Bridging Barriers

Growing up in North Carolina, Johnnie McKoy used to read his New Testament for half an hour to an hour at a time. His mother finally told him he was going to be a preacher. He said no, he just wanted to know what the scriptures said. He wanted to know who he really was.

Once he was married, he and his wife, Rejena, wanted to rear their children as members of a church. “I prayed for about four months, morning and night,” he explains. “I wanted the Lord to really take charge of my life.”

One day he came home and found that Rejena had invited the Latter-day Saint missionaries into his living room. “They said they were led to stop at my house and my house only, having driven around the neighborhood for about two hours.”

After listening to the first discussion, Johnnie and Rejena studied for about two years before they were baptized.

After his conversion, Johnnie “fell in love with missionary work.” He was eventually asked to serve as ward mission leader. “They said I was already doing the work, so they were just giving me the calling,” he says, smiling.

Currently Johnnie is a high councilor in the Greensboro North Carolina Stake. “The Church is what is going to change the world by coming into people’s lives,” he declares.—Jessie L. Embry, Provo, Utah