Joy Fanny Ridderhof (30 March 1903 in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

- 19 December 1984 in Stanton,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) was an American

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

. The youngest child of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

immigrants, Ridderhof was one of the first graduates of

Columbia International University Columbia International University (CIU) is a private Christian university in Columbia, South Carolina. Divisions CIU has five colleges: the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Counseling, the College of Education, the College of Interc ...

in 1923. In 1930, she traveled to

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

, establishing her ministry in

Marcala Marcala is a town, with a population of 14,360 (2020 calculation), and a municipality in the Honduran department of La Paz. The region is known for its coffee production, boasting the first "protected origin denomination" for coffee. Marcala has ...

and neighboring villages. Forced to return to the United States to recover from

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, she began making Spanish evangelizing recordings that she distributed to places in Latin America, including Marcala. She was then contacted and asked to produce some Navajo recordings, Navajo speakers they would provide. She accepted, and then she got more jobs. This led her to form Gospel Recordings in 1939. Gospel Recordings (later renamed

Global Recordings Network Global Recordings Network (GRN) was founded by Joy Ridderhof in Los Angeles, California in 1939 as "Gospel Recordings." The mission of GRN is "In partnership with the church, to effectively communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ by means of cult ...

) delivers the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

people in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

via hand-operated record players. As of 2012 the company has produced recordings in 6,139 languages. Ridderhof and Gospel Recordings are the subjects of the 2006 ''

P.O.V. ''POV'' (also written ''P.O.V.'') is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series which features independent nonfiction films. ''POV'' is an initialism for ''point of view''. ''POV'' is the longest-running showcase on television ...

'' documentary ''The Tailenders''.

References

*Betty M. Hockett ''Catching Their Talk in a Box: The Life-Story of Joy Ridderhof'' (pbk) Barclay Press, 1987. *Phyllis Thompson '' Capturing Voices'' Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London, 1978.

External links

Global Recordings Official Site

Audiovie Homepage
Audiovie is Global Recordings in most Francophone countries.
''The Tailenders'' Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridderhof, Joy 1903 births 1984 deaths People from Minnesota Protestant missionaries in Honduras American Protestant missionaries American people of Dutch descent American people of Swedish descent Female Christian missionaries Columbia International University alumni American expatriates in Honduras People from Stanton, California