Bonita Joyner Shields, M.A., has served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for almost 20 years as a pastor, writer, and editor. She was the first female associate pastor of the Spencerville Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. Shields currently serves as an editor and assistant director for discipleship in the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department of the church’s world headquarters. She lives with her husband, Roy, mother, Guin, and cat, Smokey, in Brookeville, Maryland.