Words from the heart
Jenny (pictured with husband Allen) hopes that she can reach out to others through her writing.
Throughout her life, Salvation Army soldier Jenny Minniecon has always written poetry and stories, but has often felt guilty about withdrawing from family and ministry to “indulge” in her dream of writing professionally.
That was until recently. At the age of 53, after a lifetime of ministry, love, pain and parenting (she and husband Allen have seven children and 14 grandchildren between them), Jenny finally published her first Christian children’s book (and e-book) titled That's Why We Have Easter.
Jenny is now 14,000 words into her next book – a survival guide for single mums – and has plans for a number of other books including another children’s book, That’s Why We Have Christmas.
The daughter and step-daughter of retired Salvation Army officers, Captains Fay and Errol Hart, Jenny admits “stepping back” from frontline ministry late last year was important – not only to fully support husband Allen, who is developing a new role for The Salvation Army in Cairns as the Indigenous Community Development Worker, but also because she was facing serious burnout.
After marrying in 2007, Jenny and Allen ran Salvation Army corps at Longreach and Mount Isa as Envoys; then spent three years in the remote outback as indigenous youth workers. Since December, the couple has worked intensively at a Cairns community centre (near where eight children were murdered) and Jenny still organises and helps run a Sunday School at the centre.
During their time in Cairns, the Minniecons have also had three students from a remote Aboriginal community living with them. While Allen, who is a professional photographer, always wanted Jenny to write, it took burnout, a “wonderful” Christian counsellor and the realisation that she was an extreme introvert, for Jenny to give herself permission to write. And she says 30 years of ministry has given her plenty of experiences to draw on as a writer.
“The most interesting journey I have been on lately is realising when you are full-on for the Lord and have a heart to see people saved, you believe you have to go out, out, out! But, I’m actually a very introverted person and I am starting to realise that’s the way God made me,” says Jenny.
Before meeting Allen, Jenny was a single mother, after her first husband walked out when she was pregnant with her fourth son. She says, despite her fear and sorrow, she had incredible support from the Pentecostal church she attended: “I spent five years, through that church, running a group we called Girls’ Talk, a group for single mums. We would meet at the local shopping centre and have a cuppa and a chat.” The group started with just a few and over time up to 50 women would meet, laugh and cry together, and, Jenny says, a number came to faith in Jesus.
The book she is currently writing is designed to encourage and equip single mums. Jenny says: “I will put a lot of resources in the book, because when you find yourself a single mum, it’s like you become part of another world. People look at you differently too – there is definitely a stigma. But there was nothing more beautiful than watching the transformation week after week of women meeting other women, making friends and sharing their struggles. I hope through the book, I can help other single mums see who they are in God and know that they don’t have to do it all alone.”
Click here to access Jenny’s first book, That’s Why We have Easter
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