Pioneering Canada
On the west coast of Canada, the flourishing Jesus People Army had sprung up in mid-1970, under the leadership of Linda Meissner and Russ Griggs, a young pastor. Linda was well known in evangelical circles as having helped Dave Wilkerson (of The Cross and the Switchblade fame) in his work amongst the drug addicts of New York several years previously. Applying many of the methods that the Children of God had pioneered in Huntington Beach, they and their co-workers were able to win many hippies and others to the Lord and His service. Within several months they had established outreaches in Vancouver, Canada, as well as Seattle, Tacoma, and Spokane in the northwest U.S.
Although they had a following of 200–300 full-time workers, several houses, coffeeshops, two newspapers, a bakery, etc., they lacked spiritual leadership and guidance, and slowly their work began to crumble because of internal dissension, bickering and doctrinal disputes. Desperate for a solution, the leaders visited the L.A. colony in the summer of ’71, and invited the Children of God to come and help them in the northwest. A team headed by Deb and Jeth, Megiddo, Tabitha, and David Z came, and it was love at first sight!
After a few days of Bible classes, the Vancouver group, 90 strong, forsook all and joined. Some of these new disciples were sent to TSC for training, while others stayed behind to receive their basic training at the newly acquired Burlington camp. The Seattle and Tacoma groups chose not to join the Children of God (with a few exceptions), and denounced Linda for doing so, eventually causing persecution in Vancouver. But by then the children of God had won the hearts and minds of many and had established the first of many fruitful colonies in western Canada.
A few months before this, at the beginning of the summer, Ebed and a small team crossed into eastern Canada from Detroit on their way to witness at a rock festival north of Toronto. This was quite fruitful and they made a number of contacts in the area and were invited to some churches to speak. However, this came to an abrupt end when two of the leading Christian youth leaders of the community (Joram and Hepher), suddenly forsook all, along with some of their flock, causing an uproar! For a while the police were after Ebed, accusing him of kidnapping and brainwashing these new disciples, but things calmed down when the new disciples themselves stood up for their new convictions.
At a second rock festival that same summer, the Children of God was attacked by a group of bikers who were furious because their leader’s girlfriend had been saved and had forsaken all! No one was hurt, but they left Ebed tied to a tree! These were exciting times! Later, Mother Eve, Aaron, Stephen, and Shula came up and helped establish a colony, coffee shop and training center in Toronto, where many disciples were won and trained. By the middle of 1972, colonies had been established in Ottawa, Montreal, Camp Laurentide (Dr. Martin offered it to us again, as well as a large mansion in the suburbs of Montreal), and Quebec City, all very fruitful colonies.
In the years that followed, colonies and road teams got the message out to every part of Canada, winning many souls and disciples. Periodic waves of persecution in the media publicized our message even more and assisted the Children of God in reaping a harvest of young laborers to help in the more needy mission fields of the world!