Joy was born and raised through kindergarten in the midwest. "I lived in Iowa and Illinois in four places, Des Moines being the longest. When I was 5 a missionary from China came to a missions conference and shared with my Sunday School how we could live in heaven with Jesus forever. That sounded good to me, so I prayed with her and when I told my parents they thought I was too young to understand. So I went and talked with my pastors. After praying with everyone several times, they figured I knew what I was doing! I had to swim out to the pastor to get baptized since I was so little!"
"Then we moved to Lakewood, CO where my parents joined staff with Campus Crusade for Christ when I was 7. We moved to California for 2 years, (I shared the four laws for the first time when I was in 3rd grade), then to Nairobi, Kenya when I was 12 and skipped a grade because there was no room for me in 7th grade. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro for a high school field trip, almost got trampled by a herd of giraffe on another field trip, and learned to water ski in a lake filled with hippos. Living in Kenya was anything but dull. We used to chase gazelles on our motorcycles."
A picture of Joy's high school sweetheart at the RVA back-to-school-beach-bash just before he was swallowed by a hippo. Good air though...
"I went to RVA (boarding school) for high school and there I got in trouble for dancing and playing cards. We’d get put in “dorm detention” where we’d end up playing more cards. I became quite good at nertz that way. We came back to Lakewood for my senior year of high school and I graduated from Green Mountain High School in 1983."
Yet even living the large life of a wild missionary kid does not guarantee spiritual growth. "I didn’t really take my faith as my own and really start growing until college, although I had a lot of head knowledge growing up on staff. I went to Bethel College in Newton, Kansas and got my degree in Nutrition and Communications as well as a faith refresher."
After marrying Chuck and serving in other ministry roles, Joy finally to returned to the CRU, going overseas with The CoMission in Kiev, Ukraine in 1994. She returned stateside with Colorado Springs Metro team (1995-1998) and launcehed the ministry at UCCS. It was during the second stint in 1999-2004 at Ljubljana, Slovenia that Joy had one of her ministry highlight moments.
"One of my best ministry memories came while sitting in a girl’s bible study on 'How to self-feed from the Word' and one of the girls in my bible study, Jana, literally started jumping up and down on the couch with excitement. She was crying and shouting, “This is what we have needed all along, we CAN read the Bible on our own and I CAN talk to Jesus on my own, I DON’T need a priest for this!” This came at a really hard time for me when I was struggling to know if my being a mom of 4 was really making a difference on our campus in Slovenia. I remember that evening every time I start feeling like my little contributions don’t amount to much."
When health issues cut their stay short in Slovenia, they came back to Boulder and worked as ICS Coordinator from 2004-2006. The intriguing thing is that going from the mission field to the regional office was quite a disruption to the Goertzen kids. While most families could thrive more on the set schedule and routine of an office role, the staff kids of a staff kid were excited when their parents switched to Bridges International at the University of Colorado.
"The best part of being on staff is getting to raise your kids in a huge family of faith. As a staff kid I remember learning what faith really looked like being lived out through my parents and others on staff. I love that my kids have already been missionaries and have shared their faith with others, while they were in elementary and middle school! When we took an office job they complained that we weren’t having students in our home anymore and we weren’t lighting the angel candle that we do when someone receives Christ. They actually missed us being on campus! Many people think that it somehow warps their kids to be raised on staff and spend summers away and live without material things… I’d love to share my stories with you over coffee if you feel that way because I feel blessed to have had this background and love raising my kids on staff!"
It seems that her kids have picked up on some of Mom's eternal heartstrings when it comes to the salvation of Christ crucified. "I am passionate about the redemption story and that’s why I just started giving some of my time to Good News/Good Deeds and Orphan Ministry. I love seeing college students encounter God’s heart through serving the needy. In the past year I have grown a lot in my personal prayer life. I realized that I need to ask someone I’m sharing the Gospel with if I can pray for them right then and there no matter what their response has been to the Gospel. This was modeled to me by some students this summer on our project with amazing results and I have taken this as my challenge this year. Also, when someone asks for prayer for something, to take at least 2 minutes to pray right then for them. They are ALWAYS grateful and I know Jesus is already at work on their behalf!"
For more passions and insights to Joy you can read her profile by clicking on her face in the left margin. As for the lesser of staff life, the main down side of the mission for Joy is missing other missionaries. "We say good-bye too often to great friends. We live such a mobile lifestyle on staff and I’ve moved 26 times in my lifetime. There have been way too many and too painful good-byes. Makes me long for heaven where 'good-byes' will be no more!"
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