to learn the particulars of another air field.”
All told, “the military made me a better person, a stronger person, and it was my ticket out of the environment I was in, which was loving but also difficult,” Michelle Johnson said. “Poverty is not an easy cross to bear.”
She later earned a Bachelor’s Degree in business management from St. Leo’s University, while her husband earned an Associate of Applied Arts degree in photography from the Art Institute of Atlanta. Now as a professional photographer and instructor, Nadere Johnson serves the Tampa Bay area and beyond.
Linda Chion Kenney Photo
Michelle and Nadere Johnson, moments after receiving the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce’s military recognition for August
In 2014, he founded Operation International Gift of Knowledge, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The nonprofit’s mission is to provide “children suffering from extreme poverty in Uganda, East Africa, with educational, nutritional and medical access so they may discover their God-given talents, enhance their quality of life and achieve self-reliance.”
Toward that end, Nadere Johnson is set to hold an “art exhibit, soiree, fundraiser” Sept. 30 at the Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin. Scheduled to run 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 101 1st Ave. NE, the cost is $25 to attend. The price includes hors d’oeuvres, coffee sampling, music, speaker and an auction.
As for the sampling, “I’m birthing a coffee brand called Uganda Coffee Central, which I source from Uganda,” Nadere Johnson said, noting that part of the proceeds will support his nonprofit. “We presently sponsor 31 orphans in Uganda.”
Johnson in June completed his 20th mission to Uganda, where years ago he met a girl named Esther, then age 1, whom he and his wife unofficially adopted a year later and have been sponsoring ever since. “Today she is 13, and she’s doing fine and flourishing,” Nadere Johnson said. “To God be the glory.”
As for their journey as a couple, “Nadere was always with his wife as she was stationed in many areas,” Eletto said, noting among them Alsenborn, Germany; Cocoa Beach, Fla.; Columbus, Miss.; and Hampton and Newport News, Va. “Nadere’s photography studios were well received in all those military communities,” Eletto added, “and now right here in our community.”
At the Sept. 30 exhibit at the Firehouse Cultural Center, Nadere Johnson is set to show subject matter from his most recent assignment to Uganda, in a country that he said is filled with “the friendliest, most resourceful people you would ever want to know.”
“They taught me a whole lot about hospitality,” he said. “They’re able to give their last, even if they might not have it, and make sure that you, as a weary traveler, have food in your stomach and a roof over your head.”
Johnson’s first trip to Uganda was in 2008, when Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Hampton, Va., sent him on a medical mission to serve as the photographer. “That’s how I ended up meeting Esther, as she and her family were getting ready to be processed to get medical attention,” Johnson said. “When I came back the next year, the little girl was still there, and that’s when my wife and I made a covenant to God, to do everything we could to help this child and her family.”
Happily married for 37 years and thankful to have honorably served their country, the Johnsons “are focused now on serving their Lord by serving others,” Eletto said.
Growing up in Chicago, Michelle Johnson was brought up to help others, as her mother “always volunteered in the community,” Eletto said. As Michelle Johnson put it: “If you want your children to learn to help others, they must see you and be with you while you’re helping others.”
Nadere Johnson Photo
Michelle and Nadere Johnson in Uganda
The Johnsons are members of Love First Christian Center in Riverview, at 12847 Balm Riverview Road. Nadere, like his wife, “has a heart for impoverished children and a strong belief in the transforming power of the church,” Eletto said.
“We’re new to Love First Christian Center, and it’s an amazing church,” Nadere Johnson said, noting its ongoing construction for an expanded sanctuary space to better meet the needs of the rapidly growing Balm/Riverview community. “Pastor Jomo Cousins is an awesome man of God, and the congregation is lucky to have him.”
For more on Nadere Johnson’s photography and mission, visit www.oigiftofknowledge.org/. For his photography, visit www.naderephoto.com/. You may also call 757-570-8074.