Janis M Hutchinson

In 1953, she married Robert Lind Hutchinson who passed away in 1961. They had three children: Blake, Debra, and Van. In 1969, she married David Glenn Hutchinson who passed away in 1977.

God began drawing her to him at an early age. She first became aware of Him at five years old when living with her aunt and uncle and hearing bits and pieces when adults talked about him. She gathered he lived in the sky in a house like her aunt’s but the clouds covered him from sight. He became so real to her, that one day after her chores of taking out the garbage, she complained to her aunt: “Why can’t we ever see God coming out to empty his garbage?” She doesn’t recall her aunt’s answer, but every day she determinedly kept watching the sky.

She never heard the name of Jesus until she was nine. One Sunday morning, sitting in the top of an apple tree in her backyard and hearing bells in the near distance, she asked and received permission to go find the bells the following Sunday. The next week, waiting in the top of the tree, she heard them. Scurrying down, she took off and found the bells coming from a church (her first time in one).

Summoning up the courage to go inside, she was directed to the right class. The teacher talked about someone named Jesus. She decided he was an invisible man who lived in the sky with God. She was also given a small card with a picture of him holding a lamb. At the bottom of the picture it said, “Jesus Loves You.”

She continued thinking about God and the Jesus who loved her, even though at the age of 14 her mother had her join the LDS Church because of their youth program. During her 35 years in the LDS Church, she wore many hats, serving as Adult Sunday School teacher, Director of Teacher Training, Ladies and Youth teacher, organist, and other positions. She also wrote articles for the church’s worldwide magazine and for their radio commercials on the family.

Eventually reaching a mind-numbing plateau, and recalling John 17:3, “This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent,” she began praying for God to lead her to “deeper truth” so she could become closer to Him.

God heard her prayer, and in the process of drawing her to him knew exactly what to do as described in Jeremiah 1:12 —He was “alert and active, watching over His word to perform it” in her life.

The word he “activated” was in Isa. 42:16: “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along “unfamiliar paths” I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, and not forsake them.” The “unfamiliar path” he was going to guide her into was a necessary first step.

God, knowing she needed to learn about the falseness of Mormonism before she could fully know the truth about Him, led her into that “unfamiliar path” stated in Isaiah. It was a Mormon Fundamentalist group in the backwoods of Montana, where he planned to “turn her darkness into light” and “not forsake her” during the “rough places” that God knew would inevitably occur.

There, within that secretive group, she gained access to first-hand materials carefully handed down from Brigham Young’s time that revealed the accounts of Joseph Smith’s false visions, doctrines, and shocking temple rituals covered up by the modern-day church. At that time, due to no Internet, this information was not available to the public yet.

Soon, convinced Mormonism was false, and hiding this fact from the Fundamentalist leader, she began sneaking away to a small Christian church that God led her to discover on a lonely highway.

There, God was ready to “turn her darkness into light,” and keep his promise in Jer. 29:13—“You will find me when you search for me with all your heart.” And in that little church, she did!

However, after four secretive visits to the church, she was followed. Confronted by the Fundamentalist leader, she was charged with spiritual adultery for worshiping at the Christian church’s “altar of Baal” and ordered to confess her sin and publicly renounce the Christian Jesus in their meeting. Refusing, she was held prisoner in a small room for nine months. Continually badgered to repent she nearly died, but God miraculously resuscitated her and enabled her daring escape. True to his word in Isa. 42:16, God did not forsake her, and came through with Jeremiah 39:17: “I will deliver you in that day, and you shall not be given into the hands of the men whom you are afraid. For I will surely deliver you.”—and he did!

As a new Christian, she constantly praised the goodness of God who kept his promise in Ps. 40:2-4 by “bringing her out of the miry clay, setting her feet upon the true Rock, and established her goings.” He had indeed performed a “marvelous work and a wonder” from Isa. 29:14—which is making the blind to see.

In 1985, she graduated as valedictorian from International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas with a Batchelor’s degree in theology, and became one of the instructors who taught at that college. Later, in 1987, she earned a Master’s degree, graduating summa cum laude. During that time and active in her church, she ministered regularly in prophecy, word of knowledge, and miracles.

A frequent guest on Christian TV and radio shows, she also lectured at nationwide conferences exposing the fallacies of Mormonism and sharing her personal testimony. She also served 12 years with the Institute of Religious Research in their apologetics ministry mentoring Mormons worldwide via email.

She became one of the first authors to be published by a Christian publisher in revealing the early secretive doctrines and practices of the Mormon Church from sources not generally known at that time. Three of her books helped members of all cults—not just Mormons—make the difficult transition into traditional churches, and educated Christians on understanding their struggles. She went on to write two more books on other subjects, making a total of five, plus 13 booklets.

The Worldwide Church of God selected one of her books, “Out of the Cults and Into the Church,” as mandatory reading for their pastors to counsel their distressed members when the church switched from Herbert Armstrong’s false doctrines to Christianity. Her books on Mormonism also became required reading at the New Zealand Jubilee Training Center, and at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School, and other U.S. colleges.

Awarded “Writer of the Year” in 2008 by the American Christian Writers Association, she garnered many awards in literary competitions for her five books, including her many national and international articles.

In 1971 she moved to Northern California where she served as President of a Pro-Life chapter and continued speaking to groups. In demand as a pianist and organist for town funerals and weddings, she also enjoyed oil paintings and won many blue ribbons.

Moving to Everett, WA in 1989, she worked 23 years as legal assistant to an attorney. In 2011, she became credentialed with the Assemblies of God, and served as a Young at Heart teacher in the Senior Church at Bethany Christian Assembly.

Two of her favorite scriptures were Psalm 27:4 and 29:2:

“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, inquire in his temple, and “give unto the lord the glory due unto his name by worshipping the lord in the beauty of his holiness.”

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law: Debra and Tony Estes of Red Oak, Texas, her son, Blake Hutchinson of Wendover, Utah, her granddaughter, Kimberly Clark, and grandson, Isaac Fazio, and by eight other grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Her son, Van Hutchinson, predeceased her in 1998.