Naima
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Naima

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The best kept secret in music

Press


"Naima Johnston: From Wright State to Center Stage"

Excerpts from July 2004 Edition of the Dayton Defender

Naima Tonya Johnston is the founder and CEO of Broken Box Ministries, a Christian arts and entertainment organization dedicated to spreading the gospel through the creative and sacred arts. Johnston is an anointed singer and songwriter who recently released her debut CD, Everything. She is also an entrepreneur and a former professor of Women's Studies at Wright State University.

Johnston's story begins with a little girl from the Bronx but ends with an anointed and directed woman in Dayton, Ohio. She tells a story of how she built her life around a man and dreamed of being his helpmate. Then her dreams were shattered when he told her he did not feel the same way. She also speaks of how God told her to quit her job and start her ministry with the gospel club and singing career. She goes by her birth name Naima as an artist and speaker.

The songs on her debut CD center on the need to not place hopes and dreams in man, marriage, and the things of this world, but to find fulfillment in faith and the love of God.

She is currently working on her second CD and writing a book entitled, Broken Boxes, Making Jesus Everything, a book exploring her life growing up in New York City.

Johnston tours extensively, singing, and speaking at churches, special events and various venues around the nation. She has been featured at several festivals such as The Fish Festival in Kansas, St. Mary's Festival in Fairborn, Ohio and The Love Fest with Walt Baby Love and Dorinda Clark Cole in Dayton, Ohio.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Johnston by the Dayton Defender:

Tiana: What do you think is the key obstacle for African American women?

Naima: I believe that the greatest obstacle for African American women comes from within. We suffer from a lack of faith, self belief, and the unwillingness to move when the Spirit says move. We also struggle with self love, but I believe we are moving to a place where women will look into the mirrior and see themselves as they truly are, daughters of the King!

Tiana: How do you prepare for speaking engagements?

Naima: I never know what I am going to speak on until a few days before the event. But I believe it will be a message that encourages and edifies the women in attendance. Sometimes you have to be encouraged to give a little more and go a little further. To overcome the adversity in this world today, we all have to take it up a notch and run the race to completion.

Tiana: What advice would you give to those who are recently starting in your field?

Naima: Advice to those starting out? I would say, count the cost and then before you begin count it again. If you are ready to lose it all to accomplish your dreams, if you feel as if you wll suffocate if you don't pursue the gifts and callings within you - then it is time to get started doing what you were born to do. On the practical side - be financially astute, be organized and do a ton of research!

Naima will be the keynote speaker at the Nefertiti Awards on Saturday, July 10, 2004 at Xavier University's Cintas Center in Cincinnnati, Ohio. - Dayton Defender by Tiana Rollinson


"Pastor Tim Winton"

Naima is anointed, empowered, and inspired by God to lead people into the presence of God with her ministry of worship. Naima is not a performer, she is a worshipper. - Lighthouse City of Refuge Christian Church


"Dwan Taylor"

Ms. Johnston is a person who I can honestly say gives me inspiration and courage. She has such a presence about her and speaks so profoundly to her students. We just shut up and listen. She keeps it real! - Former Student


"Lynnette Heard"

Ms. Johnston is an extraordinarily gifted and well prepared artist whose life and music are guided by God. It is evident that her gifts and talents are ready to be shared more widely. I hope you will find her as wonderful as I do! - Executive Director, President's Office, University of Dayton


"Jeff Woods"

Naima is definitely an anointed singer/songwriter who captivates audiences. She is awesome on stage and is willing to take time to talk to people one on one before and after shows. She works hard on introducing people to Jesus Christ, and I believe that is the greatest accolade of all.


- Founder/Director Harvest Cafe


"Naima on JCmyHP Podcast!"

"...to repeat the cliche, "She has the voice of an angel" is to minimize the testimony you will feel in her songs."
Dan from JCmyHP Friends Page vist www.jcmyhp.org for the entire review. - www.jcmhp.org


Discography

Everything 2002

An Angel's Song, Christmas EP Dec. 2005

Favorites EP Summer 2006

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

The Story of Everything

Testimonies change as we experience life in Christ. We have our initial testimony of how the Lord reached out to us and we were able to respond, recognizing that we need Him in order to live now and eternally. There is the testimony of His extended grace, of His mercies, of His making a way out of no way, but in each season of our lives there is a new testimony that we stand on as we move from glory to glory.

I could tell you about my education, my degrees in Sociology from Ohio Wesleyan University, my Master's from The Ohio State University in Educational Administration or my recent PhD in Education from OSU as well. I could tell you as a child all I ever wanted to do was sing and somewhere along the way I lost the belief in the gift that God had blessed me with and gave it all up only to be asked by the Lord on a beach in Jamaica to re-accept the calling which cannot be revoked and leave my job at Wright State University to form Broken Box Ministries, a Christian Arts and Education Organization. I could tell you how the Lord instilled in me boldness and confidence in Him by allowing me to be the Youth Praise and Worship Leader under the ministry of Youth Pastors Tim and Leann Winton and later when Pastor Tim started his own church how I became the worship leader and trained others in music ministry. I could tell you that growing up I looked for love in all the wrong places, hid myself from the world as often as possible and even now struggle with an intense desire to be hidden from view. But that is not my testimony right now...

My current testimony begins in November of 2001 when the man that I wanted to give my entire life to told me that he did not feel the same way about me and I thought that my life was ending. Being a child of the Lord I knew that God could take this pain and use it for His glory, but I didn't know how. As a woman who dreamed of one day ministering to and with a mighty man of God and raising a family, I was devastated and I could not understand why the Lord allowed my entire life to be shattered. For over a year I had built my entire life around the hope of becoming this man's helpmate and yet this was not to be the case. My heart was breaking and even though I knew the Lord was with me I couldn't feel Him. What hurt the most was that I believed that God had ordained this relationship. It was then that I had a frightening thought. I wondered if the relationship that I had with this fallible human, who loved me yet could not love me as God did, meant more to me then my relationship with the Lord. I think I may have spent too much time seeking the hand of God about wanting this relationship instead of asking and allowing God to determine the outcome of my life. I never thought that He might have something better for me.

My struggle with finding love and acceptance in relationships is not a new mistake. It is one that I have made several times. And as I mediated on what my life was like and how I was letting God down again, it dawned on me that He truly was there to take me in His arms and hold me. For the first time I had a true understanding of His unconditional love, His ability to see the entire picture of my life and His desire to do only the best for me. I had just begun singing and writing again and I did what I had done since I was saved in 1994 when I was in unbearable pain. I began to sing a melody unto the Lord and in about 30 minutes a song came out. Everything, even now when I sing the song I wrote on that cold November day, I get emotional because I know how much pain I was in and how much I loved that young man. But God is always faithful and it is often in our darkest moments that His love shines the brightest. Jesus is my everything, everything I ever wanted, dreamed of and needed.

The perfect gentleman, He is always waiting when I come home.