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Janie McCanyon is a Tribulation saint and one of the members of the Young Tribulation Force. Even though Janie had heard about God ever since book 7, it took a long time for her to believe. In fact, she didn't officially become a believer until book 24, being the last occupant in the schoolhouse to become one. Janie would later go on to be one of the twelve members of the Young Tribulation Force to survive to the Glorious Appearing.

Biography[]

After the Rapture[]

She was sent back to Northside Detention Center after it was discovered that she was hiding drugs in her locker at Nicolae Carpathia High School. In Darkening Skies, she said that she was treated harshly at Northside Detention Center then moved downstate to a reeducation facility with less security. She claimed that she was now religious and that the teachings of Enigma Babylon One World Faith changed her for the better.

She then escaped from the reeducation camp wearing a jumpsuit from the camp, and she was spotted by Mark Eisman and Melinda Bentley. At the reeducation facility, she said that she had her own "faith guide" who taught that God was within us and she had the power to do what she wanted to do. When she met Mark, Janie said that she wanted to see Vicki and that she is "the best friend I ever had". Mark then took Janie to the schoolhouse, but he sometimes expresses regret and cynicism for doing so, while Vicki was grateful to see her even though Janie was often impudent.

She was ornery during the preparations for the fourth Trumpet Judgment as she did not like carrying firewood around for an anticipated global cold spell during the summer (in the northern hemisphere). She was not friendly during the duration of the fourth Trumpet Judgment. After the judgment subsided and temperatures returned to normal, she went away from the school house into town. She found Lenore Barker there, who recently lost her husband in the cold as he was searching for food. Janie told Lenore that the people of the school house were nice and had food, despite their off-putting religiosity. When Mark Eisman and Conrad Graham found her in town, Janie told them that she cannot abandon Lenore and they reluctantly let Lenore stay with them at the school house.

While Janie and Conrad were walking back to the school house, Janie told Conrad that her spiritual guide at the reeducation camp said that we are all God's children and whatever one does to another child of God would be repaid in the next life. Conrad did acknowledge that God created all people and loved people enough to die for them, but not everyone is a child of God because one needs to receive Christ in order to be a child of God. Janie found it outrageous that Conrad did not think of her, Lenore, and her child as children of God and exclaimed that "no wonder they call you people narrow minded". Conrad summarized Janie's beliefs as the supposition that "we're all apart of God and that God rewards and punishes people simply by what they do". Conrad retorted that sin separated one from God. Conrad gave up talking to Janie about God when she kept interrupting him. (The Apostle Paul does speak of specific people, Christians, who are adopted as children of God [Galatians 4:3-7], but those who are not adopted are like slaves to the "basic principles of the world".)

When suffering from the demon-locusts, the fifth Trumpet Judgment, she tried to kill herself by ingesting pills and pouring gasoline on herself to burn herself. The Young Tribulation Force stopped her, not so much to protect her (since she cannot die), but to prevent their place from burning down.

Janie was at the schoolhouse when the Young Tribulation Force brought Marjorie Amherst there when she was unconscious from the smoke of the demonic horsemen of the sixth trumpet judgment. Marjorie was in the stolen satellite truck that would later be used to broadcast Vicki Byrne interrupting a Global Community satellite school broadcast. When Marjorie saw Janie, Marjorie recognized her from a poster that described the escapees of a reeducation facility, and Janie immediately denied it to Marjorie who was a Morale Monitor. Janie inadvertently revealed Vicki Byrne to be among the people at the schoolhouse, and since Vicki already had some notoriety with the Global Community, Marjorie feigned being a believer in order to apprehend some of the Young Tribulation Force.

That made Janie the last unbeliever in the school to convert, after Lenore Barker, Charlie, and Melinda Bentley.

Janie became a believer while the Young Tribulation Force was preaching to Marjorie Amherst. Initially, Janie thought the attempt to share their religious beliefs would be futile in convincing her and Marjorie. Janie felt appreciative that the Young Tribulation Force kept giving her chances even though she kept being deviant, and she accepted most of what they were saying about Nicolae Carpathia and the judgments were true. During the discussion with Marjorie, Janie was finally able to accept God's grace, believing that God had forgiven and accepted her, despite what she had done in the past and her doubt that she deserved a second chance. Upon receiving this epiphany, Janie began crying. While Marjorie and Janie prayed a version of the sinner's prayer, Marjorie did not receive the mark of the believer on her forehead despite saying that she was believer, while Janie did. Marjorie was planning to escape back the Global Community and give them information about the Young Tribulation Force.

