Through the Waters

The Life and Ministry of Evangelist Willie Johnson

Wagner Lori

• Publisher: Affirming Faith, Inc.
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781733551717
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

Willie Johnson

Granddaughter of a slave.

Rejected by her father.

Sold by her mother.

Abused by her husband.

How did abiracial womanbecome accepted to preach revivals in the Deep South and coast to coast during segregation and the Civil Rights movement? How did she rise above abuse, social stigma, and cultural limitations to step with anointing and confidence into pulpits all across America with her majestic cape swirling about her shoulders?

? From the 1930s to the 1980s, Sister Willie's powerful ministry intermingled song, Scripture, and a unique demonstration of spiritual gifts that were unusual in her day. Everywhere she ministered, she was beloved and highly esteemed, and lives were changed. ReadThrough the Watersand learn how to rise above yourobstacles from the inspiring life and ministry of Willie Johnson.

He Washed My Eyes with Tears

Verse 1

He washed my eyes with tears that I might see

The broken heart I had was good for me

He tore it all apart and looked inside

He found it full of fear and foolish pride

He swept away the things that made me blind

And then I saw the clouds were silver lined

And now I understand ‘twas best for me

He washed my eyes with tears that I might see

Verse 2

He washed my eyes with tears that I might see

The glory of Himself revealed to me

I did not know that He had wounded hands

I saw the blood He spilt upon the sands

I saw the marks of shame and wept and cried

He was my substitute, for me He died

And now I’m glad He came so tenderly

And washed my eyes with tears that I might see¹

Chapter 1

HE WASHED MY EYES WITH TEARS

The Rescue of Willie Johnson

B ruised and dejected, the tall biracial woman plodded down the street toward the bridge. Enough. She’d just had enough.

The dark river called her to step into the waters and end the misery that was her life.

Just a few more steps and it would all be over.

It was a normal day in Moundsville—at least for everyone else living in the small West Virginia town. Willie meandered her way to her baby’s grave. She had to see him one last time before heading to the river. Sorrow engulfed her soul. Hopelessness consumed her. And on top of everything else wrong in her life, it just seemed no one cared.

I don’t think I can go on any longer.

Images flashed through Willie’s mind as she continued her journey—pictures she had long tried to forget.

Her wedding day. Oh, how she had tried to erase the image that seared into her soul when she witnessed the exchange of money between her husband-to-be, Scott Johnson, and her mother, Louella Cougar. Somehow Louella knew Scott, who was 25 years older than Willie. How they connected was not known, but apparently, when Louella learned Scott Johnson was looking for a pretty young wife, arrangements were made, and Willie was given to Scott Johnson to have and to hold, if not to love and to cherish.

Willie’s parents never married. Her grandmother had been born into slavery, and her mother worked as the housemaid of Daniel Layne, a prominent United States senator from Tennessee. He fathered Willie, but he never acknowledged her as his daughter.

Purchased.

Willie replayed the word that had haunted her for years. She just didn’t understand Scott Johnson. She felt not much more than a piece of property to him, but even given her realistic perspective, she could not understand why a man would treat his wife so poorly, especially when he had paid hard-earned money for her.

Willie’s fleeting hopes of a good marriage had fallen quickly to the ground with each blow of Scott’s thick belt.

Hunger.

Cold.

The gaunt faces of her three children who had so little to eat and no proper clothing.

Each devastating memory propelled Willie forward to the churning river. Life was just not worth living.

Music drifted from an old building across the way and slipped into Willie’s revery as she plodded forward in the night. A musically gifted woman, her spirit responded to the melody. The singing was like none she had heard before. It drew her, and she moved toward the sound. As she neared the storefront building on the river road, her thoughts flashed back to an incredible encounter that had taken place after the birth of her first son, Rudolph.

The unexpected meeting began with a dream Willie had that four women were going to come to her and tell her how to “get right” with God. Unknown to her, in Morgantown, approximately ninety miles away, Wilmina Goodin, Ruth Fisher, Goldie Bosley, and Josephine Poling gathered daily for prayer. The morning after Willie’s dream, the Spirit fell in their prayer meeting. One of the women gave a message in tongues, and another interpreted it. Through the gifts of the Spirit, the Lord directed the women to travel to Moundsville to a specific address and ask for a woman named Willie Johnson.

I have chosen her for a great work.

The four women responded immediately and took the train to Moundsville. Once there, they hired a carriage to drive them to the address they were given. It was a hardware store where the women disembarked and inquired with a gentleman inside about a woman named Willie. “That could only be Scott Johnson’s wife,” said the man, and he told the women how to find the Johnson place out by Parrs Run, a small stream that flowed through Moundsville.

