Meeting Inspiring Authors: Kathy Joy

Here is another wonderful author who participated in our segment on Authors Who Inspire. Christian Women Living Magazine is pleased to introduce Kathy Joy.

Cyndi Kay: Please give us a brief introduction and a little background information.
Kathy Joy: My name is Kathy Joy Hoffner. My pen name is Kathy Joy. I’m widowed and have raised two beautiful daughters, Andrea and Jenny.
Currently I work in a government agency helping children at risk; formerly, I was a morning co-host on a Denver radio station.
I have lived in Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and now back in Pennsylvania – in Erie, beside Presque Isle State Park and a lake so big it feels like the ocean! 

Hobbies include playing my violin, taking long leisurely walks and journaling.

CK: Give us a summary on your journey with Christ — from the time you accepted Christ, to how you started in ministry.
KJ: It was in youth group that I first had a major “Aha!” moment and realized my desperate need for a Savior. From there my journey has had a few “detours” and His Faithfulness is my Testimony. Through having a presence in Christian radio, the Lord developed my passion for encouraging others; this led to speaking for women’s retreats and, most recently, to my books being written, published and promoted.

CK: Tell us about your books and what was the inspiration for them.
KJ: Roger, my late husband, was always my biggest cheerleader. He nudged me to write and to explore the meaning of life through writing it all down. When he died suddenly in 2008, it felt like I buried my writing, too.
Later, I picked up my pen again and have been writing ever since – mostly I focus on a trio of celebrations every day. I post these on Facebook and other social media, to encourage the reader and truthfully, to help me get through the day.
It was these little 3-line affirmations that eventually became my book series, “Breath of Joy”. Thanks to Capture Books, my publishing group, I now have 4 books: one for each season of the year.

CK: Tell us about Kathy Joy’s Everyday Celebrations and how it came to be.
KJ: Everyday Celebrations is the name of my Ministry Page on Facebook. It’s a landing and launching space for my book promotions and for posting my blogs. It is named for the sacred practice of finding the “ordinary” moments and holding them up to the Light – being present for the simple gifts that sustain us every day. Finding, and writing down these discoveries, is an act of worship for me.

CK: Tell about your blog.
KJ: My blog, “Coffee with Kathy”, is a collection of observations and snapshots of life in all its messiness and beauty. If I had to identify a recurring theme, it would be grief, recovered joy and perseverance.

CK: Tell us about a time that God directly answered a prayer.
KJ: In June of this year my oldest daughter, Andrea, got married. I’d prayed for years that God would make a path to forgiveness in our extended family. There was some major fallout after my husband died, and relationships had been severed; it was very painful.
On the day of Andrea’s wedding, there was a queue of relatives waiting to see me: each of them said to me, in so many words, how they were sorry for the way they had treated me. THEY WERE SORRY! I had prayed for this moment of Reconciliation and the Lord heard my prayer! I’d love to tell you I’m having tea on the porch with my former relatives, but that is not the case; however, there was a REAL healing that day and no matter when I see these people again, I have the gift of a New Beginning.

CK: Which book was the most amusing to write?
KJ: Probably my Spring book – full title, “Breath of Joy! Singing Spring”. For this book I traveled to Colorado and sat many hours with my editor in her conversation room (isn’t that a lovely name for one’s living room?). We drank many cups of coffee, shared lots of belly laughs and pored over content into the wee hours. It was intense and life-giving. The creative process is not always easy, but the challenge brings many rewards.

CK: Can you recall a time when you know that God was the only way you had a provision through a certain situation?
KJ: God was my one True Provision after my husband died; God became my Counselor, my Comforter, when I went through hard times with my daughters and He has always been my unwavering Source when I need to forgive.

CK: Tell us about a time you had a measurable impact on someone through your personal ministry or through your organized ministry.
KJ: At the conclusion of a women’s retreat in Colorado, a young lady approached me with her story – I had spoken on the passage in John 12, where Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume.

In Verse 5, Judas is very upset, asking why she would waste 12 months of wages on such precious perfume.
This young lady who shared her story afterward, said the passage confirmed her plan to take a year off from school and work; she longed to honor God, to travel to a new place and learn more about His plan for her life. She told me a lot of well-meaning people were cautioning her that she was wasting a year (12 months!) of income to do this. She told me she needed to hear about Mary and her sacrifice to God and how it pleased Him.
When I was on Christian radio in Denver, the studio line rang and the caller was at the end of her rope, living a lifestyle that would only lead to destruction. She told me she had tuned into our radio station and felt hope for the first time in many years. She was afraid and ashamed. It had taken all the courage she could muster to reach out to us. Over the next several months, “Mary” continued listening and calling the studio. She rededicated her entire life to Christ, stepped completely away from prostitution and is now a traveling nurse / writer / rancher.

