HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome Erica Jude to Pure Joy International and an update on Nairobi, Kenya Retreat April 2025.

 

If you read our November post on 11-27-2025 we shared with you some exciting news regarding the future of Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry , Inc.  Effect today January 1, 2025, we’ve added to our staff Erica Jude as Associate Director of Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry. 

Erica and her husband, Nate, served as missionaries in the Dominican Republic as church planters for 12 years. Erica is the founder of Lily House DR, serving survivors of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Lily House ministers through a wholistic approach that provides a Christ-centered safehouse, counseling and vocational training in the ministry’s restaurant.

After serving 21 years with her mission agency, it is with great excitement that she has followed the Lord’s clear leading into the role of Associate Director of Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry, Inc. She will truly be a “missionary to missionaries.”

Erica and Nate now reside in West Virginia with their two teenage daughters, Mali Shae, and Brinkley Kate. (Watch out world for these two! Lol) Nate pastors their home church which has been a unique blessing returning home to serve the ones who raised them in the faith. Erica is a graduate of Marshall University. She received her counseling training through Gospel Fellowship International and has received additional hours in trauma-informed practices through her years in anti-trafficking. She loves coffee with good company and a great view - sand or mountains- both revive her soul! In more than 20 years of ministry in local church, non-profit settings or under her own roof, she has discovered she loves God’s women! It is “Pure Joy” watching women strengthened in their calling and truly enjoying Jesus!

Please welcome Erica to our staff by praying for her and her family as she transitions to this new role.  Erica will be facilitating our Spring Retreat in Nairobi, Kenya.

Our Nairobi, Kenya Retreat is full and has gone to a waiting list.  If you are interested in registering anyway, go to our web site www.purejoyinternational.org to register.  It is not uncommon for people to get a chance to move up the waiting list. 

We are looking forward to an exciting New Year with all of our Friends, Family, Prayer Warriors, Supporters, Gift Makers and Givers and  those that Go!

His,

Vickie

Joy To The World…

To all of our Friends of Pure Joy International, Sponsoring Churches, Prayer Warriors, Financial Givers, Gift Givers, Gift Makers, and Those that Go …

From the Pure Joy International Ministry Staff, Board, and Advisors…

        

Thanksgiving and Excitement ahead…

Thanksgiving is always a wonderful time to give thanks for all our supporters, churches, individuals, family and friends of Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry Inc. There is not one part of the ministry God has given us that functions without all of you!!!!   Thank you so much for your faithfulness to support the ministry to our missionary /families serving overseas to share the Goodness of the Gospel.

And…..Because you are family to us at Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry Inc. I want to share some exciting news with you as we look forward to the future.  In January, of this new year 2025 we will be bringing on board Erica Jude as Associate Director of Pure Joy International. I will be introducing you to her sometime within the next 4 weeks. So, keep your eyes on this blog page or PJI Facebook http://facebook.com/PureJoyInternational . Can’t wait for you to hear more about her and meet her.  To be cont’d………. (smile)

Blessing to All….

His,

Vickie

Mongolia Registration Is Closed As Time Draws Near…

 

Registration for the Mongolia Retreat closed Friday September 13, 2024. The final details of preparations are happening these last 3 weeks as the Mongolian Team is busy with each task to be finished out.

It is with great joy that we have been preparing our hearts for this journey. We are so excited about the women that will be attending the retreat. Some of them have joined us before many, many, years ago.  But mostly, we have new faces to meet as well.  Thanks to all of you that have been meeting to pray weekly, praying daily, taking time to do or make something special for the ladies, women from local churches that have come together to provide gifts of all sorts, etc. Also, thank you for those that your gift is giving. There is still time to give towards supporting missionary women  that are attending the retreat. Go to www.purejoyinternational.org  and scroll down to donations for more information.

Please keep the team and ladies attending in your prayers. We fly out on Oct. 4, 2024. Mark that on your calendars, pray our flights go well, and we get there with all the things we left here with. (smile)

Appreciate each and every one of you…

His,

Vickie

A thought to ponder by A.W. Tozer:

We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshipper and after that he can learn to be a worker. The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it.

 

Mongolia Prepares For The Olympics While Pure Joy International Prepares For Mongolia…

 

Mongolia's opening and closing ceremony outfits for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Michel Amazonka

The internet has chosen its new favorite national uniform at the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympics: Mongolia’s.