The driver assisted the women into the waiting carriage, climbed onto his perch, and picked up the reins. “Git up,” he called to the team. The horses took up the slack in their harnesses, and with a jolt, the carriage lurched forward. Holy expectation filled the women’s hearts as they began the final leg of their journey. The carriage took them from the small mining town into the shadows of the forest until the driver was unable to navigate any closer to their destination. He reined in the team near Parrs Run, and the women stepped out onto a woodland path. After a short way, the path broke into a clearing, and nestled in the opening was a home, not much more than a shack. A plume of smoke curled out its chimney, and a woman opened the front door.

Willie Johnson stepped out the door of her home carrying two empty coal buckets. Her dark eyes widened in surprise when she saw the women. She threw the buckets to the ground and cried, “You came! You came! Just like He said you would!”

The four women spent time with Willie and shared the gospel with her. They encouraged her and explained God’s salvation plan of repentance, baptism in water in Jesus’s name, and the baptism of the Spirit.²

Following this incredible encounter, Willie’s faith surged for a season; but life had remained so very hard and her husband so very mean. She had tried to live out her faith, but darkness eventually choked out the light of hope. In 1925, her second son, Scottie, had been born, and then in 1927, her daughter, Gloria. In 1929, after baby Donald died of acute bronchitis and pneumonia, it seemed to Willie she buried her last bit of hope in the little grave with the tiny body of her lifeless son.

The only way out was the path she now walked to the river.

But that music—that spirited singing coming from the church—it was beautiful.

It won’t hurt or change anything if I pause and listen.

Willie stood outside the door for a moment until the singing drew her in. Music had always been a part of her life. As a child, she had sung in the small Baptist church she attended, but this music was different.

Something grabbed ahold of her heart.

When she walked in the door, the scene was unlike anything she was familiar with. People were speaking all at once, their faces lifted to heaven. An evangelist, Bud Entsminger, “preached an old fashioned, tongue-talking, devil-chasing, Apostolic message.”³ Willie was “shaking like Belshazzar” as the minister walked up and down the aisle, preaching about the Holy Ghost.

Her emotions were all over the place, and she chuckled when she saw the fired-up evangelist lift the makeshift Bible stand and carry it from one end of the platform to the other. She’d heard at choir practice, at the Methodist church where she sang, about the Pentecostal preacher who carried the pulpit around when he preached, but she hadn’t believed it. Any pulpit she had ever seen was far too heavy to lift with one hand, but this Bible stand was made of orange crates and covered with muslin. Lifting it was not the supernatural feat she had imagined it to be, yet there was something alive and powerful in the service that she could not walk away from, and Willie knew deep in her heart she wanted God—all of God. She responded to the message and received the Holy Ghost. It changed her life, her future, and her eternity.

The joy that filled Willie’s heart that night could not be contained. When she left the meeting, she ran out in the street and told everyone who would listen what had happened. She went from person to person and even grabbed the coat of a police officer on the street.

“I just received the Holy Ghost!” she shouted.

The officer pulled away and shook his head. “You received what?”

“I just received the Holy Ghost,” she declared with a broad smile and twinkling eyes. “Everybody ought to know what the Holy Ghost is!”

Willie Johnson had just found a reason for living, and live she would—to the ful...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: He Washed My Eyes with Tears (The Rescue of Willie Johnson)
• Chapter 2: Little Old Wooden Church Way Out on the Hill (The 1930s)
• Chapter 3: I Trust in God (Family Life During Early Ministry Years)
• Chapter 4: Consecrated (Living for God)
• Chapter 5: God Leads Us Along (The 1940s)
• Chapter 6: I’m in Love with Jesus, and He’s in Love with Me (Music Ministry)
• Chapter 7: Use Me (Team Ministry with Charlene Day)
• Chapter 8: Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand (The 1950s)
• Chapter 9: Alright (Another Open Door)
• Chapter 10: All Day Long I’ve Been with Jesus (Prayer and Preparation)
• Chapter 11: My Thanks to Him (The 1960s)
• Chapter 12: I’d Be Willing to Run All the Way (Willie Johnson’s Unique Ministry)
• Chapter 13: I Cannot Fail the Lord (The 1970s)
• Chapter 14: God is Still on the Throne (Living Above Prejudice)
• Chapter 15: Down from His Glory (The Johnson Children)
• Chapter 16: Love Lifted Me (The 1980s)
• Chapter 17: The Lord Will Make a Way (Willie Johnson’s Legacy)
• Chapter 18: Just What Heaven Means to Me (The Last Years)
• Epilogue
• Notes & Contributors
• Resource List
• Appendices