The story of Johna Platero as told to Doris Carlson
I was at an all-time high, full of arrogance and certainty, teaching in a social work program, practicing law. I was networked with many powerful and wealthy people. That was 1986.
By 1987, I was charged with several felony counts for receiving stolen money. Ashamed and not wanting to embarrass my family, I checked into a treatment facility… planning to commit suicide.
It was there that I met Ken Reeves. God had told him to go to the treatment center, even though he had already been freed from cocaine addiction. During the two weeks that I was at the facility, Ken challenged me to “try God”.
Since nothing else was working my way… I prayed, “God, I don’t know if You Are, but if You Are, I am willing to be willing to know You… I’m from Missouri, the ‘show-me state’, so God… you’ll have to show me that You Are!”
Two weeks later, I married Ken and began reading my Bible. I came to love God. I pled ‘no contest’ to my crimes and spent 14 months in an Arizona Federal Prison… where God taught me a lot. Most important: I learned that God Is! I came to know that I am Johna, daughter of God, woman of faith.
I had been out of prison about 2 years when we learned that Ken had contracted HIV/AIDS by sharing needles during his brief cocaine addiction.
Again, Ken challenged me by saying, “There is a famine in the land of Christians. We have the Bread, Jesus. Now we have the wagon, AIDS. Let us take Jesus, anew, to His people.”
It was difficult, but Ken reminded me, “We will not be offended.” Often, it would have been easier to ‘pick up an offense’ than to seize the moment for education or merely quietness. Like when hearing folks say, “If all the addicts and perverts were locked up we wouldn’t have AIDS.” Hmmm; or the older woman who said, “Johna, Ken doesn’t drink from the water fountain, does he?”
God called us to start Casa Gloriosa, a sanctuary for AIDS affected/infected women and children in Tucson. He gave us 23 people that eventually died of AIDS. During that time, we were also blessed and honored to adopt ‘CJ’ Guerra.
Ken died June 2, 2002. After Ken died, my faith was tested again. For 14 years I’d lived and loved God without question. That June morning, after Ken died, I was overwhelmed with doubt… and the thought, “…so we live, we die and that is that...”
But, I was conditioned to run to the one place where there is safety, answers and joy – God’s Word. For months after Ken’s death much of my time was spent reading the Bible. Once Ken told me, “You know, Johna. In heaven, all that will last… is the Word of God in you!”
I was impacted such that a “normal” life doesn’t work for me. I want… I need a life that pushes and tugs and pulls me always… for more of God.
In 2004, I fell in love with and married Damon Platero. Together, we are working to serve Navajo people that suffer from alcohol/drugs, HIV, violence and suicide. This piece of the journey has been difficult… but really good for me. My faith holds me still, makes me quiet, gives me a voice and allows me to serve in a place where I am the minority, the outsider, and sometimes perceived as the intruder. However, His plan is not based on circumstances, so having stood, we stand!
The story of Ken & Johna, titled ‘Willing to be Willing,” will
soon be available at
BarnesAndNoble.com and
Amazon.com.
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