Benjamin Kreider Stoner

I was born in Gettysburg, Pa., about 5:00 a.m. on May 3, 1948. Daddy missed my birth by half an hour because he had to go home to milk the cows! In my childhood I played among the big rocks on the farm, often alone and sometimes with neighbors: Dolores Wolf, Mike and Hank Hess. When I was in about 4th grade, Mac, my next older brother and I began the weekly job of cleaning and re-arranging Victory School House in preparation for Morning Hour Sunday School. Together we carried this responsibility until Mac graduated from high school; then I did it for another year alone until I graduated.

I felt God's call to be a missionary from the time I was a small child. I was impacted by my Aunt Mary Kreider and cousins who were missionaries: John and Ethel Kreider, Nancy Kreider and Henry and Edna Kreider. Many other missionaries from India, Japan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe visited Morning Hour, and I felt God's call confirmed all through my growing-up years.

I was a music education major at Messiah College from 1966-70, and met Eunice Longenecker in Choral Society. She was a home economics education major. We graduated on her 22nd birthday, May 23, married June 13, and moved to the Navajo Brethren in Christ Mission, Bloomfield, New Mexico on August 17, 1970. There I taught 4th and 5th grades for one year while Eunice was the school cook for about 70 students plus staff.

In June 1971, we moved to 402 West Animas St., Farmington, a property owned by the mission. We held youth activities and prayer meetings in our home, and visited the homes of our Navajo friends frequently. Timothy was born at the Navajo Hospital on June 15, 1973. We grew a garden in the summer, and brought street walkers (usually drunk) into our home on cold winter nights. In 1976, Janet Oberholtzer, a co-worker, heard from the Lord that we would be moving out to live like the Navajos in the country. That was confirmation of our plan to move to the Chaco area into a one-room house. Joseph was born on June 2, 1976, three months before we moved.

In Chaco, our house was 12'x26', with no electricity or running water. We hauled wood and chopped coal from the ground to heat the room with our cook stove. We helped the Chaco Brethren in Christ Church, did home Bible studies, and taught Navajos to read their language. From 1977-1979 I taught Navajo Headstart about a mile from our home. At meetings for the staff of the region I met people from a large area of the reservation. These contacts proved helpful in later years.

We moved back to the mission in July 1979, where I began to teach Theological Education by Extension (TEE) to church leaders of various congregations. Rebecca was born on July 9, 1980, in the home of Marion and Rachel Heisey in Rio Rancho, N.M., with midwife Gladys Lehman attending. I was acting superintendent of the mission during 1980 and 1981, and continued teaching TEE.

On January 6, 1982, the two-story house we were living in burned to the ground between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m. The fire started at the roof from sparks from the stove pipe, so we were able to retrieve many belongings from downstairs before we had to stay out. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

On January 1, 1987, we moved to Hutton St., Farmington, where we managed the Spartan Trailer Park for three and a half years. Then God led us to take the Reservation Ministry of Navajo Missions, Inc., Farmington, in May, 1990. We bought an acre of land between Farmington and Bloomfield and lived there from June, 1990 to May, 1998, when we were asked by the BIC Mission Board to return as superintendent of the mission. On Easter, 1991, we began to have church in our home with Navajos who live in urban areas. That became the Light of Life Mennonite Church where I preached half of the Sundays for several years. We lived at Navajo BIC Mission from 1998-2003, working at church planting with Bible studies in several homes and also helping to teach in the Overcomers program, an alcohol treatment program at the mission.

We moved back to our acre in August 2003. We are developing home Bible studies among the Navajos, doing discipleship and church planting ministry full-time. It seems God is calling me in this direction. We are seeing fruit from the home Bible studies now and having requests for many more. We hope to have enough financial support to stay with Brethren in Christ World Missions.