Bec's Blog

October 2025 Blog Post by Pastor Bec

Today we got the good news: Joyce is off the ventilator! And eating! Woohoo! TYL!

For those who may not know, I have a “twin sister,” Reverend Dr. Joyce Nki, originally of Gaitu, Kenya, Africa. She is a longtime professor, now, at Bethune Cookman University. She and her son, Samuel, came to our greater Daytona Beach area many years ago. She became a beloved member at Covenant UMC, where we met. She was a great encouragement to me as I first discerned, then followed, the call God had on my life to become a pastor. In the patriarchal South, this wasn’t always easy.

Joyce’s story is quite remarkable. She was the first female pastor in the Methodist church in Kenya. She encountered much and continual resistance, but shared with me that after a while she learned to simply respond, “Take it up with the One who called me.” She was a strong voice of affirmation in my life, and we loved each other from the moment we met.

She came to the ‘States as a scared but very brave single mom of a precious little 18-month old boy named Samuel, or Mwenda. She went to FSU where she worked hard to learn the English language and receive advanced degrees. The local Methodist church became her family. Later she accepted the offer to teach at Cookman, and we got to become her family.

In 2006, our church became involved in an effort to establish a small medical clinic in Gaitu, Joyce’s home village. Several of us got to go home with her. She gave us all African names and took us home to meet our family. Her blood family. We were greeted and treated with great hospitality. Joyce and I got to preach together in Kenya, (me with a translator), and everywhere we went she introduced me as her twin sister.

We are very much alike and similar height though she’s six month older and “the bossy older sister.” Our deep friendship has spanned several decades. Though we don’t see each other as often as we’d like, when we do get together it’s as though no time has passed at all. She made the supreme effort to attend our passing-of-the-baton ceremony at Cross Creek Community Church, where I was privileged to serve as founding and head pastor for 15 yrs. She came to our retirement service straight from the airport, straight from Africa, where she’d been visiting. That’s the type of fierce commitment she has always brought to the Kingdom. She is a fierce prayer warrior too.

So when we got the text that she was in the hospital and on a ventilator, (gasp!), you can imagine the horror and angst I immediately began to battle. We WOULD fight for our Joyce with fervent prayer! We WOULD contact everyone we knew who would intercede powerfully for her. And that’s what led to the title of this blog… the power of prayer and Christian family. It is more powerful than most people ever know! If you’re not already part of a church family, I strongly encourage you to find one and become connected. If you’re not already a person of prayer, I strongly encourage you to begin to practice conversations with God and grow deeper in that relationship with Jesus.