'Not called' did you say? 'Not heard the call', I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bi

'Not called' did you say? 'Not heard the call', I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bi
"God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life..."

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Could this be your role ?



It has been said that The Salvation Army is always one generation away from extinction. New soldiers both young and old are always needed to fill the ranks, carry the flag and continue the hope-giving mission and helping work of The Salvation Army. Thankfully, the Columbia, S.C. Corps has been blessed to recently enroll and re-enroll a rather large group of Junior and Senior Soldiers on Sunday, January 20, 2013 at the Salvation Army Center for Worship and Service in Columbia.
Holiness Mtg and Enrolment Cermy of Jr & Sr Soldiers - 1.20.13 109
Junior Soldiers enrolled were Brandon Harris, Jarvis Harris, Joshua Harris, and McKenna Hayes. Hannah Smalley, Rachel Smalley, and Alex Smalley transferred from another Salvation Army corps.
Senior Soldiers enrolled were Earl Brown, Elaine Hair, Wendell VanKallen, and Donna Watts. Elizabeth Morgan and Richard Watts had been enrolled at an earlier date but re-instated or transferred at the Sunday service.
Senior Soldiers enrolled were Earl Brown, Elaine Hair, Wendell VanKallen, and Donna Watts. Elizabeth Morgan and Richard Watts had been enrolled at an earlier date but re-instated or transferred at the Sunday service.
Commissioners William and Marilyn Francis, honorably retired Salvation Army officers currently residing in Orlando, Florida, were invited to lead the Sunday service and enroll the new soldiers.
“This is very exciting. It’s not often we have the privilege of enrolling Junior Soldiers and Senior Soldiers together,” said Commissioner William Francis. “This is the present and the future of this corps and of the kingdom of God.”
Commissioner Francis went on to tell the Junior Solders that he has a little book at home that he has had since commissioning. “In that book is the name of every Junior Soldier I’ve had the privilege to enroll,” he said. “You’re names are going in it. You’re in the hundreds but you’re there.”
1 John 4:4 was one of the morning’s key verses, which states, “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
Wendell VanKallen, one of the newly enrolled Senior Soldiers, can holdfast to this passage. The Salvation Army helped VanKallen with clothing, housing, and furniture. The former veteran who experienced homelessness is now energized to be a member of an army whose mission is to help people in desperate need.
“This is a blessing, a new season,” he explained. “I want to give back to the community and help people who have been in situations like me.”

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Latvia's Abandoned Villages - Part One


Two miles short of the turn off to the abandoned village of Seda , where TSA opened a small corps in 2008, lies the Regional Psychiatric Hospital, and which has become the region’s drunk tank (US term for holding cell) on weekends and long term alcoholic residential treatment facility for the ‘A Team’ alcoholics. The hospital was the FSAOF team’s temporary home during our 2011 mission visit. And many friendly jokes were born.



In speaking with the hospital’s director I enquired as to how many alcoholics return to a life of sobriety, or at the very least one where alcohol no longer controls every waking moment. The Matron shook her head sadly and said, “ Our success rate is extremely low. The problem is, once they’ve gone through detox and examined the cause of their disease they are released and return to the cause! It’s the dismal life of rural Latvia, a life without hope.”

Yesterday we met one of those former patients; in and out of care for more than 15 years. In fact we saw passed out in a snow bank on our first visit to Sarkani in 2008. And we met her again today at the Riga I Corps looking very different.  She was smartly dressed in a Salvation Army uniform and helping to receive the morning offering. What no psychiatric hospital could do for her Jesus Christ did in giving her hope and the foundation for a new life.

We are back in Latvia, this being our 12th visit in four years representing the FSAOF as we seek to bring Christmas cheer to adults and the Fellowship's 'adopted' children in Sarkani and Seda. 

It was on our 2nd visit that we learned the plight of the children living in two abandoned villages. The majority are the children of full-fledged alcoholics, mostly ethnic Russians and consequently, shunned by the native Latvians living in the same region.

Immediately following Peretroika and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Latvia, the government decreed that the ethnic Russian alcoholic population (non Latvian passport holders) be banished to 'live' far from any key city and designated two abandoned villages, Sarkani and Seda as their forcibly adopted homes.

The government's only commitment to the 'outcast' citizens is a measly monthly living stipend that quickly ends up in the pockets of visiting bootleggers. In addition, anything not securely attached in the buildings and flats is ripped out and bartered for booze. This has resulted in flats without water, toilets, stoves and heating facilities. Even unsecured firewood is pilfered and traded for cheap vodka and cognac.

We are back in Latvia, this being our 12th visit in four years representing the FSAOF as we bring Christmas cheer to adults and the Fellowship's 'adopted' children in Sarkani and Seda.
  
A British newspaper reported that:  ‘A half of the children in the UK have seen their parents drunk, with 30% living in fear when they see adults drink too much.  

Tomorrow we will again be visiting the two villages in Latvia where all the children have seen their parents drunk and this on a daily basis.  And, to avoid living in fear the children avoid their homes and spend the majority of their waking hours outdoors in summer as well as winter. 

Often on their return home from school their parents were found passed out on the village streets and were helped home to their meager living quarters by their children. The majority of the children’s parents are alcoholics and drink 24/7 and can be found in stupors along the roadside in the villages.

We first visited the children in January, 2008 when we had the pleasure of meeting them on a wintry day with temperatures dipping into -30s.  The children, well dressed and warm, the recipients of a partial donation of several hundred winter coats given as a result of a ‘FSAOF’ initiative, came streaming out of the woods at the sound of our car entering their village.

Our second initiative, prompted by a request from the SA Regional Commander, Peter Baronowsky, was to provide finance in order to give each child at least one healthy meal daily. Prior to the FSAOF’s commitment to these children they had no daily meals provided during their school hours and were assigned seats in the corner of the dining room where they watched the other children enjoy a lunch.  The FSAOF donated several thousand dollars to ensure that the Sarkani children would also be provided a wholesome meal and therefore have the physical nourishment to complete their studies and withstand the rigours of outdoor life in wintery Latvia. The FSAOF contribution covered the cost of all school meals for these children through the end of the school year in May, 2010.

PART ONE - Latvia's Abandoned Villages 


Dr . Sven Ljungholm on behalf of the FSAOF
Former SA officer USA East

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

LATVIA - WE DEPART IN 48 HOURS ON OUR NEXT MISSION TRIP
A bit late, but I just received it...


Immediately following the commercial and the announcer on this video you'll hear a fundraiser for the Salvation Army in Sweden -  (CLICK HERE) We wish You a Silent Night, Mary and Child, and All Seeking Shelter Tonight


blessings Glad

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Who knows where Jesus lingers?



A poster in a window:

‘Alone on Christmas Day?’
Speaks of Christ and Brussels sprouts;
Cristes Maesse the Army way.
Oh, I love the High Church carols,
Chanted liturgies and all,
But if Doctrine Number Four holds fast,
Jesus loves the Army hall
Where spuds are mashed or roasted
(Our Salvationist Eucharist?)
And lonely folk are wanted –
Those ‘society’ has missed.
Who knows where Jesus lingers?
Matthew’s Gospel seems to say
(Matthew 25, Verse 40)
He’s alone on Christmas Day.
So, Captain Ralph, your posters
And the invitations shared,
Are a type of Holy Scripture
Telling someone someone cared.

© Stephen Poxon 2012


NOT CALLED?!

" 'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' 

I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. 

Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. 

And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world." 

General William Booth