Featuring intricately embroidered vests, pleated robes and accessories inspired by traditional attire, the country’s opening and closing ceremony outfits have taken social media by storm since being unveiled last week.

The designs are the work of Michel&Amazonka, an Ulaanbaatar-based label producing couture and ready-to-wear garments that “express the essence of Mongolian tradition and culture” in what the brand calls a “contemporary light.” (by Oscar Holland, CNN )

How exciting for our Mongolia Team to see a glimpse of Mongolian culture before we ever step foot into their country. This is a country full of cultural traditions that bring out the beauty of country, colors, and people.

The Mongolia Team continues to work on preparations for our trip in Oct. Thank you already to those that have been praying, giving, going, and gifting as you come alongside us on this journey.

We still have room for more missionary sign-ups for this trip. So, continue to get the word out to your international missionary friends in that part of the world that serve cross-culturally outside their country of origin. Just go to our web site to register www.purejoyinternational.org.

Please pray specifically for the team as they prepare worship, messages, testimonies, hospitality, and other things God puts on our hearts for this particular trip, for this time, and season.

Praying for you our Pure Joy Family and Friends for God to bless you as you have been and are a blessing to us.

His,

Vickie

Mongolia Registration Open…

 

Well, it is official. We have opened up online registration for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. www.purejoyinternational.org The dates for the Pure Joy International Retreat are Oct. 9-12, 2024. Please remember we top out at 50 and go to a waiting list. So, first come first serve.

If you have any questions, please contact me at vickie@purejoyinternational.org  

 If you know any missionary women serving cross-culturally in that part of the world, please help get the word out. Might want to go to your world map to see where Mongolia is located. (smile)

The Mongolia Team is already starting to take care of business on this end. If you partner with us in prayer, gifting, and giving please be praying about how God would have you participate. Let me know if you are interested in being a part of what God is doing in Mongolia.

As I close out this blog post I am mindful of the families that lost a young missionary couple in Haiti to the gangs this past week, pray for those families. Also, so many families have experienced loss of homes, loved ones, whole communities with all the Tornados across the mid-section of the U.S. And do not forget the land slide in Papua New Guinea that took the lives of over 2,000 this past week.

In our recent trip to York, England our theme from there keeps rising up in my soul. This World is Not Our Home. May we be ever mindful of this truth and stay the course to keep walking out HIS plans for our lives.

His,

Vickie

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

So, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Home again but praying for Mongolia ahead…

First, I want to say thank you to all of you that supported Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry in any way for our trip to York, England.

Then I want to thank Kim Roberson, our Public Relations person, for keeping you all in the loop for the time we were gone. God was as always faithful to accomplish His good will and purpose for the trip. In fact, I suspect several of you have already received some feedback from some of the missionary women. But if not, here are just a few comments sent in…

“The conference was such a time of refreshing for me. I have just been through the toughest year of ministry in my life, but God used all of you to help lift my spirits. I am so thankful and grateful that you are allowing God to use you to encourage missionaries on the field.

As I think of you all, I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. He considered these people his partners in serving Christ. He says, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” Philippians 1:3-6.”

“The Lord used this retreat to break me in the best of ways and I pray that I go forward walking closer to Him than ever before. I came back “home” to the field more encouraged and focused than I had when I arrived. Your prayers were felt and I’m so grateful for each and every one of them. Thank you for being a part of this retreat and thank you for investing in the life of missionaries on the field. I know that you have, without a doubt, made an everlasting impact on myself and in turn my family and our ministry.”

Those comments will continue to come to us and you throughout the weeks ahead as everyone settles back into their routines. Keep an eye out.

Also, don’t let up on prayers for Pure Joy International Retreat Ministry. Several of the team came back from the trip with a touch of a virus and are just now stepping back into real life. Please pray for all to get well!

Especially pray for our Staff as we gear up for Mongolia in the fall. We are presently trying to lock in a location for the Retreat. Pray as we make decisions in the next week. Encouragement is greatly needed for our M’s serving in this part of the world. Pray we can lock in a location asap.

Remember, someone you cross paths with today needs encouragement whether you know it or not. Give away a smile, a hug, a card, a text, phone call etc. You never know but He does. Be sensitive to His leadership.

His,

Vickie