John Byron Canada This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. The Living Light - March 2001

   www.firstfriendswhittier.org/l - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/1/2001   Last Visited: 10/7/2004

   Joan & John Canada Joan stated that she was born in the Bronx, one of five children. "We were poor, but decent," she said, "and although the inner city life was difficult, we managed." She had been the operator of a business that failed. As a result, she became homeless, and suffered emotional problems.
   ...
   John then spoke of his life. He was born in what he called the "Cradle of Confederacy"--Montgomery, Alabama. Growing up in the Sixties and being drafted during the "violent time" of the Vietnam years were stressful and painful and he described himself as angry and violent.
   
   While he was in the military he was assigned to Long Beach. There he met Fred and the Friends and later went to Quaker Meadow. For a time he sat back and wanted people to leave him alone. But a pastor (one who had served as pastor in the church Joan attended in New York) spoke and, as John put it, "The Word of the Lord reminded me of many things I had learned in my younger years and my heart began to melt again."
   
   John credits the Quakers, who believe that God is in everyone. Besides working with Joan in the recovery home, he is pastor of a New Evangelical Covenant Church in Long Beach. He continues to take people to Quaker Meadow, where lives are still being transformed.
   
   John indicated that there is much hostility and violence in the inner city; in fact, a man was shot and killed near the church parking lot just a day or two before. Many are homeless. In Long Beach it is illegal for homeless to keep their personal belongings in shopping carts, so they obtain baby strollers and use them. "Many in the city," John said, "have no clue to where they are headed."

2. 2. GoMemphis: Faith & Values

   www.gomemphis.com/mca/faith_va - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/25/2003   Last Visited: 1/25/2003

   "I hate to see us lose membership," said Dr. James Simmons, a descendant of Eudora's founding pastor, John Byron Canada.