TORONTO, ON—A Chinese immigrant who once spent 16 months in her church to avoid deportation and a Ghanaian immigrant who was sent back to his home country last January both moved a little closer to becoming fully recognized members of Canadian society last month.

Four years after Lucy Lu took sanctuary in Calvary Bible Church in Kingston, Ontario, the National Parole Board has granted her a pardon, which clears the way for her to seek permanent residency in Canada. Lu spent two years in prison for the manslaughter conviction of her first husband, a crime she later maintained she did not commit.

The news of her pardon is a great relief, Lu says. “This is a big step for me and I’m thankful for all the support I’ve received from Kingston and around the world,” she told The Kingston Whig-Standard.

The popular sales clerk at a local shoe store, who became a Christian while in prison, was given a deportation notice in November 2000, just weeks after she married her second husband, Darryl Gellner. Church members and the community rallied around her, kept her company and lobbied on her behalf. In March 2002 then-Immigration Minister Denis Coderre granted Lu a three-year minister’s permit, which allowed her to leave the church.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Osei, a popular Christian youth worker in Toronto who left the country at the end of January after losing his bid to stay, was welcomed back by the community and supporting churches when he returned November 26. This time he came with his wife and two children, whom he had left behind when he first arrived in Canada about four years ago.

Osei, who is on staff with Youth Unlimited (Toronto Youth for Christ), works with youth and children in the Jane-Finch area of Toronto, one of the most troubled neighbourhoods in the country.

Osei says he was relieved and overwhelmed to return to Canada, and especially to the community where he was doing ministry. Supporters organized a big party to welcome him back, “and all the kids were there,” he told CBC Radio.