Priority! Fall 2012

®

Fall 2012

L I FE STO R I E S

OF

G O D’S PEO PL E

Leaders Find Joy Through Deep Trial

Helping ‘the Least’ In Abu Dhabi Chicago Gang Leader Finds God America’s ‘Most Inspirational Mom’

Who’s Responsible in This Election Season?

I

f we were to believe the vitriolic, venomous rhetoric that has marked much of the Presidential campaign, we would assume that our choice is between monsters instead of men. Yet, for our part, we still

expect—and almost demand—that our candidates possess statures just short of gods.

As potential leaders of this great nation, what responsibility do the candidates have toward us as members of this democracy? And what responsibility do “We the People” have toward our leaders?

The Bible provides a sobering and succinct assessment of those in power, and a pretty good job description for leaders as well. For any candidates tempted to inhale their own propaganda, Micah 6:8 begins by first defining the difference between God and humanity: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.” The verse then goes on to share what God requires of those who can exercise influence: And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. This is a very good start as we evaluate the potential candidates. In what ways are they committed to justice and mercy, and perhaps most importantly, how do they view power?

In this critical time, let’s remember that the responsibility to establish a verdant, just society does not fall just on our elected officials. You and I have a role to play as well. There is great value in rigorous debate among us, and while we want our convictions and positions taken seriously, we may be neglecting our most important responsibility to our leaders at this time. The Apostle Paul shared with the Church that there is a priority, or first responsibility, that we are called to exercise. He states 2 Timothy 2:1–2 that we are to offer prayers for those in authority: I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Though the men and women who are candidates for office are gifted, charismatic, intelligent, and powerful, let us remember that they are people, and as such they need our prayers. Let us first commit to our responsibility and then perhaps we will see our leaders fulfill their responsibility.

Lt. Colonel Mark W. Tillsley Secretary for Personnel USA Eastern Territory

Order

ill be great!

ars now—they w your 2013 calend

Greetings From

Excellent for all fund raising projects

$5.00 each (plus shipping)

January 2013 SUNDAY

God, mark us with grace and blessing! Smile! —Psalm 67:1 MSG

MONDAY

TUESDAY 1

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

2

3

4

5

New Year’s Day

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

28

29

30

31

~ Cut size 11” x 14” ~ Customized stickers for territorial events included ~ Individual territorial event listings ~ Also available in Spanish

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday

Jr. Soldier Day of Renewal

27

ORDER NOW Ships after November 1, 2012

www.armyconnections.org/trade

“Like” us on Facebook

USETrade

We accept all major credit cards or bill to your SA account

Call (888) 488-4882 or email us at use.trade@use.salvationarmy.org

COVER STORY

23

FEATURES

®

14

God’s Provision Through It All For Salvation Army Commissioner Steve Hedgren, the diagnosis was shattering: incurable multiple myeloma. But with the prayers of God’s people and their own deep faith, he and his wife, Commissioner Judy Hedgren, have found great strength and courage.

Ivy League Siblings Siblings Jeremy, Xavier, and Javail were accepted to Cornell at the same time. What’s even more remarkable is their journey there and their spiritual maturity.

31

‘Most Inspirational Mom in America’ Lorrie Wolfe broke free of an abusive marriage and found the Lord. Now her experiences drive her to effect change in other women’s lives.

37

‘Son, You Don’t Have to Live Like This’ A hardened gang leader on Chicago’s South Side, Alex Velasquez found God after one of

Cover photo by Inset photo by

His people tapped him on the shoulder.

42

Smiles for the Forgotten Remembering God’s call to minister to the “least of these,” Pamela Abdalla began an

DEPARTMENTS 6 Upfront

intense ministry to immigrant laborers in the United Arab Emirates, a Muslim nation.

8 Who’s News 20 Prayer Power 29 MyTake 48 134 Years Ago

FALL 2012

Volume 14 No. 3

Where Were You?

T

wo workers are chatting over coffee. “How was the latest Superman movie?” one asks. The other answers, “Awesome.”

If we could wrap our minds around the true mean-

ing of that word, we wouldn’t toss it off so easily.

Awesome should be reserved to describe things that are overwhelming in their effects, like tornadoes and tidal waves.

When we call God awesome, we are trying to convey how overwhelmed we are

by His breathtaking power and fearful majesty. Let that sink in. That’s what awesome means.

…promoting prayer, holiness, and evangelism through the life stories of God’s people

THE SALVATION ARMY Territorial Leaders USA Eastern Territory Commissioner R. Steven Hedgren Commissioner Judith A. Hedgren

Chief Secretary Colonel William Carlson

Editor Linda D. Johnson

Job learned just how awesome God is. Stripped of everything by the evil one, Job maintained his righteousness. He cried out, “Let the Almighty answer me!”

