• WHO: Joyce Hileman
• RESIDENCE: Loxley
• OCCUPATION: Former medical technologist; now runs nonprofit Lift Up JESUS Ministries and Owen's Body Shop in Spanish Fort.  

Joyce Hileman has been through countless trials throughout her life, but through her faith in God, she keeps a positive attitude and innovates to handle every situation that comes her way.

Since she was young, Joyce felt called to help others.

“I was called to the mission field when I was 12, kneeling beside the bed at my grandmother's house,” she said. “I said, 'Where, Lord?' and he told me the Philippines.”

So she set out to become a missionary, studying at a Bible College. Joyce also got a degree in medical technology, and after she married her husband Don, she moved to Baldwin County. She was the lab director at North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette for years, going on short term mission trips to the Philippines during that time.

“I felt like I was fulfilling my call by going on those mission trips,” Joyce said.

In 1986, after 14 years of marriage, Don and Joyce had a baby girl, Stephanie, who was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

“When I was going to have a baby, I thought I was going to Paris, as they say, but I went to Holland instead,” she said. “But Holland is beautiful, too; you just have a different destination. You end up going to a different place you never dreamed of — I have a different child, and she's a joy.”

Stephanie is now 27, lives with her mother and attends the Exceptional Foundation of the Gulf Coast in Daphne.

Joyce hosts two Bible studies a week for adults with disabilities.

“We bring them in from the group home and just try to love on them,” she said. “We have a meal, learn what their needs are and we pray for them about their needs and then we have Bible study. Right now, we're studying women in the Bible.”

In 2000, Joyce was diagnosed with breast cancer. But soon after her diagnosis, she felt God heal her, so she went back to the doctor to cancel her surgery — and the doctor couldn't find a trace of cancer.

“My dental hygienist told me that everyone she knew with that diagnosis was dead now,” Joyce said. “After that, I decided I would form a ministry and go tell others.”

Joyce founded Lift Up JESUS Ministries in 2002, and still remembering the call she felt at 12 years old, she decided the ministry would be mainly in the Philippines.

The ministry focuses on healing and has also founded a children's Bible school. Domingo Adriano, a Filipino pastor, leads the ministry, and Joyce provides direction and financial support.

Nine years after starting the ministry, tragedy struck the Hilemans. Don's mother died Oct. 11, 2011, and Don followed her 16 days later after a massive heart attack.

“I had to see God's hand in that,” Joyce said. “Don always took care of his mother. He was the oldest of nine and his father wasn't around, so he quit school to take care of his family, and his mission in life was to care for his mother. When we have done our work we have called us to do, then he calls us home.”

But even though Joyce trusted God's plan for her family, she was at a loss for what to do with Don's business, Owen's Body Shop in Spanish Fort. She decided to dive into a career in the auto repair industry she never could have imagined for herself.

“After the funeral, I went to the shop and began to piece a life together for myself there,” Joyce said. I climbed out of debt, took over the shop and we continued what Don had started. I made it my goal to recruit and retain top-quality technicians.”

And Joyce credits God with bringing the right people to join the team at Owen's.

“People have come to help me with expertise that I needed at the time I needed it,” she said. “It could only be God. He's watching out for me and everyone else. He's just that caring and concerned for everyone. What you need, he will supply.”