Keeping up with the Joneses

Billy and Joylynn Jones first visited Saipan in March of 1998 with a Chinese Church to help start a new private school here. As parents frequently traveling the world for vacation or missions trips, settling on Saipan was never even thought of.

“We kind of have a complicated, crazy life,” she told Saipan Tribune.

Now, after one year of residing on island, the 38-year-old mother of three said that she and her family “love the people, beauty of the island, and its location.”

From left, members of the Jones family Rose, Joy, Billy, William, and Esther pose for a photo. (Contributed Photo)

Despite the exorbitant prices or lack there of of basic commodities on island, she said the hardest part of living in the Marianas is saying goodbye to the many people who leave it.

But Joylyn says they won’t be going anywhere soon “until God shows us He wants us to do something else.”

The calm island life that the Jones live now followed a plethora of trips around the nation.

Joy, as she is fondly called by her children, grew up in Vermont and went to college in Southern Carolina, eventually moving to North Carolina for one year in the early “2000s.” Later, the family moved to Charleston, South Carolina from 2001 to 2005.

The Jones family made another move in 2006 to Manning, South Carolina, where her husband, Billy, took his first pastorate.

In October of 2007, the family matriculated to Santa Barbara, California. They returned to Vermont in 2008 to assist in the revitalization of a 200-year-old church that was comprised of just 12 members.

The Joneses traveled internationally as well. From Taiwan to Shanghai and Hong Kong to England, the family finally found another home on Saipan last May and continued their life’s work by establishing a church in Kagman village.

While enjoying the island’s pristine beaches and warm weather, Billy works as a pastor at Church 360 and the new Kagman Community Church as well as a full-time pilot at STAR Marianas. Joy home schools her three teenage children, Rose, Esther, and William, while working to run the newly established community church.

Much of the family’s adventures can be viewed on Youtube under the channel “Keeping Up with the Joneses Saipan”

“We did this to let friends and the family back in the States see what our life is like here in Saipan,” she said. “We have also found it is a great resource to those moving to Saipan and trying to find out information about the island.”

Joy noted that the videos are meant to be educational for schools and other homeschoolers so that they can lean more about the island way of life.

She added, “Unfortunately our lives have been very busy this semester, and we have not had any new videos. We are hoping to produce more this summer. Video topics range from geography to culture to weather and more.”

Currently, Joy and her daughter, Rose, are traveling to Dallas, Texas as a part of the CNMI’s National Speech and Debate Association team. They will also be traveling to Nebraska as Rose will represent the island as a member of the International Thespian Society.