Hi friends! On today’s episode of Draw Near to Me, we will begin Joy’s faith journey. For those who prefer to read, today’s content is also posted below. I met Joy in 2016 when I went on my first mission trip to Africa. Our group had merged for a few days with a group of short- and long-term missionaries that were out in Kenya. In all honesty, Joy lived up to her name. She was a person that stood out because there was an immense sense of joy in her presence. She simply radiated love and always had a smile on her face. You were instantly drawn to her because she was so warm and kind. Full confession, I also remember an embarrassing moment that I had. While we were at this little Kenyan church, our team was invited up to the front. It was such a beautiful time of worship. I was caught up in this wonderful energy of praise and excitement that was in the air. As I walked up to the front, I did not notice that the dirt floor had been raised up a little bit and I tripped. As my body flew forward, one of my team members basically side stepped away from me to get out of the path of my fall, but it was Joy who stepped in and caught me. While others moved away, Joy always moved toward others to help. That and her loving presence always left such a great impression on me. Thank you, Joy, for being willing to share part of your story. It is such an honor to know even more how God is using you in such incredible ways. If you enjoy this post, please share it with others using the share button below and consider doing a free or paid subscription. With that, let’s dive into Joy’s story. Enjoy!
When I was initially asked to share my story, I was in a period of my life where I felt like God was asking me to be quiet and hear Him. During that time, I suddenly received multiple requests to speak at different events. I wondered for a moment if I had misunderstood what the Lord had said. Yet for each opportunity, He allowed for every request to be pushed out a little farther. It was clear that He wanted me to listen as He revealed new things to me. So, here I am a few months later with a smidge more clarity for where He is leading me. For now, I’m going to start from the beginning of what I call my faith journey.
My older brother and I were raised Baptist by my mom and dad. They were such amazing parents. Both were hard working, good Christian people. Every Sunday, my brother and I were expected to go to church. On Sunday evenings we participated in youth choir. My parents worked late on Wednesday nights so we did not go on that day, but they made sure to make church an integral part of our lives.
When I was 8 years old, I was diagnosed with double pneumonia. I was hospitalized for a week. Although my mom and dad took shifts to be with me, it was still scary. I had crappy lungs and there were moments where I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
While I was in the hospital, I had a nurse named Monica. She really stood out to me. Monica took care of me and helped me breathe by doing chest physical therapy that allowed me to feel a lot better. However, what struck me the most about her was her kind spirit and her smile. Monica was so loving and compassionate. I felt close to God when I was in her presence.
I always knew that I wanted people to feel that nearness to our Creator when they were near me. I feel like that’s what the Lord calls us to do in whatever profession we have. We are His hands and feet. When people are near to us, they should feel near to Christ and His love. After experiencing this with Monica, I knew I wanted to be like her. I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives like she made in mine that week.
From that moment on, I recognized what I wanted to do in my life. God did not audibly tell me to become a nurse, rather it was simply a knowing. I remember telling my mom from the hospital bed, “I wanna be a nurse. I wanna be like Monica.” My mom said, “Oh, that’s so sweet.” I’m not sure she realized at the time that I truly felt called to that profession. Since I was only 8 years old, a lot of people wondered if I really knew what I wanted, but it was a call that I never wavered from.
Growing up, I was not only sensitive to what God called me to do, but also to things that were challenging and even frightening at times. One night, a couple of years before I had contracted double pneumonia, I woke up and saw something disturbing. There were masks rotating around where my overhead light was located. All of them were very evil masks.
I knew I wasn’t dreaming because when I sat up, I could still see them. It was a lot to handle since I was only 6 years old. I tried to scream for my parents, but my voice was gone. I couldn’t say anything. I remember seeing them rotate and feeling that it was evil, but not knowing what it was. All I knew was that it had taken my voice.
I ran down the hall to my parents’ bedroom and jumped into bed with them. I was crying. I felt like I couldn’t speak. My mom thought maybe I was having an allergic reaction. She said, “Are you breathing? Is everything okay?” I could only whisper back to her that there were these masks. She asked me, “Where do you see them?” When I looked up at the ceiling of their bedroom, the same rotating masks were there. I told my parents that it was trying to steal my voice. After that, mom and dad prayed over me and let me sleep in their bed with them. That was the only time I had that particular vision.
