Pastor Derek is a life-long United Methodist who as served as a pastor for over 36 years. He and Pastor Joyce served churches in the West Michigan Annual Conference for 13 years, before moving out west in 1999. They have pastored churches in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah.

He understands the church to be a community whose calling is to heal wounds, to unite that which has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way. He has had specialized training and experience in the Missional Church Network, the 3-year Covenant Community for Spiritual Formation, and the Center for Action and Contemplation. If there was one word he would use to describe his orientation to ministry, it would be Reconciliation.

When not at church, Derek enjoys walking/hiking, seeing movies, reading, and traveling. They have one daughter, who lives in Los Angeles and works in the motion picture industry. Oh - and they have an orange cat named Sunny!

Joyce DeToni-Hill is a native of Jackson, Michigan. She graduated from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston IL. with Master of Divinity and Master of Christian Education degrees.

She was ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church in 1989 and served churches Michigan, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah before being appointed to serve as Co pastor of Shepherd of the Hills in 2022.

Joyce’s favorite scripture is the Emmaus Road account in Luke where the Resurrected Jesus walks along side of discouraged disciples and opens their eyes to new possibilities and new life.

This is also Joyce’s favorite pastoral role - walking alongside others and pointing out the presence of the Christ in our midst and his invitation to live into the new life always before us.

Joyce finds her joy in walking long distance pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, hiking 4 times. She enjoys sharing her pilgrimage experiences in worship, blogs, and articles. She is a proud member of American Pilgrims on the Camino.

Joyce also enjoys travel, Zumba, singing, writing, and learning to paint her journeys with watercolor. She is a breast cancer survivor. Her spiritual formation highlights include participating in the Academy for Spiritual Formation, the Symposium for Pilgrimage Studies (College of William and Mary), National Gatherings American Pilgrims on the Camino and Worship Design Studio.

Deb has lived in St. George since 2009. She retired from an academic publishing company, ABC-CLIO, after 30 years of employment. She retired as a Senior Manager, Operations, from the Serials Database division of the company. She also worked at the DSU Library as a Circulation Supervisor for 4 1/2 years. She has served at SHUMC as the Chair of the Education Ministry Team as well as serving on the Finance Ministry Team. Deb graduated from the Claremont School of Theology in 2008 as a Certified Lay Minister. She was hired as the Finance Administrator in June of 2016.

Deb and her husband, Tom Garrison, are avid and experienced hikers, having spent the last 35 years hiking in the desert. They, along with their two cats Molly and Bob, thoroughly enjoy their life here in St. George. Deb can be contacted through the church office or via email at [email protected]

Lily was born in Western Samoa and raised in Fagasa, American Samoa. She is the fifth of eight children. She earned her Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts at American Samoan Community College, her BA degree in Music and Math at Missouri State University and then went on to receive her Master's Degree in Secondary Education at Chaminade University of Honolulu in 2004. Over the years, she taught both music and math.

Lily married Ari in 1998 and they have four children, three girls and one boy. She has been a musician since 4th grade as well as involved in many church ministries and community organizations. She continues to use the talents that God has blessed her with through music at church and at school. The Alo family moved to St. George in 2007 where she taught in local schools. She discovered SHUMC in 2012 and first served as our Choir Director. She was promoted to Music Director in 2015.

We are very blessed to have Lily and her family as part of the SHUMC family. She is a servant and instrument of God's praise! Lily can be contacted via email at: [email protected].