Jann McGuire D.Min.

I was born in Odessa, Texas,and met my late husband, Fred, at Abilene Christian College. We settled down to teach in Springville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in 1960. Our daughter and three sons were our treasures and our joy. The Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War and the assassinations of the sixties shocked us out of our conservative mold. We uprooted our family to teach for two years in Brazil, after which we worked in community development with the Ecumenical Institute/Institute of Cultural Affairs in San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis and Japan. Returning to California in 1976, we settled in Lindsay. I taught bilingual first grade and learning handicapped students for twenty years, retiring in 1995. The first version of my memoir, ILLNESS AS INITIATION, was the dissertation for my Doctor of Ministry degree. I continue to write and maintain a massage, water shiatsu and bioenergetics therapy practice as well as serve on the boards of Sequoia Center for Holistic Studies and the Lindsay Arts Association.