My Guiding Star

Who are the stars in your life, who have pointed you to Jesus? In a recent sermon Pastor Julie posed that very question. "Who are the guiding stars in your life who have made an impact on your faith?"

For me, my remarkable parents are the ones who made the deepest and most lasting influence on my life. But I’ll wait for another time to tell you about them. Apart from my parents, the person who always floats to the top as someone who made a deep, spiritual impact on my life was Joy Townsend Tuggy. Let me tell you about her.

It was the summer of 1966. I was about to turn 14. As for many young teens, the summer months meant sunshine, lazy days and time without school responsibilities so my focus could shift to the cute boys in my world. But little did I know what impact that summer would have on me for the rest of my life.

To start with, I wasn’t living in a typical American setting. I’m the daughter of missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Much of my growing up was spent on the compound of our missionary headquarters located on the outskirts of Mexico City. It was a magical place to grow up…apartment and office buildings, school rooms, meeting spaces, and even a small hotel were all carefully positioned on a five-acre plot of land. In the center of all the buildings was a large open space where as kids we engaged in rousing games of softball, volleyball, hide and seek and kick the can. We rode our bikes around the periphery of the compound. We learned to walk on stilts and swing on parallel bars. And if we were lucky, we coerced one of the adults to take us to a local horse stable where we rented horses to ride in the largely rural part of the City. There was never a shortage of things to do and people to spend time with.

Our Wycliffe headquarters was a crossroads of sorts. There were always visitors from the U.S., church groups and missionaries coming through the City. That summer it just so happened that Joy Townsend, second daughter of Wycliffe founder, William Cameron Townsend, was also in Mexico City. She was anticipating her first year of college in the U.S. and needed a place to stay while her parents worked and traveled on behalf of Wycliffe. Could she room with me in one of the hotel rooms on our compound? After all it was just across the field from our family’s apartment. My parents agreed.

And so began one of the most memorable summers of my young life. What fun to have an older sister! We shared clothes. She taught me how to drive in the parking lot. She babysat my little brother so I could go out for pizza with a group of friends (I got into big trouble for shirking my responsibility). We participated in a fabulous summer program for missionary kids put on by a visiting teacher from the U.S. That teacher, Gordon Wetmore, later became a distinguished portrait artist. (Google him.) But most importantly she taught me the importance of a daily quiet time.

Each evening Joy made sure we had prayer and devotions together before we turned out our lights at night. Her love for God’s Word and her relationship with the Lord were such an important part of her life, that I wanted to emulate that, too. I watched as she underlined meaningful portions of Scripture in her J. B. Phillips New Testament. But this was no ordinary underlining. It was done in red pen…with a ruler. At one point in her life the verse, “Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord,” became the motto for her life. It was so much so, that even making her bed to the best of her ability became an act of worship. We ended that summer as a group of missionary kids with a retreat in Acapulco where once again we were roomies. And then she was off to college. It wasn’t long before she met and married the love of her life, David Tuggy. Together they returned to Mexico as missionaries with Wycliffe.

For the past sixty years I’ve watched as Joy became the selfless help-meet to her scholar, writer and linguist husband. She is the mother of five children and her family has grown to twenty-eight at this writing. I’ve watched her gentle, positive spirit permeate all her relationships. Her ability to accept without judgement less than perfect people and situations continues to be an example to me. And I love how she makes sure she looks her best at all times.

Those of us who grew up as missionary kids have a unique relationship with the adults in our lives. Because we lived far from extended family, our parents’ friends became surrogate aunts and uncles. In some cases they were closer than family. My parents became Aunt Norma and Uncle Hugh to Joy. So when my dad passed away earlier this year, Joy once again showed the beauty of her character.

While we were planning my dad’s memorial service, Joy called. “I’m coming,” she said. Joy lives on the east coast so it was no small feat to come to the service in southern California. When she arrived at the church, her focus wasn’t on me. She made a beeline for my mom, planted herself beside her and wrapped her arm around my grieving mom. She held her throughout the service.

Joy Townsend Tuggy has been a guiding star for me throughout my life. Her face glows and reveals a relationship with the Lord that’s hard to miss. When our second daughter was born, we named her Allison Joy. When Allison’s second daughter was born, she named her Ivy Joy. I’m pleased that the legacy of a beautiful, godly woman is represented in my family. May that legacy continue throughout the generations.