Obituary for Joy Breithaupt
Joy Breithaupt (nee Montgomery) passed from this earthly life on Friday September 23, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. at her home in Lodgepole, NE at the age of 68.
Named Erma Joy, she eschewed the first name in favor of her middle name, and strove to embody joy in all circumstances. Her request was that any summary of her life, such as this, should not be an enumeration of her deeds, but a re-directing of the reader’s attention to her Creator and Redeemer. Joy had a deep love and close relationship with Jesus. She kept her eyes on him and his promises of love, forgiveness and eternal life. One of her favorite Scripture verses was Lamentations 3:22-24 "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him.’"
The third of four children (Bruce, Beth, Joy, and Roy) she was born to missionaries Bob and Ruth Montgomery (nee Phillips) on January 8, 1954 in the Augusta Victoria Hospital atop the Mount of Olives in the city of Jerusalem, which was then located in the country of Jordan. The family evacuated to Medicine Lodge, Kansas during the violence and political instability in Jordan during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. In 1958 they traveled by cargo ship from New York City to Karachi, Pakistan as missionaries. Bob and Ruth’s ministry was based in Karachi, but Joy and her siblings attended Murree Christian School (MCS), a boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in northern Pakistan. Joy attended MCS for grades K-5, 7-10, and the 1st half of 12th. She attended school in Medicine Lodge for 6th and 11th grade during the family’s missionary furloughs. Just six months after returning to Pakistan for her senior year at MCS, the family was forced to evacuate at the start of the December 1971 war between Pakistan and India. She graduated from Medicine Lodge High School in May 1972.
She attended Peace River Bible Institute (PRBI) in Alberta, Canada and graduated in Spring 1975. While there she met Bill Breithaupt who had just returned from a year of mission work in Sierra Leone. They were married on September 4, 1975 at a ceremony in Karachi, Pakistan. When they returned to the U.S., they lived in Washington state and attended a small gathering of families that would eventually become Crosby Chapel and that Joy would always describe as their “home” church. In 1976 they moved to Cherokee, Oklahoma and served in Bethel Baptist Church with Joy’s sister Beth and her husband Max Hazard. Their first son, Josh, was born in Medicine Lodge in November 1976. In 1977 they moved to Indiana where they started a youth group at Belleville Bible Church. Their second son Jerrod was born in October 1978 in Danville, Indiana. They returned to Washington state where they started the youth group ministry at Crosby Chapel.
In May 1983, Crosby commissioned Bill and Joy to return to her beloved Pakistan as missionaries with The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). In Pakistan she and Bill were boarding parents for the junior high boys at Sandes Home at MCS. During winter when the snows were deep in Murree, they spent time with her parents whose mission work continued in Karachi, including at Hawke’s Bay where they held beach ministries. Their sons Jordan and Jay were born in Bach Christian Hospital in Qalandarabad, Pakistan in June 1984 and November 1986.
The family returned from the overseas mission-field to live in West Chicago in early 1990, followed by a year in Joshua Tree, California from 1994-1995. They then lived in Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska from 1995-2000, and Jamestown, Colorado from 2000-2007. They moved to Dayton, Wyoming where they lived from 2007-2019 and Joy helped to lead a Women of Praise Bible study. In 2019 they moved to Lodgepole, Nebraska where they bought their first home. By the time Joy and Bill celebrated their 47th Wedding Anniversary in September 2022, they had moved a total of 36 times together.
She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005. There were doubts that she would live to see her first grandchild, but God’s grace and her stubborn resilience pushed through and she lived another 17 years and loved being a grandmother to three grandsons, Murray, Miles, and Timothy and two granddaughters, Emma and Abigail.
A cancer diagnosis was made again in Fall 2020. Even in the last months and days of her struggle with cancer she found joy in singing and praying and calling people with words of encouragement. Her wish, even in that difficult time, was always to reflect the light of the gospel (or “good news”) of Jesus, God incarnate in a sin-and pain-filled world. After all the moving, she’s finally home for good in a place filled with God’s glory and no pain.
She loved people and she loved to share food with them, especially Jordanian and Pakistani meals. She had a matchless talent for baking pies, cookies, dinner rolls, and pecan cinnamon sticky buns for family and guests. A legacy of her dedication to the craft of cooking is that all four of her sons love to cook. She loved singing, especially hymns, but also musicals like The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. She loved math, because as she said, you can always check your work and know you are right. She loved the mountains and she loved the sea, a reflection of her youth growing up in Murree and in Karachi. Most of all she loved the Creator and Redeemer of it all.
This list of places and dates provides only a framework for tracing the geography of her life, but it can’t communicate the rich, personal bonds of friendship and fellowship that Joy developed wherever she lived. Rather than a list of places, a more suitable memorial to Joy would be a list of the many names of people she loved and prayed for continually. These personal relationships and the fruit of her lifelong devotion to Christ and his kingdom will be celebrated more fully at her memorial service that will be held at 10 AM on June 3rd, 2023 in Sidney, Nebraska at the Evangelical Free Church.
We would like to have a rough estimate of the number of people hoping to attend by March 1st in order to choose a suitable venue. Please RSVP at the following link: http://evite.me/kfRMjPrXEU
You may view Joy’s Book of Memories, leave condolences, photos and stories at www.gehrigstittchapel.com.
