Hi! Thanks for joining me! I always find these introductions a little strange so let me pour you a cuppa before I introduce myself. Stories are always better with tea…

So, my name is Joy and I’m originally from England. I was born in Bristol and raised in Liverpool - home to the Beatles and the best football club in the world, Liverpool FC - along with my five incredible siblings. I had no intentions of ever moving to the States, that is until I met the love of my life and LA native, Phillip Attmore, in 2006. Other than my faith in Jesus, he’s been the biggest catalyst for change in my life.

After a long journey of waiting, growing, and choosing one another, we were married in July 2015 in Pasadena, California, and shortly after relocated to New York City where Phillip was working in a succession of Broadway shows. Since then we have conceived and lost two precious babies to miscarriage, Promise Joy and Victor Peace, who we carry in our hearts every day and can’t wait to one day meet on the other side of eternity.

One of my favourite passages from the Bible, and words that I have taken on as a mandate for my life, can be found in Isaiah 61:3.

“God has sent me to give them a beautiful crown in exchange for ashes, to anoint them with gladness instead of sorrow, to wrap them in victory, joy, and praise instead of depression and sadness.” - The Voice

For over a decade I have worked in the non-profit sector around the world helping women who have been sexually exploited through the sex industry, as well as those who have been incarcerated, find restoration, healing and a fresh start. I  have a huge heart for justice, restoration, rediscovering purity, and seeing men and women living in freedom!

In 2013 I published my first book, Broken By Beauty, which unpacks God’s heart of justice and restoration for those who have been sexually exploited. I love communicating from a place of vulnerability and empowering people to own their own stories, even the chapters that might feel the most painful and broken. Since writing Broken By Beauty, I have written regularly for Cross Rhythms Radio in the UK, Iridescent (an online community for women), as well as my own blog.

At the beginning of 2019, I took on the role of Director of Care for Liberty Church Global (my home church in NYC), as well as the Director of Treasures NYC, a ministry focused on reaching out to women in the strip club industry. Alongside these two ministries, I am also a team leader for Shining Light Ministries, an organisation which takes performing arts workshops into state prisons and jail facilities and uses the creative process and performance to expand inmates’ perspectives and inspire life change in prison and beyond.

One of my heroes both in the faith and in justice is William Wilberforce. He is famously quoted as saying,

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

I believe that we should both seek to understand the injustices that still exist in our world and not just know about them, but choose to stand up and do something about them. So with every word that I write and action I make, I hope to enable and inspire change in the world around me so that the disparities between rich and poor, black and white, man and woman, would begin to exist less and less.

Thank you for sitting here and desiring to get to know me a little better. I look forward to more cups of tea and conversations around the dinner table soon!

Love,