Murphy – Joy Lynn, founder of Moore House Ministries, didn’t always live up to the legacy of her name.
“The world is full of people, and we’re not all swell,” she said with authority. Lynn remembered a time in her life when she felt alone and deeply depressed.
“I was in a dark a space. I never felt suicidal, but I sometimes felt homicidal,” she said with a laugh.
A lifelong friend, Dr. Larry Payne, advised her by saying, “Walk around in that dark hole, and eventually you will find a ladder.” This is what happened for Lynn.
Lynn, a lifelong Christian, was praying to find purpose in her life.
“What do you want me to do?” she prayed. That’s when Lynn heard God’s voice speak clearly, “Joy, you are important,” and she believed it to be so. After reading through the Bible, Lynn felt directed toward instructions concerning the poor.
“James says, ‘Be doers of the word and not just hearers,’ ” she said. “I like James because he’s direct, like me.”
She later found the more famous Scripture spoken by Jesus to Peter, “Feed my sheep.” That verse is painted on the front of her ministry.
Back in the beginning, before Lynn spent 30 years distributing thousands of pounds of food to the hungry, she and her husband at the time, a large Italian man, attended a service-oriented church. Her husband, now deceased, holds a fond place in her heart.
“He made my heart pound,” she said, still smiling at the memory.
Their church had a food pantry, and they decided to volunteer. This one small action changed the course of Lynn’s life.
“I went down to help hand out food and saw this line of old people and children standing outside. It was late in November, very cold and pouring rain,” she recalled as the event marked her.
One day, the pantry had excess food and asked Lynn if she could distribute it in Murphy. And there it was – her purpose, her ladder.
“People started coming to my house to get food,” she said. “They would line up down the block!” She steadfastly fed the hungry for the next three decades.
“I still feed people,” she said. “I’ll never turn anyone away.”
Because of mobility issues, Lynn requests a call first to give her time to navigate to the food pantry next to her house. Much of her property, including the outbuildings, was built and tended to by church youth groups.
The air-conditioned food pantry boasts burgeoning shelves of food and supplies, all tidy and organized.
“We just hand them a box. We don’t fill it for them; we want them to fill the box with what they want,” she said, adding that her system instills some dignity in those requiring food assistance.
“I gave food to a lot of grandmothers who brought their grandchildren with them,” Lynn said. “I can’t walk into the grocery store without some young man or woman coming up to me asking, ‘So you remember me? You gave food to my grandma.’ ”
Lynn said she only recalled one incident where she was disparaged as a leader.
The man wanted three containers of popcorn, but Lynn had many people lined up so she limited him to one. He exploded.
“I’m going to kill you!” he shouted at Lynn, who having experienced the harder side of life, remained unafraid of his behavior. “I told him, ‘Buddy, you and I are going to have a prayer meeting. You better pray I don’t kick your hiney all the way down the block!’ ”
Lynn said she never had any trouble after that. Her theology of service and respect guides her actions.
“I don’t push a person down,” she said. “I remember what it’s like to be down. I lift them up, make them feel like they matter.”
Moore House Ministries provides food for the hungry. For details on how to volunteer, donate or collect food, call 361-5121.