Joy Gring

 Joy Gring has been a missionary serving in San Raymundo, Guatemala since 1995. As Joy reflects back on her life, she feels God had been preparing her for foreign mission work her entire life. She was adopted into a family that was preparing to go to the mission field when she was three months old. Her parents, Richard and Rebecca Gring spent the next seven years in northern Guatemala. Her parents then returned to the States in order for her father to complete his doctorate but every year they would visit friends on the mission field. In 1976 after a major earthquake in Guatemala, Joy’s parents returned there to help with the reconstruction. Amazingly, the small town where they chose to work was San Raymundo! After a year of work there Joy’s parents returned to the States and Joy completed her education, choosing to go into nursing after high school.

Nursing is Joy’s passion, especially in the area of surgery. After a series of events that were no doubt orchestrated by God, Joy ended up back in San Raymundo in 1995. She has worked with a local doctor throughout the year and with various medical mission groups that come to the clinic in San Raymundo throughout the year. The clinic/hospital currently hosts 8-9 medical clinics a year including dental clinics. 35 - 50 surgeries are performed at each clinic with some having as many as 80. A planned two year stay has now become 17!

In addition to Joy’s medical work, God had another plan for her--a school! What started out as a Bible class has turned into 4 year old pre-k though 6th grade which has nearly 200 students. The School has recently (2012) finished phase 4 of its building plan. There is now a total of 12 classrooms. Joy is excited to have the first official graduating class this year in 2012.

Joy has also found another passion in working with children. In 2009 she started working with an orphanage in huehuetenango. The orphanage is about 6 hours from San Raymumdo so she has to make trips to serve the children there. So far in 2012 she has made 4 trips, 2 trips were with mission groups that did VBS and maintenance projects.

Contact Joy at joygring@aol.com

To help support God’s work in San Raymundo through Joy Gring, contributions may be sent to:

Central Christian Church
Attn: Pat Napier, forwarding agent
1651 E. Campbell Road
Richardson, TX 75081

Please make checks payable to Central Christian Church and in the memo area note Joy Gring Missions

For information on medical clinics in San Raymundo: http://www.refugeinternational.com/

Joy Gring

Photo Gallery for Joy Gring's mission in San Raymundo, Guatemala.

Photo Gallery