Gehrig-Stitt Chapel & Cremation Service, LLC is in charge of Joy’s care.
Named Erma Joy, she eschewed the first name in favor of her middle name, and strove to embody joy in all circumstances. Her request was that any summary of her life, such as this, should not be an enumeration of her deeds, but a re-directing of the reader’s attention to her Creator and Redeemer. Joy had a deep love and close relationship with Jesus. She kept her eyes on him and his promises of love, forgiveness and eternal life. One of her favorite Scripture verses was Lamentations 3:22-24 "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him.’"
The third of four children (Bruce, Beth, Joy, and Roy) she was born to missionaries Bob and Ruth Montgomery (nee Phillips) on January 8, 1954 in the Augusta Victoria Hospital atop the Mount of Olives in the city of Jerusalem, which was then located in the country of Jordan. The family evacuated to Medicine Lodge, Kansas during the violence and political instability in Jordan during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. In 1958 they traveled by cargo ship from New York City to Karachi, Pakistan as missionaries. Bob and Ruth’s ministry was based in Karachi, but Joy and her siblings attended Murree Christian School (MCS), a boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in northern Pakistan. Joy attended MCS for grades K-5, 7-10, and the 1st half of 12th. She attended school in Medicine Lodge for 6th and 11th grade during the family’s missionary furloughs. Just six months after returning to Pakistan for her senior year at MCS, the family was forced to evacuate at the start of the December 1971 war between Pakistan and India. She graduated from Medicine Lodge High School in May 1972.
She attended Peace River Bible Institute (PRBI) in Alberta, Canada and graduated in Spring 1975. While there she met Bill Breithaupt who had just returned from a year of mission work in Sierra Leone. They were married on September 4, 1975 at a ceremony in Karachi, Pakistan. When they returned to the U.S., they lived in Washington state and attended a small gathering of families that would eventually become Crosby Chapel and that Joy would always describe as their “home” church. In 1976 they moved to Cherokee, Oklahoma and served in Bethel Baptist Church with Joy’s sister Beth and her husband Max Hazard. Their first son, Josh, was born in Medicine Lodge in November 1976. In 1977 they moved to Indiana where they started a youth group at Belleville Bible Church. Their second son Jerrod was born in October 1978 in Danville, Indiana. They returned to Washington state where they started the youth group ministry at Crosby Chapel.
In May 1983, Crosby commissioned Bill and Joy to return to her beloved Pakistan as missionaries with The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). In Pakistan she and Bill were boarding parents for the junior high boys at Sandes Home at MCS. During winter when the snows were deep in Murree, they spent time with her parents whose mission work continued in Karachi, including at Hawke’s Bay where they held beach ministries. Their sons Jordan and Jay were born in Bach Christian Hospital in Qalandarabad, Pakistan in June 1984 and November 1986.
The family returned from the overseas mission-field to live in West Chicago in early 1990, followed by a year in Joshua Tree, California from 1994-1995. They then lived in Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska from 1995-2000, and Jamestown, Colorado from 2000-2007. They moved to Dayton, Wyoming where they lived from 2007-2019 and Joy helped to lead a Women of Praise Bible study. In 2019 they moved to Lodgepole, Nebraska where they bought their first home. By the time Joy and Bill celebrated their 47th Wedding Anniversary in September 2022, they had moved a total of 36 times together.
She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005. There were doubts that she would live to see her first grandchild, but God’s grace and her stubborn resilience pushed through and she lived another 17 years and loved being a grandmother to three grandsons, Murray, Miles, and Timothy and two granddaughters, Emma and Abigail.
A cancer diagnosis was made again in Fall 2020. Even in the last months and days of her struggle with cancer she found joy in singing and praying and calling people with words of encouragement. Her wish, even in that difficult time, was always to reflect the light of the gospel (or “good news”) of Jesus, God incarnate in a sin-and pain-filled world. After all the moving, she’s finally home for good in a place filled with God’s glory and no pain.
She loved people and she loved to share food with them, especially Jordanian and Pakistani meals. She had a matchless talent for baking pies, cookies, dinner rolls, and pecan cinnamon sticky buns for family and guests. A legacy of her dedication to the craft of cooking is that all four of her sons love to cook. She loved singing, especially hymns, but also musicals like The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. She loved math, because as she said, you can always check your work and know you are right. She loved the mountains and she loved the sea, a reflection of her youth growing up in Murree and in Karachi. Most of all she loved the Creator and Redeemer of it all.
This list of places and dates provides only a framework for tracing the geography of her life, but it can’t communicate the rich, personal bonds of friendship and fellowship that Joy developed wherever she lived. Rather than a list of places, a more suitable memorial to Joy would be a list of the many names of people she loved and prayed for continually. These personal relationships and the fruit of her lifelong devotion to Christ and his kingdom will be celebrated more fully at her memorial service that will be held at 10 AM on June 3rd, 2023 in Sidney, Nebraska at the Evangelical Free Church.
We would like to have a rough estimate of the number of people hoping to attend by March 1st in order to choose a suitable venue. Please RSVP at the following link: http://evite.me/kfRMjPrXEU
You may view Joy’s Book of Memories, leave condolences, photos and stories at www.gehrigstittchapel.com.
Gehrig-Stitt Chapel & Cremation Service, LLC is in charge of Joy’s care.