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	"Jim Barker - Faithful Servant - A poor kid from the South grew into one of the most successful leaders in the history of Awana. - By the world's standards, Jim Barker was facing a dim future when his aunt brought him out of the backwoods of Tennessee to live in Chicago during the Great Depression." This quote is the first paragraph from a book entitled "Faces of Awana - an extraordinary God using ordinary people" published by Awana in the year 2000 for the 50th anniversary of Awana. The rest of this page from the book is on this Awana webpage here. The Model Awana Leader - Jim Barker's passion for evangelism enabled him to lead countless kids to Christ My Dad was too old for the White Shirt Brigade that preceeded Awana, but thru Jim Barker, some of his younger brothers were brought to Awana and Jim Barker visited their home which was quite a ways from North Side Gospel Center. My dad's younger brothers never got to involved with the church but my dad did thru Jim coming to the house. Years later after my dad had died, I talked to a woman at NSGC who remembered my dad running sound there. I talked to someone else years later who remembered playing basketball with my dad there. Edward M. Stadick
	Below are some letters my dad received from Jim Barker in the 1950s and indications that my dad had written to him as well in Venezuela. The article above talks about Jim being on the mission field as well. In the 1953 letter Jim wrote "I see from Doc's form letter that you are (or were) in Korea. Best of all I am glad to hear that you really know the Lord as your saviour." My dad was in the Army Corps of Engineers in Korea at around that time, he got there a month after the war ended. Some of the people in his group had gotten medals earlier for building bridges under fire. The 1955 letter indicates my dad was back from Korea. Doc referenced in the letter is Lance Latham. Amazonas (Venezuelan state) is referenced in the letters. Awana Edward M. Stadick

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