An Introduction To Marlan & Sharon Johnson  

            Marlan was born on a farm December 17, 1935, in Cerro Gordo Township of Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota.  In 1945 the family moved to Montevideo.   He graduated from high school in 1953.  He attended Hamline University in St. Paul where he met Sharon Higgins from Mankato, Minnesota.  Following graduation from Hamline University with a BA in Business and Economics in 1957, he went on Army active duty as a reservist.  On June 21, 1958, he and Sharon were married at Centenary Methodist Church in Mankato.  Earlier that same June he entered Luther Seminary in St. Paul to begin study for the ordained ministry.  They have two children, Scott and Julie, and two grandchildren, Andrew and Matthew.

            Sharon graduated from Mankato High School in 1955.  Following graduation from Hamline University in 1959 she began teaching  at Lake Johanna Elementary School in Mounds View School District, north of St. Paul.  She also taught second grade in Mount Lake Terrace, north of Seattle, Washington, while Marlan interned at Ballard First Lutheran Church in northwest Seattle, 1960-61.  For several years she was a substitute teacher in Cyrus and Storden.  She has also worked in support staff positions in Alexandria, Glenwood and Villard. 

            Marlan graduated from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, in 1962 and has served parishes in LaPorte City and Ruthven, Iowa; Willmar, Windom, Cyrus and Storden, all in southwestern Minnesota.  On October 31, 1994, he retired from the Parish Ministry to devote the rest of his life and ministry to telling the stories of those in Germany before and during WW2 who "fought the good fight" against Hitler and Nazism, with special emphasis upon Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran Pastor, who was executed/murdered on April 9, 1945, for his participation in that resistance. 

            Of his present status, he states, "Retirement is not the best of descriptions.  I retired so I could begin drawing my church pension to support this new ministry."  Retired actually means "re-tired", like putting new tires on an old car.  He retired from the Parish Ministry in 1994.  He again "retired" for Social Security purposes in 1998.  He does not plan to retire from the Ministry for many years!  

            Since retirement in 1994 he has also completed interim ministries at Glenwood Lutheran Church in Glenwood, Grace Lutheran Church in Belgrade, and Big Bend Lutheran Church near Milan, all in Minnesota.

            This interest in Dietrich Bonhoeffer has now expanded to include another Pastor of that time and place who also resisted in his own way, as a parish Pastor of the Reformed Church.  This is Paul Schneider who served in the Hunsruck west of Frankfurt.  He was arrested a few times early in 1937, then was placed in Buchenwald where he "died" on 18 July 1939.  ("Murdered by medical injections" is more accurate.)

            Sharon and Marlan give presentations about these resisters to Hitler and Nazism, feeling it is important that the stories be told, kept alive and applied in our day. They also recruit small groups of interested people to travel with them in Germany and Poland to visit these sites related to the life, death and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Schneider.  A special bonus of these tours is the opportunity to meet and visit with family members and others who knew Bonhoeffer and Schneider. 

            They have conducted several tours in Germany and Poland, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998 (twice), 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2005. In September 1998 they met with U S Army Chaplains stationed in the Grafenwohr, Germany, area.  The next scheduled tour is 18 May - 7 June 2006.   

            They have given many presentations ranging from 1 hour to 8 1-hour sessions.  They have spoken in churches in Alaska, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. 

            Sharon also gives presentations at church women's groups about women of that time (during WW 2 in Germany).  Included are Sabine-Bonhoeffer Leibholz (twin sister of Bonhoeffer) and Friederike Zimmermann (wife of a Bonhoeffer student).  Fee arrangement:  mileage and a free-will offering. 

DB Ministry & Travel Service, Inc.
12732 Villa Beach Road
Villard, Minnesota 56385 USA
Phone: (320) 554-2422
E-Mail: marlan@dbmintrav.com