Meet Member Joan Noyes

My name is Joan Noyes and I have been a member of CANFP for 28 years. I joined the organization in 1996 and went to my first conference in San Jose that year. My husband and I had used NFP throughout our childbearing years with great confidence and success, and I had hopes of becoming an NFP Instructor. My chance came two years later when I was offered, along with seven other women, a full scholarship to be trained as an Instructor of the Ovulation Method through Family of the Americas. The scholarship came from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where I reside, and I have always been very grateful for that opportunity. We were trained by Mercedes Wilson, which was a huge honor. We students were in awe of her knowledge, experience, and holiness. I have been teaching NFP with great joy ever since that time, and this year marks my 25th anniversary of teaching the Ovulation Method.

I first learned about Natural Family Planning when I was 22 years old and serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Our mentor, a Jesuit priest named Father Arnold Beezer, told me about the exciting new research coming out of Australia, and thus introduced me to the new and wide open field of modern Natural Family Planning. Three years later, I remembered Father Beezer’s wise words when my husband and I got married, and we signed up for an NFP class in a neighboring parish.

My husband and I have seven children and eleven grandchildren. We spend much time with our large family, and we feel so blessed to have been gifted with each of them.

We are very active in our parish, and our favorite ministry there is working in the parish food bank. As a retired school teacher, I continue to have the privilege of being in the classroom as a Catechist. I have been teaching Religious Education at our parish for 42 years, and I am very grateful that I am still able to have the energy to teach children.

As much as I love teaching children, teaching NFP to young couples continues to be my very favorite activity. The couples are a wonderful inspiration to me. They are deeply committed to their faith, and they are so excited about their future together as man and wife. Their energy and hope are such a beautiful testament to God’s great love for all of us. I have been invited to my students’ weddings and the baptisms of their babies. I still exchange Christmas cards with several of them.

Teaching NFP has been one of the greatest joys of my life, and CANFP has always been the backbone of my efforts. I am a very lucky woman!

Joan, why do you support CANFP?
“CANFP has been an invaluable resource to me throughout the past quarter century. I have learned so much from the conferences I have attended, and I have made wonderful friends and contacts who have helped me immensely in my practice.”