Deby Johnston

I was born on July 3, 1952 at the Fort Benning, Georgia army hospital at the same time my father was making a parachute jump, He used to joke with me that we were both coming out of the chute at the same time.
It was the same year Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis filmed Jumping Jacks at Fort Benning. My dad was able to see some of the filming, and I really enjoy watching that movie, because when I look past the actors into the background I see what my dad saw while he served there.
It's really neat looking back through time!
My husband, John, and I have one daughter, Chrystal, a son-in-law Alan Temple, and two grand children, Patrick and Chelsea Temple. We are members of North Bay Baptist Fellowship in Ingleside, Texas, which was started as a mission of First Baptist Church, Portland, Texas.

I have been interested in music for as long as I can remember. I believe every child is born with music inside them, they just need an outlet. My first memories of music were while attending Vacation Bible School in Muskogee, Ok during the summers I spent with my grandmother. I was about 5 or 6. I loved to sing, as do all children. I also remember an old guitar in someone's closet. I don't remember where this was, but I remember strumming the strings and listening to the sound. I was fascinated.

Years later, I took a music class in grade school. I think the flute-like instrument was called a tonette. Now, it's called a recorder. In Jr. High, I was learning to play the clarinet, but my grades weren't so good, so Dad made me give it up. But, I think he sensed that music was important to me, because, later, he bought me a second hand guitar and a lesson book. (it was the 60's when it seemed everyone wanted to play a guitar and be in a band). When I got to High School, I joined the choir, which I took for four years. My senior year I also joined the band, and learned to play the saxophone. I first tried the bassoon, but I didn't have enough wind, regardless what my husband says. Besides, I don't think you can march with one of those things. It would be dragging the ground. All the while I was still learning to play the guitar.

Now you might think with all this exposure to music that I would learn to read the notes! NOT! Well I can read some. I knew when they went up or down, and I figured out real quick which ones were sharp or flat. As a matter of fact, I was first chair in saxophone until the band director found out I couldn't read a lick. If he just hadn't asked me to sight read that music. I could follow the notes fine when everyone else played. I just couldn't sight read. Oh Well! I had fun any way. We even marched in the Astrodome that year.

And just because I taught myself to play the piano, that didn't change anything, I still have trouble reading the notes. I usually play by chords, (ear) and it seems to get the job done. Around 1988 or '89 our pianist, who had two children between the ages of 7 & 10, began a second set of children, and when you have young children in the home, someone's always sick. She was forced to miss church a lot and we were forced to sing acappella a lot. Which is OK, but a service sure goes better with music.

God began to lay a burden on my heart. I realized if I could learn to play a guitar, and with all the choir I had taken, and band, surely I could learn to play Just as I Am for the invitation. All I had to do was allow myself to be used. That's all God wants.. is for us take what He's given us, and give it back to Him to be used for His glory. So that's how I learned (ha!) the piano. Here I was, in my 30's, over the hill, (NOT) about to be a grandmother in 4 years, and allowing God to teach me the piano. But, that's what I did. Allowed Him to teach me. As I prayed and pounded, those dangling, uncoordinated notes slowly began to take on the form of music.

When our choir director, David Douglass, discovered what I was trying to do, he encouraged me......to jump off the deep end, he encouraged me..and to play...right out there in front of everyone...ARGH!!GAG!! But, my church family was so sweet, and patient, and apparently tone deaf, because they've put up with my playing these past few years. Our former pianist, Jenny, helped a lot by showing me how to find the chords on the piano, and told me Fake It Till You Make It. I guess she was right. I'm still faking it, but I don't think I've MADE IT ..quite yet. I hope there's a piano in heaven, because the Bible says we're gonna know everything, and I want to play that thing the way it was meant to be played.

Like Jesus, when he turned the water turned into wine, I've saved the best for last. In 1960, while attending First Baptist Church in Aransas Pass, Texas with my family, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart. I was eight years old. I walked the aisle, accepted Christ as my personal Savior and was baptized. I later attended Second Baptist Church in Aransas Pass during the late 60's, because the pastor's (Rev. L.G.Rogers) son and I were good friends. Jerry and two more friends, Patty McCullough, (now Guynes) and Randy Trout all liked music. We were in the choir together, and three of us played guitar.

You guessed it, we formed a band. Actually a Gospel Group. Since we went to school during the 60's we HAD to have a unique name, and the Monkees, Beatles, and Herman's Hermits was already taken, so after much thought we came up with an idea. We would combine the first two letters of each of our names. So the group was christened JEDERAPA. In case you are wondering ...WHY ON EARTH ???...that was the only combination that was pronounceable. And it was very different. Now that I look at it again, there was a message in that name that I didn't see before. With JEsus' DEath on the cross our RAnsom was PAid. Isn't God amazing. The Gospel is all around us if we'll look. And if we fail to proclaim His name, even the rocks will cry out.

In 1970, Bro. Rogers was preaching and I was listening, which is difficult for any teenager, especially when they are looking to being out of High School and soon to be married. Something he said caused me to want to be sure that I was saved. I thought at the time that maybe I was a little young when I first decided to follow Christ. How many eight year olds really understand what that means. Not many grownups do, either. For whatever reason, I wanted to be sure. I walked the aisle again, feeling more confident now that my eternity was secure.

By the way, feelings, or walking the aisle to join a church, or saying the right words, or being sprinkled, or any other religious thing does not give you a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ. You can join someone's fan club, but that doesn't mean that you have met that person or that you know them personally, nor does that make you friends. You have to ASK Christ to forgive you of your sin and to be YOUR personal savior. You have to ASK him to be your friend. He is always ready to forgive, and waiting for you to ask!

On January 1, 1998 I began singing with the Song Of Glory. What a thrill... that God would allow me to be part of a ministry I had always admired. Many times they would come to our church, and I would sit there singing alto, under my breath, wishing I could be up there with them. It's kinda hard to sing softly with your husband nudging you in the ribs to be quiet. But I didn't let that stop me, I just sang softer!

I've heard preachers say that God will give His children the desires of their heart, as long as it's in His will and serves His purpose. And that's what I want to do, be in His will, serving His purpose. I know how music has ministered to me over the years, and I want to be used by Him to minister to others through music.

Some people may not believe that music is important, but it is. Music can prepare hearts to receive God's Word, soothe broken hearts, and lift up spirits to worship Him. Music is an important form of communication. Sometimes it's easier for me to say something in a song, that any other way. But, I guess that sounds funny, now that I've said so much in this biography. I can't believe it either! I usually have trouble expressing myself. But then, when I speak, I can't use a word processor to make corrections. Thank goodness, for computers!