Whitt
and Judy have been married 42 years and have two daughters, Rachel (40) and
Jordan (38).
Whitt and Judy entered ministry in 1992, when they
took a house “out of the budget” and set off with their two girls to help in
Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Living in an Army tent and homeschooling,
while Whitt ran the physical plant of a camp for volunteers, they got a
close-up view of what can be done when you make yourself available to the Lord.
Whitt had previous experience in food bank
ministry, so it wasn’t much of a surprise, when the time in Florida came to a
close, that he was invited to work with Ministries of the Bread of Life, a food
bank ministry headquartered in Michigan (folks they had met “in the
field” near Homestead, Florida).
From Homestead, they arrived in Detroit on
Christmas Eve in a severe snowstorm. For 14 years they lived in the
farm and forest country of Northern Michigan as full-time volunteers,
caretaking 39 acres of donated property, and sharing food and the Gospel on a
family-by-family basis.
Whitt’s parents did not attend church or give him
religious training, but they did drop him off at the various churches he was
interested in attending, dubbing him “Holy Joe”. When Whitt was in sixth
grade, two “sweet older ladies” began a children’s Bible study in their
home. At age 11, Whitt gave his heart to the Lord, and received his first
Bible. After bouncing through a series of lukewarm churches, Whitt spent years
16 through 25 straying farther and farther from the Lord, until, in 1972, the
Lord “just reached out and grabbed him back”. He had traveled through Eastern
Mysticism, Mormonism, failed marriage, and most of what the world had to offer.
Judy’s mother is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but
her father was Jewish; so, she was raised in a highly charged religious
atmosphere, to say the least. Though she was drawn to the Lord at an early age,
and had always known Jesus as her Savior, it wasn’t until she met and married
Whitt that she was able to embrace and experience the fullness of the Gospel.
From their very diverse backgrounds, Whitt and Judy
have gained a wide-angle perspective on the trips and traps of this
world.
Their music and humor reflect that scope and depth.
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