Dog Food

About the Book

Everyone tells a story from their own perspective, jaded by personal experiences. So it is when I tell the story of my sister’s life. My perspective comes from the viewpoint of “Baby Sister.” That was Joy’s pet name for me, no matter what stage of life we found ourselves in. Joy was the middle child of three daughters born to a hard-working couple in Pennsylvania. Our father and mother grew up in large, farming families, and Dad aimed toward his goal of having a tree nursery someday. He and Mom worked tirelessly at making a living and eventually they saw my Dad’s dream realized. He worked quietly alongside His Creator growing beautiful things that would bring glory to God. Joy basically rejected our Christian upbringing. In fact, she became the scoffer and thought it all “primitive nonsense.” She strained and kicked at ideas of a sovereign God, human depravity, and redemption through the Savior named Jesus Christ. It wasn’t the path she wanted to run on. She was always a thinker and very gifted in writing and speaking. So she ran, instead, on the path of knowledge and philosophy with all her might, and she ran well for quite awhile. How well I remember her saying, “I want to learn everything there is to learn and then die!” She did well at stating her own goal and working to achieve that prize. But there is a sovereign God, the reality of human depravity and hope of reconciling the two only in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. God had another plan for my sister’s life and at the proper time His plan that had been at work all along, began to be visible in Joy’s life. Pursuing her own goals came up empty and unsatisfying and she found the truth Solomon put forth in Ecclesiastes: “I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecc. 1:13-14) Joy started her new race, on the path of faith when she was 22 years old. She began chasing after Jesus, her Lord and Savior, who had pursued her lovingly and began a very lovely new creation of Joy. No one but He knew that she had only half a life left at age 22. So He planned it that she would run rather quickly to achieve the new goal ahead of her. The God-given abilities that were always very evident in her life became useful in service to God. Joy’s writing became drenched with her spiritual struggles and her ability to communicate allowed her to teach in a wide variety of settings. She eventually dropped her academic pursuits and went on a year’s mission trip to Taiwan. She returned from that experience and went to live in Washington, DC. Her year abroad developed a new sense of patriotism and she aspired to become a political speechwriter. However, her calling seemed to draw her back into the church. Joy became the secretary at her church in Washington, and God again put her skills to good use. The one-time scoffer became the master organizer in a local church, where God continued to work His plan in Joy. It wasn’t long before Joy announced she was planning to attend seminary. Her deep passion for knowledge propelled her toward the study of God and His Word, and she found herself off on a new academic adventure. Joy always excelled in a school environment and she did so at Princeton Seminary as well. This education was more than an affair of the mind, but instead, it was the engulfing of the soul of my sister. She struggled with the direction she was heading, not at all wanting to be a pastor. Joy desired to write and teach. God again guided Joy down a path where He convinced her that serving Him as a pastor was indeed what He had in mind all along. What a shock to many of us! Joy herself was stunned but knew in her heart’s walk with God, that He had called her. And just like she heard His call to salvation, she now heard His call to be a servant of His church. She strained and kicked

About the Author

Joy Hoffman graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1985. Her aspirations were writing and teaching when she entered seminary. Joy then heard God’s call and served as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for 14 years. Before attending seminary, she taught English and Bible for a year mission term at a girl's school in Taiwan. She had one book published by Intervarsity Press in 1982 about her spiritual journey called With Wandering Steps and Slow. Joy’s personal mission in life was “to know Jesus, and to make Him known.” May her desire continue even after her death. Brenda (Hoffman) Ciner