John Himes was born as the second grandson of famed evangelist John R. Rice in the city of Miami, Oklahoma. His childhood was spent in various cities where his father pastored in Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee and Wisconsin. He was saved through John 3:16 at the feet of his mother at age 4. God called John to preach at age 18 through the preaching of Evangelist Bud Lyles, then to be a missionary at age 20 in a missionary conference at Tennessee Temple College.
John and Patty met while John was on deputation to go to Japan under Baptist World Mission. Patty had applied to BWM, and candidate committee members Dr. Wayne Van Gelderen, Sr., and Dr. Ed Nelson urged John to write her—with wonderful results! John worked at the Sword of the Lord as an editor after college. He and Patty then spent 33 blessed years serving Christ on the field of Japan before coming to BCM.
In 2014, John retired from the mission field and joined the BCM faculty. He teaches Greek, church history, Bible, missions and theology. He was the lead translator for the recently published Lifeline Japanese New Testament. John has had several books and pamphlets published, including The Making of a Soul Winner, A Christian Philosophy of Self Defense, and John R. Rice, The Last Revivalist of the 20th Century.
John enjoys playing games with his family and collecting baseball cards. He is trained in and practices several Asian methods of self-defense. His biggest burden in the ministry is missions, especially in the area of Bible translation. He truly enjoys teaching all of his missions and translation classes, sharing with the students his burden for fulfilling the Great Commission.
