In her early teens she dedicated her life to be used in any way God chose. When she was ten years old she made her peace with God in a response at a summer camp at Gull Lake, Alberta. Spiritual Formationįrom an early age Janette attended Sunday School, Church and Vacation Bible School with her mother and siblings at the small church in Hoadley. But over the years following, God blessed their lives with four children, Terry, twins Lavon and Lorne, and a daughter Laurel. That was followed by the death of a baby boy in the early hours of his life. Her first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Janette and Edward’s first attempts at having a family were difficult. Edward then pastored Missionary churches in Indiana, Calgary, and Edmonton before being appointed president of the Mountain View Bible College in Didsbury. Edward attended seminary in Indiana while Janette worked. At nineteen years of age she went to Mountain View Bible College in Didsbury, Alberta, from which she graduated in 1957.Īlso in 1957 she married Edward Oke. Her education was interrupted by sickness in the family and she took a job at a local bank instead of finishing high school. She loved her daddy, horses, playing farms and roads in the dirt with nails and string, listening to her sister tell stories, reading about the pioneers, and acting out the plots of western movies with a friend.

She and her siblings walked two and a half miles to a one-room school. Her favourite toy was a homemade dollhouse, painted by her older sisters to look like her mother’s kitchen. Her first memory was of her siblings chasing gophers (Richardson ground squirrels). Janette’s childhood was happy and typical of a prairie youngster’s. During those Great Depression years the large family moved from the Champion area and settled on a farm at Hoadley, Alberta.

2 She grew up a middle child with an older brother, three older and, eventually, three younger sisters. Janette Oke (née Steeves) was born on Februto Fred and Amy Steeves in the family’s log house near Champion, Alberta. “… Writing was not just a dream, nor was it a remarkable commodity of words-it was a ministry for a world hungry for the knowledge of the God who loves them.” 1 Early years

She is, indeed, one of Canada’s most beloved storytellers. Her contribution to Christian fiction in Canada and the U.S. Janette Oke, herself the daughter of Canadian pioneers, has kept the pioneering spirit of courage, resourcefulness, integrity, faith, and romance alive in the body of fiction and non-fiction she has written.

Janetter oke.com