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By Fred DeVries
DARRELL AND SHARON Johnson will always remember that day – the day last summer when their son took his own life.
 | | Sharon and Darrell Johnson want to help young people. |
Since then, the Johnsons have grieved and mourned their personal loss, and they’ve had some time to reflect on Alex’s life.
“Alex came to us after living for 10 years in an orphanage – a caring one, but an orphanage nonetheless,” said Darrell, pastor at First Baptist Church in Vancouver.
“Alex simply did not experience the kind of relational love we ordinarily do growing up in a family. He came to us with all kinds of complex relationship and boundary issues.”
The Johnsons adopted Alex into their family. “We as a family loved him as best we could. But the ‘stuff’ he carried needed more attention than we, or our local church, could give him,” added Darrell.
For many years, Darrell and Sharon hoped Alex could have taken part in a group or program that would have helped him address his deeper relational issues.
“Had he had such an opportunity in his adolescent years, we wonder if he would not have found himself in the place he was when he felt he had no other option but to take his life,” said Darrell.
That’s why the Johnsons are working with Living Waters Canada – a ministry dedicated to helping men, women and youth experience relational and sexual healing in their lives.
With the Johnsons, Living Waters is establishing the Alexei Daniel Johnson Fund, which will help expand the ministry’s work with youth and young adults in Canada.
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One of Living Waters offerings is The River – an interactive discipleship program designed to help young people discover relational wholeness and identity in Christ, giving them tools to navigate a spiritually confused culture.
“For the past decade or so, we so wished that he could have been part of a River-like experience,” said Darrell.
“So we want to do what we can to make it possible for other young people to experience the healing of Jesus’ living waters.”
Programs like The River address tough issues that teens and young adults face.
“As a parent, I see how our young people are influenced by a permissive and suggestive culture. Many of them are so confused,” said Toni Dolfo-Smith, executive director of Living Waters Canada.
“That’s why we offer The River, which is beneficial and helpful to all young people, not just those in crisis.”
Currently The River is being offered at various church youth groups and at a Christian high school in the Lower Mainland.
“Like the Johnsons, we want to give more young people the opportunity to live holy, healthy lives,” added Toni.
The Johnsons will share more of their story and journey on April 9, when they’ll help launch the Alexei Daniel Johnson Fund with Living Waters Canada.
This open-invitation event – titled ‘A Thousand Whys’ – will take place at First Baptist Church, 969 Burrard Street in Vancouver at 7:30 pm.
Contact: 604.301.1470 or livingwaterscanada.org.
March 2010
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