Jo has been speaking since 1984 for audiences of all sizes across the country and even abroad. She is a member of AWSA (Advanced Writers and Speakers Association), but most of all she loves laughing and being God's child and enthusiastically teaching the truth found in the Bible.

Jo also loves challenging listeners to experience God's amazing presence in their lives, while developing a deeper level of trust in His powerful love. Through her own transparency and humor youth, women and men alike know she is relating to their own hurts. 

Someone said her "amazing devotion to the Lord and the remarkable testimony of His grace through difficult circumstances encourages listeners to hunger for a heart which no stress or suffering can wear out." All Jo can say is, "What a privilege it is to tell what God has done in and through my life!" 

Though she has lived with multiple sclerosis since 1977, and her marriage of fifteen years ended in an unwanted divorce due to Jo's husband's infidelity, God infused her life with His loving presence, while He taught Jo how to grow. She's never given up, and she lives a life of adventure!  After marrying Ray in 1987 and becoming an "instant mom" to his two young daughters,  other difficulties and physical traumas occurred. Yet, Jo just wants to share God's wondrous work in her life (as she learned to pray her way through everything) since she came to know Christ in 1972--thanks to a couple who shared with her at a 5th Dimension concert! She nearly bursts with passion to share God's love with you!

With the release of Jo's long-requested memoir, Soar Unafraid: Learning to Trust No Matter What, she has been appearing on numerous television and radio programs. You can watch and listen to some of these on the MEDIA page. Soar Unafraid has also become the theme of many retreats and one day (or one talk) events.

During Jo's presentations she enjoys weaving in songs from her CD, some of which she has written. Prior to her first marriage, Jo attended the University of Colorado with a voice scholarship while singing in nightclubs. Her love for music shows a broad range of tastes.

And Jo is blessed to be speaking and singing about "S.O.A.R.!" in church services!

Stories of Jo's appear in a number of books, including: Teatime Stories for Mothers, You Can Bounce Back Too, God's Vitamin "C" for the Hurting Spirit, Stories of God's Abundance for a More Joyful Heart, Heart Stirring Stories of Romance, His Forever, and The One Year Life Verse Devotional. Articles have appeared in such magazines as Decision, as well as others. She has also contributed to The Art of Helping by Lauren Littauer Briggs, Come As You Are by Betty Southard and Marita Littauer, and Tailor-Made Marriage by Marita Littauer and Chuck Noon.

Ray and Jo serve in their local church in southwest Washington (near Portland, Oregon, which is where she flies out of). They love a life of adventure: jeeping in the Rockies, wildlife viewing, traveling, enjoying friends while doing any of those things or chatting over dinner; as well doing anything with their family of three daughters and four grandchildren! (But they say, "Yikes--we can't be that old!") 

Ray and Jo are honored to be featured in Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands by Gary Thomas, (also author of Sacred Marriage).

Jo's newest book was written for high school seniors and college students: SOAR Through Anything Life May Bring. While her memoir is full of Scripture, in this book she purposely left out verses, though she wrote it with a Christian world view. Jo wants it to reach and help shape the lives of those that might not have purchased it if they had seen Bible verses.