CK: What was your biggest challenge when getting a book published in the Christian genre?
KJ: My biggest challenge for sure has been trusting my gut over somebody else’s opinion. Particularly with Christians, there is a standard that I understand we should adhere to; however, there are man-made opinions that creep into theology and gain credibility. My biggest challenge has been discerning the difference between well-meaning guidance and God’s plan.

CK: What are some of the biggest challenges facing women today — and women ministries?
KJ: The women’s liberation movement back in the 70’s is still sending ripples into our world. The movement did NO FAVORS to women, if you ask me. It normalized abortion as an option, confused men who simply wanted to hold a door open for a lady and introduced an “edginess” to the experience of being a woman.

One of the lingering results is the role of women in the church: we are uniquely equipped to lead, to teach, even to preach – but not to the degree that men are pushed to the margins and diminished in their giftedness to the church. It’s a fine line, and not a popular topic.
Over the span of time I have been a retreat speaker, I have noticed a “watering down” of God’s Truth, perhaps through no fault of the women, but through the corruption of the world and its insidious creeping into the mindset of Christians. It’s disconcerting to hear ladies (all age groups) piling a “smorgasbord” of worldviews onto their plates; I’ve overheard women talk about Buddha, the pope, Jesus and the Dalai Lama as equals in spiritual truth.
I see the abundance of false gods as crippling to everyone, and women in the context of this interview question.

CK: I believe that God is a remarkably interesting and creative God! Tell me about a time when you were uncertain or unaware of a provision from God but later realized that it was all a part of His plan.
KJ: Just at the time when Covid was sending everybody home, I felt this longing to be back in radio. I’d heard of an opening for an announcer at a local Christian radio station, and I applied for the position.

After several phone calls and emails that I was sure were leading up to an interview…. I got an email from the program director, saying I was not on the list of candidates.

I was devastated!

I felt robbed of an opportunity and allowed myself to feel sad and defeated.

I prayed, asking Jesus to refocus my attention on something positive. The world had just stepped into a weird time of sequestering and Zoom, news updates and political maneuvering.

Pretty soon God answered my prayer: I got a phone call from an administrator at work; she asked if I would write a mini blog each day for our staff of 200+ workers.

We dubbed it “The Daily Jab”.

Through this vehicle, God gave me back my voice! He answered my prayer, not with a microphone in a studio, but with my pen. Ever since March 20 I have been sending out a “daily jab” Monday-Friday via email.

CK: What inspires you?
The little things: The voice of a loved-one on the phone. The smell of the air after it has rained. A baby’s giggle. A home-cooked meal. The birds at my feeder.

CK: What has been the most interesting book that you have read as an adult? As a child?
KJ: Tear Soup – A Recipe for Healing after Loss by Pat Schweibert, Chuck DeKlyen and Taylor Bills
North to Freedom – by Anne Holm

CK: How do you unwind after a busy day?
KJ: Netflix – really good chocolate (there’s a Confectionary in my neighborhood that makes high-quality chocolate!)

CK: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
KJ: Don’t go to bed angry. I know it’s based on Scripture/ Ephesians 4:26, but my Grandma used to say this to me all the time and I’ve always remembered the urgency in her voice.

CK: Is there anything else you would like to say?
KJ: As a writer I’d like to say, listen to others’ advice, but trust your gut. Several years ago, I carried a manuscript to an editor and he pretty much shot down my idea. I came home and stuffed the book into a drawer where it didn’t see the light of day until 2 years ago – I had a few speaking engagements where I test-marketed the book by reading it to a live crowd; they loved it! Then I got in touch with an illustrator and pretty soon Capture Books will be launching my first children’s book!

“I’d love to offer one of my workshops or speaker presentations at your next event. Here is a bit more about me. I’d also ask your readers to find out more at my style of writing at https://booksforbondinghearts.com/2020/08/12/rolling-forward/ and also at https://www.capturemebooks.com/breath-of-joy. My books can be sent to cheer someone up directly from Amazon.