READERS' COMMENTS
CALLED TO BE (CTB): A SPIRIT ODYSSEY
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"John launches into section three with such impact that the book literally becomes a page-turner. . . . Their awakenment to service is riveting. . . . A powerful story it is." --from review by Lynn Salsi, author of children's books and N.C. regional histories
I did enjoy reading your memoir, remembering my own experience in growing up in Galax. . . . When I read about my radio heartthrob Bobby Benson, I yelped. What fun! . . . There is a song on the Celtic Woman CD called "One World." It connects with what I read and felt about your ministry. --Gerri Davis, schoolmate
"You are a writer! I finished your book this morning and loved it. You write like you talk, which I have always enjoyed." --Karen Snyder, Millennian Consulting
"John, I am halfway through your book. I confess to having been captivated by the vivid and candid parts about Emory and Henry [College]." --Bishop Earl G. Hunt, author, John and Lynda's
college president
"I'm into your book and love the writing style and content. The funeral [prologue] was really powerful!" --Linda S. (Sunny) Walker
"What a life! What a read!" --Brian Stanfield, author and editor
"When the book came, I thought I would scan it and say something to help John market it! . . . [The prologue] captured and catapulted me into reading the whole thing. . . . The book tossed me into my own whirlwind of recollections." --Geri Tolman, friend
"Carol and I laughed and cried as we read stories from our common journey which conjured up our own memories of struggle and change and of sorrow and joy. . . ." --George Walters, sr. mgmt. consultant
"After our two-week vacation, the best thing in the mail was your book. It is gorgeous!" --Ida Forbis, sister and writer
"Your web site is great. You must be having a wonderful time." --Dorthea Jewell, friend
"John writes so well, and as he articulated experiences from his wife Lynda's journey, I identified with her at many points. . . ." --Carol Walters, Quest Education Corp.
"Thanks for your inspiration. I can't imagine my life without your English class. I can't wait to read your books." --Merv Sessoms, Teacher of the Year in N.C. and John's former student
"At the very time that others see you as slowing there is the fire in the belly and an amazing surge in creativity. . . . Reading your book is like looking into a mirror and seeing so much of my own life." --Terry Wright, poet
"Keep turning out the tomes! Lynda, we readers don't know how much editing you are doing, but the final product is great" --Nancy Trask, medical librarian
"We started your book on page 131 [Order Ecumenical section], after looking at all the pictures." --Rev. Bill Salmon, author
"I am reading CTB. Isn't it amazing how these life stories beckon our own? Thank you, John." --Nancy Lanphear, friend
"Your writing career is taking off!" --Paula Justice, professor and poet
"Thank you, John, for letting your light shine and giving others permission to do the same." --Lucille Tessier Chagnon, author
"I can hardly wait to read the next chapter." --Dr. Evelyn Laycock, Director of Lay Ministry Center, author
"Now, would you please send a copy of CTB to our two sons?" --Rhoda and Paul Ertel, parents
"We'll take a dozen books now and more at the signing on March 21." --Sharon Richie, bookstore owner
"Great writing." --Rev. Mollie Clements
"I am in total awe at your ability to write in such detail. I am given vivid flashbacks from my own journey as I read yours. I am reading your book before I go to sleep and it is totally messing up my sleeping time. Guess I'll have to go to bed earlier as your book is not the kind you read a few pages and then put down. Thanks for an amazing book." --Phyllis Hockley, Lane Community College
"Your book reminds me of Ferrol Sams' Run With the Horseman and the others in his trilogy." --Carolyn Rhodes, Barnes and Noble
"I have really loved it. In reading it I have decided John feels every moment so deeply. I felt that as I read. . . . I hope he continues to write and teach. I shall always be his pupil." --Mariah Nunn, friend
"I think that CTB and your other book may even change my life. I wasn't expecting that. I've been a cynic a long time." --Julie Miesen, Australia
"I am now three quarters through the book and it is a real page-turner for me: so many familiar images and stories flooding through me and some wonderful surprises of your and Lynda's journeys. Thank you, thank you." --Ruth Gilbert, computer consultant
"I am amazed by the courage that you two had in going where you've been and taking the babies! I know now why there was always a short, sort of vague, answer to ''Where all have you all been?' It takes half a book to answer that question and that is not even in great depth, but just a taste of the places and people that filled the itinerary of those years." --Bette Felts McGee, friend
"Leave us some books now and we will schedule you for a discussion and signing in late April." --Joy Hart, Borders Books
"What a great treat to share your well thought-out remembrance of our common life! Jack and I appreciated your effort to recreate an era and cause a 'pause' in this year to ask ourselves how we saw it." --Judy Gilles, facilitator
"Love your book! . . . Thanks for the memories. Keep writing." --Ruthie Griggs, friend
"CTB is inspiring and beautifully written." --Kim Kegley, artisan
"An excellent book with a marvelous flow and depth, a meaningful sharing of life, so honest and open that it encouraged me to continue to examine my own life more openly. . . . I want you to know that your book addressed me at many levels. . . . Specifically, I have gone back to my own writing, where before I had been blocked. . . . I am continuing with a new passion." --Alice Mathews Neil, sister of Joseph Mathews
"We laughed and cried together as we read it." --Marileen and Don Johnson, California colleagues
REVIEW 
Called To Be: A Spirit Odyssey
John Cock entered life into a family of love--not wealth. In his memoir Called To Be: A Spirit Odyssey, he shares the experiences of growing up in a hard-working family with deep roots in the small mountain community of Galax, Virginia.
