‘Get your hands dirty’

Being a quarter Cherokee, John Crisp had always felt a calling on his life to help Native Americans. When he died on Nov. 13, 2014 at age 67, “Papa John” was the father of one and the adopted grandfather to 12 or more children. 

After his death, his wife, Mary, received multiple phone calls from people at the reservations in New Mexico and Arizona where they had spent time. One little girl even sent a pink Native American blanket to the Crisps while John was in the hospital. 

His wife, Mary, said he touched many lives around him that she had never known about.

 “I found out a lot of things after he passed away, that I didn’t know,” she said. “Complete strangers have come up to me and said, ‘This is what he’s done for me,’ and that has been such a comfort.”

Mary said John had a wake-up call in October 2012 when he was diagnosed with cancer. He beat it and afterward was determined not to waste another day. He continued to work up until a stroke took his life, and he and Mary were even able to take one last mission trip to New Mexico the month before. 

“I was so grateful that he got to do that again,” Mary said. “Of course, he was planning on going back with me in April and staying an extra week. So we don’t get to finish what we started, but I think God has used his death in ways that I could never have even imagined. Everyone that took part in his service loved him and was part of his life.” 

Mary and John married in 1965 when they were both 18 years old. Mary laughed remembering that John had to have his mother sign the papers to give him permission. They both worked in engineering in many different states. 

John loved photography, reading and writing, NASCAR, USC Women’s College Basketball and his extensive collection of shot glasses, but his strongest passion was ministering to Native Americans. When he and Mary started attending  The Church at Brook Hills, they met JT and Sheryl Turner with OneWay Ministries and together began taking mission trips several times a year. 

“It was his passion, but after I went with him a few times and got involved, it became my passion too,” Mary said. “It’s funny how that happens — what you spend your time doing. That was his focus.”

John’s philosophy had always been, “You have to get your hands dirty,” and the had always hoped people from their churches, Double Oak Community and Grace Point Church, would get out and experience the mission trips. She said people in churches are often eager to write a check to help out, but going out on a trip is life changing.  

 “God just opens doors and puts you where you need to be a lot of times — if you listen to Him — and He did with John,” Mary said. “He just made Native American missions his life’s work after he got back in church.”

The only thing John ever regretted in his life, Mary said, was the time he spent away from the church. From his personal testimony, John writes, “I spent 30 years outside the will of God. I will not leave this time. I will not let anything come between me and the joy, peace, hope and contentment of belonging to Christ Jesus.” 

John’s complete testimony was read at his funeral, and Mary said it touched many people and even brought some back to the church. She plans to continue the work she and John started. She’ll be taking another trip to New Mexico the first week of April, and she feels like he’ll be there with her. 

“It was just another level that you could share with each other,” Mary said. “It made us more united because we were doing that together…Whatever God has put on our plate, we have tried to deal with. He blessed us so much that I even feel guilty saying, ‘Well God you could have given us another 20 years.’ It’s an amazing way of life when you let Him take control.”