Terry Bettenson and Jan Buker find solace and strength in their unique music ministry

St. Augustine famously proclaimed that to sing is to pray twice.

Two musicians who live out that expression every Sunday are Terry Bettenson and Jan Buker of Hines Creek. For them and their self-labelled ‘hillbilly choir’, music is the thing that keeps their relationship with God front and center in their lives.

“Music keeps me honest and true to the Church, and a believer. And I feel every Sunday when we come here, we are doing God’s work,” said Terry.

“Music is my spiritual life,” Jan added. “Singing brings joy; it makes everything better. . And this is one way I have of singing praises to God. Especially country Gospel music – I feel it very deeply in my heart. Music has always been in me, and this is the way I express my faith. I love the music, I love the songs, and I love the prayers within it.”

Jan and Terry’s music ministry at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Hines Creek is one of the most unique in the archdiocese. Terry and Jan share a mutual fondness for country western music, and this is reflected in the country twang they provide to the hymns they sing at Immaculate Heart of Mary. What is most unique about their music ministry, however, is not their country style, but that many of the hymns they sing are originals.

Terry started writing his own Gospel songs in the late 1990s. And for many years now, with the approval of the parish priest, Terry and Jan sing at least a couple of these original hymns every Sunday.

“We run the songs by the priest to make sure the words, the sentiment, everything they say, is okay for the Catholic Church,” said Jan.

“So far the priest has never refused us singing them,” Terry added. “I always tell people we’re a kind of ‘hillbilly choir’ in the Catholic Church. We’re different, we don’t compare to any other choir.”

This knack for songwriting has been important especially to Terry’s spiritual life. Since he wrote his first Gospel hymn ‘Our God’ in 1997 – which they still sing in the church today as an offertory hymn – his songs have been his primary way of growing closer to God. Each time he sings them, he says, he’s brought back to the emotions and the inspiration he felt at the time he wrote them.

During our interview, Terry flipped through his songbook and began detailing some of the original hymns they sing in the church and the personal memories that are tied to them.

“I wrote ‘Lord can you hear me?’ as I was praying before church one day. I didn’t feel like my prayers were being answered at that time, so a little inspiration like that got me writing,” Terry said, turning over the pages of his songbook.

“‘The Lord’s House’ means a lot to me too. I came up with it sitting here in the church, praying and thinking about being in the Lord’s house, and about giving praise and glory to God. And the song just came to me… ‘Heaven Waits’ is a song I wrote for my mother-in-law, because she said one day, ‘You haven’t written one for me Terry.’ She lived to be 106 years old and I wrote it when she was 102. So I wrote it for her, about moving on to the next life and to eternity. And I’ve sung it at several funerals. When people ask us to do music ministry for a funeral, I will always choose to sing that one.”

Certainly in singing their own hymns, heard nowhere else but within the walls of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Terry and Jan embody a unique dedication and devotion to serving their local parish. The strength of their devotion is also seen in how they continue to dedicate themselves to music ministry in spite of illness and age – Jan being 66 and Terry soon turning 75.

Jan especially offers an inspiring witness, as she continues to sing every Sunday in the church despite increasing health challenges. In recent months, Jan was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in her lungs, an intensely debilitating condition in which she cannot breathe on her own, but must be constantly hooked up to six liters of oxygen. The condition is progressing, but she still continues to make her way to the church each Sunday and sing as best she can.

As she sings near the altar each Sunday, hooked up to the oxygen machine flowing into her lungs, she provides a moving testimony to her faith. When asked what keeps her continuing to sing despite the immense challenges this illness brings to her energy and her lungs, Jan says it is simply because singing is what she loves to do, and she cannot be easily turned away from doing it.

This is only an excerpt. Read the full story in the September 2025 edition of Northern Light