Joy Anderson is FUMCR's Pastor of Outreach Ministries, United Methodist Women, SPAN and the Woman's Center.
Joy is originally from Shreveport, LA and attended Centenary College. Before joining the FUMCR staff, Joy served at Spring Valley UMC, FUMC Garland and Lake Highlands UMC. Joy came on staff in 1982 as Director of Elementary Ministries, doing Missions on the side. In 1989 she changed staff positions from Education to include all of the Outreach Ministries. Joy's favorite thing about FUMCR is "the wonderful lay people and their willingness to reach out to those in need of a helping hand."
Joy is passionate about all of the outreach ministries, particularly the workcamps and mission trips because they give people the opportunity to truly serve, hands-on, in a sacrificial way. The International Christmas Market and totebags are also particular favorites because of the unique ways they provide outreach to others and because they help teach the congregation about needs in the world as well as the community. Joy loves to garden, read and travel in her spare time.
One of Joy's favorite scriptures is Psalm 139:1-18.
"O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you."
Some more fun facts about Joy:
She is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and Mavericks, as well as the Arkansas Razorbacks. Her favorite movie: Fools Rush In, favorite music: "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers and theme music from the movie The Prince of Tides, favorite books (at this time): Beach Music by Pat Conroy and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, favorite food: salad, and her favorite television shows are Brothers & Sisters, Castle, and NCIS.