Nearly four years ago my life took a very different and unexpected turn. Up until that point I was single, happily single, fulfilled in ministry, fulfilled in life, fulfilled in myself as a person and was not looking for or expecting anything else. I loved my then appointment as Corps Officer at Exeter Temple and was thoroughly enjoying being able to put everything I could into it. Then, right out of the blue I met a man and fell in love. If anyone had told me I would have met my future husband on Facebook I would have laughed at them in total disbelief. If it had been suggested to me I would marry a divorced man my response would have been, ‘Never in a million years’. If someone then added this man would have been in the USA and me in the UK I would have been absolutely convinced this was not me they were talking about and had got it completely wrong. And yet, I found myself in all of those settings that were totally foreign to anything I would ever have imagined of me.
Initially Sven and I had hoped and planned to be involved in ministry together as Salvation Army Officers, Sven was a former officer and had served in 4 countries. He is also a highly respected professor having been voted among the top three faculty members out of a total 1,200 professors at a USA state university. He earned his PhD in Moscow, Russia.
There was a slight issue of age as he is 19 years older than me, but initially that did not appear to be a huge problem. And so we hoped, and planned and prayed about what we imagined our future life together to look like. How wrong we were.
Sven and I got engaged on the 15th April, 2008 and on the 22nd he had a massive stroke that has now left him disabled and life has turned out to be very different to what we had expected. Fortunately Sven is stubborn and determined and hasn’t allowed this to get him down and although the hospital told us he would never walk again, his response was: ‘watch me’! And now three and a half years later he continues to push himself as far as possible, physically, mentally and spiritually.
Today one of Sven’s main thrusts of ministry is through a blog he writes and keeps for former Officers in a bid to support and encourage them, and I now find myself as a ‘single spouse’ Officer and a fulltime carer. This is something else I had never envisioned for me. Previously I had thought single spouse was a great concept for others, but not for me. I could never have imagined myself not being married to anyone who was not an Officer and not a 100% committed to the same thing I am committed to. However, I am learning God ‘laughs at impossibilities, and says, ‘It shall be done’.
Throughout twenty seven years of Officership my ministry has taken me into England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It has been vast and varied with much of it spent in Corps appointments and seven years on the youth department. Our marriage though has taken me/us into Eastern Europe, particularly Latvia where we have conducted mission trips for the last three years and I have had my eyes opened to the plight of those in some of these hard and struggling countries.
Sven, very much has a passion and a heart for Eastern Europe after having pioneered the work of The Salvation Army in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova and his Grandparents before him, initially taking the work into Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and literally risking their lives to do so.
It was with this knowledge and some of Sven’s life stories and Grandparents’ stories having deeply moved me and ringing in my ears that we married. When eventually Sven was due to move to the UK I recall him asking me what I wanted him to bring with him for ‘our’ home. There was no hesitation in my response as immediately I said: ‘Your spear … ‘the’ rug … and yourself.
Will tell you why in part three…
DHQ Liverpool
You both have been a blessing to many. I am glad that the Army has been open to marriage of couples that are not both officers.I know that situations vary but both need not be officers to do God's work. I do understand that both should be Salvationists so as to compliment one another.
ReplyDeleteI am primarily a conservative but some practices in the Army need to be changed or eliminated.I can be as progressive as the next person as far as change and improvement and yet cling to the old rugged cross and the word.
Thank you for sharing your life and I thank Sven also.
Blessings from the USA.
Former officer with L.S.
WHAT HAPPENED TO PART THREE?!
ReplyDeleteWaiting in Wales...