Jennifer Gayle Glen

The Funeral and Celebration of Life Service for

Jennifer Gayle Glen

June 6, 2025 at 1:30 p.m.

Whiteshell Church

“The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” ~Job 1:21~

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Jennifer Gayle Glen (nee Berkan), 45, of Seven Sisters Falls, Manitoba, on May 24, 2025 after battling cancer for a couple of years.

Jen was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan on January 14, 1980 to Robin and Dale Berkan. Jen was the youngest of three children and grew up in Humboldt and Regina with her older sister Jodi and her older brother Jason. After high school she attended Bethany College in Hepburn, SK receiving a two-year diploma in Biblical Studies. She also met her husband Craig there, and the two were married on May 26, 2001 in Saskatoon.

After struggling with infertility for a number of years, the LORD opened her womb and Jen and Craig welcomed William and Emmett into the world in quick succession! They were thrilled with the gifts of their miracle boys!

Jen was passionate about teaching children and completed her early childhood diploma at Prairie West Regional College and then used her skills and heart in a few schools over the next several years until the arrival of her own boys.

She then embarked on what she called the greatest years of her life, namely, home-schooling her boys and giving them their start until they began their public school chapter of life in Whitemouth, MB in the fall of 2022. Jen received her cancer diagnosis a few short months later and began aggressive treatments in January 2023 with the goal of beating the cancer and receiving many more good years. She got one, and was thankful for it! Through the seeming unrelenting rounds of chemo, surgery, and radiation treatments, she never wavered in her faith and did her best to continue teaching the Sparks at Awana and helping with music and drama and teaching at VBS as her strength allowed.

From an early age Jen was committed to serving in ministry, taking seriously the call of the apostle Peter that, “each one should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10). Jen loved the opportunities of being a pastor’s wife that were afforded to her to sing and lead in worship in both the children’s programming and general corporate worship settings.

She will fondly be remembered for her role as the ‘action lady’ for annual summer VBS’ at church. She loved the WORD, and loved teaching the Bible to children, including her own! This was her ‘sweetspot’ in life!

In January of this year Jen, Craig, William and Emmett learned that her extremely rare and aggressive cancer had returned and had metastasized to both of her lungs. Her oncologist gave her a few weeks to a few months and she seized every ounce of energy and strength she had left to still live, to still laugh, to still love, to still make memories with her family and friends. Her great peace at meeting her end was a divine gift and she prepared Craig, William and Emmett as best she could by singing, praying, reading, and journaling and openly conversing about meeting her Lord & Saviour soon!

She ultimately succumbed to her illness on her ‘goodbye tour’ as she called it, at the Pasqua hospital in Regina, her home city surrounded by her family and friends, breathing her last breath at 10:48 a.m. on Saturday, May 24 and being transferred to her eternal heavenly home with the Lord.

Jen is survived by her husband Craig and their children William and Emmett, her parents, Dale and Robin Berkan, her brother Jason & Sandra Berkan, nephews Alex, Evan, Jonathan and Bradley, her sister Jodi & Stevan Stasiuk, nephew & nieces Lucas (Jolene), Bethany (Kyle), Erin, Lily & Claire, her mother & father-in-law Al & Trish Glen and siblings Vivienne (Rich) Clark, nephews Elijah and Benjamin, Bonnie (Jon) Esau, niece and nephews Callie, Marek, Gavin & Tayo. She is also survived by numerous other aunts and uncles and cousins.

A funeral service will be held Friday, June 6, 2025 at Whiteshell Baptist Church at 1:30 p.m., Seven Sisters Falls.

Please call, leave a message or email the church at (204) 348-2536 or info@whiteshellbaptist.com if you plan to attend as seating is limited.

A livestream link to watch the funeral will be hosted on the Whiteshell Church website (www.whiteshellbaptist.com). Check for the link the day of the service.

A special thanks to the exceptional homecare nurse, Danielle, palliative homecare nurse, Megan Schlegel in Regina, and the palliative team of doctors and nurses at the Pasqua hospital, and also the incredible team that cared for Jen in the past couple of years as part of Manitoba Cancer Care! You were a great blessing to her!

A special thanks as well to Rachel Buhr and the Dallas Valley Ranch Camp team for gifting us a soft place to land for Jen’s ‘goodbye tour.’

If people wish to honor her memory, in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Sing-the-Word ministry of Waverley Church, Winnipeg. Funds will be used to support and record the album for “When I Can’t See” based on the book of Habakkuk. Waverley Church 2171 Waverley St. Winnipeg, MB R3Y 1R7. Ph: (204) 261-8013 Email: admin@waverleychurch.ca.

www.soberingfuneralchapel.com