After 6 years with Rhema Media NZ, Joy Ravela has made Australia home - joining the team at 89.9 TheLight.
CMAA Award winner, and native New Zealander Joy Ravela has made the move to Australia and says she is, 'totally won over'.
Even though Joy has been working in Christian Media for six years, it wasn't her original career path. As a second-generation immigrant child, Joy grew up with a great deal of pressure to succeed. She explains, "I was meant to be the first doctor in the family until I totally tanked my first year of Biomedical Sciences." Feeling grief, low self-worth and failure during that time Joy says it was in that dark season that, "Christian radio and TV kept me tethered to hope."
While Joy says it would take a book to explain what happened in between those dark days and beginning in Christian Media, she can summarise it in just one word - 'Jesus'.
Starting as an intern at Rhema Media, Joy then worked in sales for two years as a Creative/Copy Writer. During that time she was given the opportunity to test the waters in radio and TV, and by 2018 was offered the position of Assistant Content Director of Rhema NZ. In 2019 she won the CMAA Award for Excellence in Cultural Influence, and during the last year and a half Joy has also co-hosted a drive show and several Shine TV programmes.
When reflecting on her CMAA Award win Joy says, "I’m so glad there’s video evidence of that night because it honestly felt like a dream! I am so grateful to God for allowing me to experience a ‘Grammy’ moment because that’s what it truly felt like."
Moving to Australia was 'a leap of faith' for Joy, but there are no regrets. "There were many moments of wondering whether I was doing the right thing with moving from an essentially covid-free country to a city in lockdown," says Joy. One of her highlights of moving began on the trip over as she was on the same flight with the entire All Blacks Team. And while Joy misses the visual beauty that NZ offers she concedes that she has been, "totally won over by the allure of Melbourne," and explains, "I love the frank nature of the Aussies, the wide roads and the fiery sunsets."
Joy has joined the team at 89.9 TheLight in Melbourne as their Afternoon Presenter from 12pm-3pm, and will be also involved in digital content producing further down the line. Her transition into the PositiveMedia family is proving relatively seamless. Joy says, "I’ve certainly felt at home with my new team. I have caught myself saying ‘Salvos’ a couple times so I’d say assimilation is going well!"
Joy recognises her role on-air comes with a great deal of responsibility. "Being a presenter means that people observe how I live my life - I am an example! So instead of putting on a performance, the greatest gift I can give them is to live an authentic Jesus-centred life," says Joy. The bible verse Joy says has hallmarked her life is 1 Timothy 4:12 “Do not let the world look down on you because you are young, but rather set an example for all the other believers in speech, love, life, faith and purity.”
In Joy's acceptance speech for her CMAA Award she mentioned the ‘Gatekeepers of Opportunity’ - men and women who took a risk and opened doors of opportunity that she couldn’t open herself, to lead her into Christian Media. She is already striving towards her own legacy in this area stating, "It’s both my mantle and desire to one day do the same for others, specifically women from diverse backgrounds. I firmly believe raising others up is one of the most powerful ways to influence culture."