Kristina (Johnson) Palmer has returned home to serve as the new music teacher at Lincoln and McKinley elementaries.
She grew up in Iola’s First Baptist Church, earned a degree from Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, Mo., and says her faith in God led her and husband Jonathan to Iola earlier this year.
After graduating from SBU, Palmer took a position teaching elementary music in Warsaw, Mo., had a boyfriend and figured she’d stay put.
The romance didn’t work out, but she did stay in Warsaw.
It was through her participation with an instrumental group that she met Jonathan Palmer, a fellow musician. Things worked out, they married and phase two of forever in Warsaw seemed their future.
“We had a good church, good jobs, and there was nothing bad about Warsaw,” Kristina said. “In March, Jonathan and I felt like we weren’t where we needed to be.
“We prayed about what we should do and we felt that God was calling us back to our families,” she added.
Jonathan grew up in Kansas City, but Iola seemed a better fit for the young family.
Kristina cashed in sick leave from 10 years of teaching at Warsaw, which provided money to tide them over in the move to Iola. The Palmers came this way “without jobs, just on faith that this is where God wanted us,” Kristina said.
They moved in with her parents, Charlie and Roberta Johnson, at a time when Charlie was battling the last stage of cancer. He died Aug. 1.
“I didn’t realize Dad was as bad as he was until we moved here,” Kristina said. “I spent the last two months with him and probably got to know him better in that time than any other. We had just an awesome time together.
“We knew God wanted us here and then the pieces of the puzzle started falling in place,” particularly after her mother noted there was a job opening in USD 257 to teach music at Lincoln and McKinley elementaries.
ANOTHER BIG piece of the puzzle came into place when Jonathan was hired as youth minister at First Baptist, an endeavor he shares with Kristina.
The youth group has grown from a single teenager — it’s for youths 12 to 18 — to 10 in less than two months. The Palmers also are worship leaders for Sunday morning services, which entails developing and leading the musical portion of services.
While she gives God the glory for the twists and turns that led her and Jonathan to Iola, Kristina said former Iolans Sean and Brenda Lee also had a role.
The Lees led youth programs at First Baptist when Kristina was a teenager and, she said, were instrumental in her deciding to pursue a career in music and attend Southwest Baptist University.