Without scaring me, my dad began equipping me in different ways. Sometimes it was simply by cautioning me against certain things as a child. He told me to avoid Ouija boards and anything that was of that dark nature. As a child, I thought it was silly since it was just a board game, but it stuck with me that it was not something to be touched, so I never did. Somewhere, I was always aware that there was something a little more to those things than met the eye.
As I got older, I still remained very sensitive to spiritual things, darkness and light. Even in high school, things were placed on my heart that I shared with my parents. They would ask me how I knew those things, but I didn’t know how I knew, I just knew. My dad recognized that I was dealing with spiritual warfare. He began opening up conversations with me about what I was going through. Dad even gave me one of Frank Peretti’s books called This Present Darkness, which was my first book on that topic. More than anything, I wanted my sensitivity to spiritual things to go away. I wanted to shove it down. I told my dad, “I don’t want to see these things.”
I still struggled with this knowledge that came to me. At the time I thought, “I’m so young. Why am I receiving this? Why is this a thing?” It was uncomfortable and I was resistant to it. My dad tried to help me navigate through everything. Instead of making it scary, he reminded me of something. He said, “It’s a gift. You just need to pray through it and the Lord will use that for His glory.” So, I’ve always been sensitive to spiritual warfare, but I did not really know what to do with that awareness. My dad was right though, and that gift came into play later in life.
We don’t always get insights into everything we experience, but at times the Lord reveals things to us. Skipping decades ahead for a moment, the Lord opened a door for me to gain some understanding on one of my childhood spiritual encounters. It was that night where I had the frightening vision of the masks.
More recently, I had an opportunity to go to a Christian women’s conference. At the time, I was in a place where I felt spiritually exhausted. I was traveling by plane and ended up sitting next to a lady I did not know. It turned out her son was one of the speakers at the conference. I really felt like the Lord allowed the conversation that happened next to take place.
We began talking and got in-depth on the topic of spiritual warfare. What she told me was eye opening. It turned out that her son had a nightmare that was very similar to mine, though he was not quite as young as I was at the time he experienced it. His vision was that this beast came up in the corner of his room and told him that he was gonna take his voice. The beast said he was not gonna be able to speak. Upon hearing that, her son sat up and told the beast to get behind him. He said that he would speak all the days of his life for the Lord.
Only a few years later, her son was contacted by the leader of this Christian women’s conference and asked if he would work for them. He is now responsible for expanding that conference to other countries. He is a part of taking it to the nations.
That conversation with that woman was so powerful. I don’t believe it was coincidence that it occurred. It really brought a light to the vision that I had as a child. The intent was very similar. It was to scare me and to try to take that desire to do God’s will away from me. It was a spiritual attack on me, even as a young girl, to attempt to scare me to a point where I would not do the Lord’s work. I love that, even years later, the Lord puts people in our lives to give us more clarity on the things we have experienced.
Getting back to my teenage years, there was another moment that was pivotal in my life trajectory. When I was 16 years old, a visiting choir from Africa came and sang at my church. As soon as I heard their voices, I felt like I could fall to my knees. It was as if they were speaking and singing to me. I felt drawn to them. I remember thinking that the people of Africa were my people. They were the ones that I wanted to serve. At the time I had no connections there, but I knew that was where I was called to do mission work. It was all a mystery, but it was beautiful how it transpired. From that point on, I recognized that Africa was somewhere in my future.
Regardless of this new call to mission work in Africa, I still felt called to be a nurse. So, I stored that experience away in my heart. I didn’t even tell my parents that I was called to missions until I left for college. When I did, my mom told me that we always follow the Lord’s will. She said, “I’m not gonna lie, that’s scary to me, but we do what the Lord calls us to do. He’ll make it apparent to you.”
To be continued.
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We Are His Hands and Feet: Joy's Faith Journey- Part 1