The author was born Jean Elizabeth Bacon in 1928, in Gloversville, New York, USA, and resided there until her family moved to Rochester, NY, where she met and married Alvin Renner and kept books for his local trucking business there. She is the mother of three and grandmother of eleven.

          She began writing poetry in 1977. Alvin died in 1980, leaving her to raise their 12-year-old son Jim in Honeoye, NY on beautiful Honeoye Lake, one of the smaller Finger Lakes. There she met and married John Whittier, who was called into the Christian ministry and with whom she attended Elohim Bible Institute in Castile, NY. Upon Graduation in 1987, they were called as missionaries to England, where they worked in a small church in north London for several years.

Jean with husband John

           The Lord recalled them to service in the US for several more years during which they divided their time between a campground ministry in western New York State and Tombstone, Arizona. In 1996 they were called to a ministry in Tucson, Arizona, while Jean recuperated from surgery to correct a brain aneurysm, a miraculous healing with very few residual effects. In Tucson they worked with Caring and Sharing Ministries, which ministers to both physical and spiritual needs of the local Spanish-speaking population and people along both sides of the Mexican border, as well as other national groups settling in Arizona.

Jean at her piano in north London

          Jean's Language skills were used in Tucson, where she taught English as a second language to Spanish folk as part of her duties. She is a pianist and has worked to provide music in several churches. At one time she directed the adult choir in her home church in Honeoye. She learned her singing skills in the Junior Choir in her church while she grew up and has used her voice for the Lord in every occasional request. Her formal education was gained in Gloversville High School, one year at the University of Rochester, and three years at Bible School as well as piano, cello, and guitar lessons at various points in her life. She teaches the Bible to women in her home church.

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©2001 Jean Whittier