Transformation -- One Person At A Time
Delphina Johnson has a passion to help Native people on reservations
experience the life-changing process of discipling and mentoring.
That's why she became an associate staff member with The Navigators in
1999.
Raised
on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona, Delphina is of the Big
Water Clan. Except for the years she spent getting her education, she's
lived most of her life on the reservation.
Originally from
Indiana, her husband, Tom, came to the reservation 10 years ago when he
felt God's call to live and serve the Native people.
Nineteen-year-old
Jennifer is just one of the people Tom and Delphina have reached. The
couple met Jennifer during a Bible study several years ago; she'd come
because she wanted to learn more about Jesus. As they got to know her,
they were amazed at how God had been working in her life.
They
learned that Jennifer was living in a dilapidated Hogan with no running
water or electricity with her mother, 80-year-old grandmother, and an
aunt. She was in the alternative high school because she had dropped
out of school for one year to live a wild lifestyle. But one day, after
returning from an outing with friends, she heard music from a
Pentecostal tent revival near her home. She went to check it out, and
that's when she received Jesus as her Savior.
Delphina began to
disciple Jennifer, and she has seen God do some wonderful things in
Jennifer's personal life as well as her family. Jennifer was the first
in her family to become a Christian. Because of her decision, her mom
and aunt have started coming to church. And her grandmother, who lived
all her life in the traditional belief, received Jesus before she
passed away.
There are many Jennifers on the reservation where
Tom and Delphina live. Many young people drop out of high school and
never go back. It is also very common to see teenagers getting
pregnant. That could have been Jennifer, but she chose to trust and
follow Jesus instead.
Today, Jennifer is in college, helping
support her mother, and desiring to do God's will. God has a wonderful
way of transforming livesone person at a time.
As for Tom and
Delphina, they live in Many Farms, Arizona, where they are both
teachers. They also minister to the people within that community, 99
percent of them being Navajo. And along with their church leadership,
they work with Native youth from the community and lead Bible studies.