In Ominous Choices, Janie was making a red heart out of some fabric for every person they heard that received the mark of the believer. She put it on a wall above the computer in the Avery, Wisconsin hideout. For every heart, Janie said, "Another heart snatched from that evil Nicolae".

Personality[]

She has a fondness for smoking cigarettes and marijuana before she was saved. When Bruce Barnes adopted her from Northside Detention Center, he laid down the rules about "no tobacco, no drugs, no alcohol", but when Vicki found her smoking on the doorstep of the house, Janie responded to her own defense that "Bruce said no smoking in the house". After the global cooling plague that was brought forth by the forth Trumpet Judgment, she traveled far from the schoolhouse because she need a smoke so bad. When she asked what would come next after the cooling event, she said to the Young Tribulation Force that she is not the only person who has smoked some weed. In Volume 5 of the Dramatic Audio for Left Behind: The Kids, while she was at the schoolhouse, when Vicki asked her "what could you possibly have that I want?" Janie replied, "I don't know. You guys took my smokes."

In Death Strike, before Vicki and Janie were adopted by Bruce Barnes, Vicki told Bruce that "maybe Janie is what I'd be if God hadn't found me."

After she escaped the reeducation camp, one reason why Janie wanted to find Vicki was that she had found religion, the Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which gave her a sense of self-efficacy and affirmed that you have to follow your own heart to be happy. Despite her newfound spirituality and religiosity, the Young Tribulation Force living at the schoolhouse noticed that nothing had changed about Janie when she was defiant and avoiding chores. Even Melinda Bentley, who was not yet a believer, complained about her work ethic and attitude. While the Young Tribulation Force was collecting firewood to keep warm in anticipation of the fourth Trumpet Judgment despite that it would soon be summer, Janie complained that she thought she was through from grunt work when she had escaped the reeducation camp. She was later watching a music video on their computer while others were working. During global cooling, Janie expressed satisfaction by clapping when it was announced that they would not able to conduct Bible study due to the conditions.

Conrad Graham said that they cannot kick Janie out of the schoolhouse because she might get caught and that based on her personality she would tell the GC about them so that she can get an extra half hour of TV privileges. Mark Eisman said that she would trade her freedom for a chance to watch some music videos.

Even before she became a believer, Janie had a compassionate side since she stayed with the destitute, hungry, and widowed Lenore Barker in town. When they were at the schoolhouse, Janie took care of Lenore's baby Tolan, even though she typically had an aversion to doing chores there. Janie try to explain her behavior using teachings from the Enigma Babylon One World Faith that she learned in the reeducation facility. Janie said that we are all God's children and that whatever we do to a child of God will be repaid in the next life.

However, at Northside Detention Center, she was willing to let Vicki take the blame and have some time in solitary confinement when she was using Vicki's Bible to conceal contraband blunts.

She said that she used to like The Four Horsemen, but when she became a believer, she now wishes that they knew the truth.

Appearances[]

Left Behind: The Kids

Trivia[]

  • In the dramatic audio, she is played by Kailey Bell.
  • Janie's first appearance was in book 7.
  • Janie became a believer and joined the Young Tribulation Force in book 24.
  • The only book Janie's last name was written about was in book 7.
  • Janie is one of 12 Young Tribulation Force members to survive to the Glorious Appearing.
  • Janie attended Nicolae Carpathia High School for only one year, doing so in book 8. Janie's time as a student at Nicolae High ended when she was caught hiding drugs in her locker. She was sent away as a result.
  • Janie was the last known student from Nicolae High to become a believer.
  • Janie was the last occupant in the schoolhouse to be known to have become a believer, since Janie became a believer in book 24, and the schoolhouse was raided and burned down in book 25.
  • Nothing is known about Janie's biological family.
  • When she resurfaces in the dramatic audio presentation, Janie is recognized by Mark as being the girl who lived with Bruce Barnes, Vicki Byrne, and Chaya Stein. While this happened in the books, it did not happen in the audio drama, meaning Mark would not have known who she was. This may simply be a continuity error.
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