The name of The JoyJ Initiative — "the Joy of Jesus" — comes from two passages in the New Testament. In John 13:34, Jesus gives us a new commandment: "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." And in John 15:11, He tells us what that love produces: "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Not partial joy. Full joy. That promise is the whole reason JoyJ exists.
We've found that promise to be true every single time we've gone out. A volunteer kneels down to hand someone a bag, and for a moment, two strangers look each other in the eye. There's a "thank you," sometimes a story, sometimes just a smile, but something real passes between two people who, an hour earlier, didn't know each other existed. The person receiving the bag feels seen. The person giving it feels something too, something that doesn't come from writing a check to an organization they'll never visit. That's the joy Jesus was talking about. It isn't reserved for the person on the receiving end of love. It's for everyone who loves.
That's why JoyJ isn't just about the socks, the toiletries, the snacks in the bag, though those matter, and keep someone warmer or fuller for one more day. It's about the conversation. The eye contact. The five minutes where someone who feels invisible to the world is, instead, fully seen. As Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:40, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me." That's who we believe we're really kneeling down in front of.
The JoyJ Initiative began in 2013 with just 12 comfort bags, handed out by three volunteers at a Catholic parish on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. We were incorporated as a public charity, open to all, in 2014. Today, over 12,000 volunteers worldwide have shared that same moment of connection more than 117,000 times, distributing over 850,000 items across 21 countries. But there are SO many more people who need our help, and so many more of us who are missing out on the joy of giving it.