His narrative begins a timeline from birth to marriage that is filled with more sentiment, pleasure, and humor than pathos. That's not to say there are no bad times. There are, for instance, his losing an eye in an accident. Yet they are sorted out as an acceptable part of living a life.
The author's straightforward storytelling is dotted with truth, faith, and hints of a calling that leads John into the ministry. At this point the reader is secure in the author's journey and is totally unprepared for the high adventure to come.
John breaks the mold of the self-made man and launches into a story with such impact that the book literally becomes a page-turner. He begins a section of the tale that lasts for twenty years, and, as he puts it, "took the best years of my life."
Here he shows his raw edges, and through his persistent questioning of the renewal of the church and its mission succumbs to an even deeper calling. He and his wife, Lynda, begin to interweave their life together as they meet the needs of the world. This is the point John's work ethic goes beyond practicality and rushes straight into risk and quest.
The Cock family's global journey with a two-year-old son began with their exploration into the Order:Ecumenical, a secular and religious organization involved in social and developmental work around the world. There was no experience of the "good life" about the group's mission. John and Lynda spent a year searching, praying, studying, and preparing before joining.
They were led to invest their lives in a human development movement something like the Peace Corps that served the needs of the truly under-served throughout the world. Their awakenment to this service is riveting. They sold their house to finance their work and helped set up neighborhood programs, clinics, preschools, and job training programs in inner-city Chicago.
Their commitment led them to global service in Australia, Indonesia, and India where they lived in third-world villages doing comprehensive development and leadership training. The Order: Ecumenical became their life, their church, their family, and their home. They ultimately came to believe the world was their parish. John relates that service in these parts of the globe gave him a first-hand perspective on being an outsider and being a guest.
Their global mission was a total immersion filled with great sacrifice. Yet, John and Lynda's sacrifice is only read between the lines, not in John's words. Instead of listing his virtues, he raises up the plight of the poor, the wretched, the sick, and the uneducated. His love for those he served, his wife, and his two small sons, who travel the world with them, is unmistakable and provides the meat and the message of the book
John's honesty is reflected when he expresses doubts and shows the kinks in his personal humanness. Nevertheless, Lynda and John Cock served their globe well indeed and were served in the process.
Throughout Called To Be the author threads his love for Galax, Virginia. His mountain relationships are a constant, his home rock. Small-town Galax, once his refuge from the world, became the family's next port of call.
Moving home and becoming part of the family clothing business seems as wildly improbable to the Cocks as it does to the reader. When poor health --John contacted malaria and acute dysentery while living in the villages--temporarily sidelined them and they needed to put their sons through college, John and Lynda chose to leave the Order, which caused John "feelings of absolute guilt."
However, they brought with them discipline, spirit, leadership, the gift of consensus and poured themselves into the growth and well being of their home community. Living downtown over their store, they used common sense methods to head up the revitalization project. The results helped save Galax's downtown. Returning to the United States, their ideas of globality and social crusading have not slipped from their consciousness. The spirit of the Order has not died in them. Greensboro should be proud to have them now, as John works on his third book and Lynda teaches.
John P. Cock, global citizen, minister, father, visionary, and friend has prepared a book that truly looks forward rather than inward. His story is about giving, not self-serving.
A powerful story it is, one that will affect every reader. And be prepared to confront the question, "How can I use my faith as a gift to the world?"
~Lynn Salsi, author of children's books and regional histories of North Carolina