Art Director Keri Johnson

(Job 31:35, NASB) God answered Job out of the depths of His own being: “Where

Senior Designer

were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4, NASB) In other words,

Saoul Vanderpool

Contributing Editors

“You are not in control. I am—and I always have been.”

We’ve all heard a lot about this Higgs–Boson particle—the so–called “God particle”—that scientists say they’ve found. They used the world’s biggest and most expensive atom smasher (and yes, this is an awesome machine) to find evidence of an extremely small but heavy subatomic particle that they say may be the key to the creation of the universe.

The idea, advanced in the 1960s by Peter Higgs, is that such a “sticky” particle drags others along with it and creates mass. From one such “God particle,” the theory goes, comes everything we see around us.

I don’t pretend to understand the science here. But I know that God does. I think He may have even helped scientists envision that giant atom smasher, just so they might get closer to the truth. I think He’s asking scientists today, just as He asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” In other words, “You are not in control. I am—and I always have been.”

Maybe the very first thing God created in that vast, formless void was a little particle. But I’m very sure—because the Bible tells me so—that His involvement didn’t stop there. Jesus, the Living Word, continued to speak things into existence.

John writes in his Gospel, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (1:3, NASB) Now that is awesome.

Warren L. Maye, Robert Mitchell

Contributing Writers Craig Dirkes, Steve Garrington, Daryl Lach, Bryan Mahoney, JoAnn Shade, Robert E. Thomson, Lorrie Wolfe

Graphic Designers Dave Hulteen, Karena Lin, Joe Marino, Reginald Raines

Circulation Deloris Hansen

Marketing Christine Webb

SALVATION ARMY MISSION STATEMENT The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible.

Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.

Priority! is published quarterly by The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory. Subscriptions are $8.95 per year; bulk rates available. Write to: Priority!, The Salvation Army, 440 West Nyack Rd., West Nyack, NY 10994–1739.

Volume 14, No. 3, Fall 2012. Printed in USA. Postmaster: Send all address changes to: Priority!, 440 West Nyack Road, West Nyack, NY 10994–1739. Priority! accepts advertising. Copyright ©2012 by The Salvation Army, USA Eastern Territory. Articles may be reprinted only with written permission.

USA National website: www.SalvationArmyUSA.org

Editor

EVANGELICAL EVANGELICAL

PRESS ASSOCIATION

PRESS ASSOCIATION

Letters ®

Summer 2012

L I FE STO R I E S

OF

your magazine is simply out-

S P E C I A L 10 t h A N N I V E R SA RY I S S U E ®

Fall 2011

standing, and I always enjoy

G O D’S PEO PL E

Life Stories of Go d’s Peo ple

receiving your publications.

Stefan’s Road Back No More Roaming, No More Secrets Southern Songbird

California Kroc Couple

Bridging Gaps for Kids

Liking ‘Summer’ The summer 2012 issue of Priority!, in my opinion, is outstanding. I know several of the people you wrote about!

Keep up your good work!

To repeat my sentiments,

Lt. Colonel Robert Bodine Prescott, AZ

Stunned by 9/11 Issue

9/11

We Remember

Thank you for your prompt kindness to send me a copy of

Rich was interested in the 9/11

the Fall 2011 (9/11) edition of

issue because he is part of a

Priority! I have read it cover

group that is planning to build

to cover. I’m stunned by the

a South Carolina 9/11 memo-

drama of the editorial and

rial incorporating steel from the

photographic excellence.

World Trade Center.

Rich Simington Salem, SC

Corrections There were several errors in the cover story for the Summer 2012 issue, “Stefan’s Road to Restoration.” Stefan Youngblood was not “barely hanging on” at age 19 but had chosen to drop out of college and says he “was in a good place spiritually.” He never ministered in Miami but traveled the world in ministry before ending up at a large church in North Carolina.

Stefan’s dependence on painkillers following shoulder surgeries lasted for five (not seven) years, and it was only during a period of three weeks, at the height of his struggle, that he was taking 21 pills a day.

The updated article appears in the online version of Priority! at www.prioritypeople.org.

9/11 Issue Wins Award

T

he Fall 2011 issue,

pride in what The Salvation

journalism” that “allowed

ance, and we give all honor

“9/11: We Remem-

Army did, stopping short of

people’s firsthand stories to

and glory to Him.

ber,” has won a first–

triumphalism. Issue conveyed

carry the weight.”

place award from the Evan-

a depth of feeling and com-

gelical Press Association’s

mitment.”

“Higher Goals in Christian

The 9/11 issue, commemo-

We at Priority! are honored by the award because

go to www.prioritypeople.com,

we felt it was a Spirit–led

and look in the archives.

Journalism” contest, in the

rating the 10th anniversary

effort from start to finish.

“Single–Theme Section or

of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,

Our goal was to create a

Issue” category.

was filled with accounts

God–honoring tribute to the

and reflections of officers,

men and women of The Sal-

the judges wrote. “First–

employees, volunteers, and

vation Army who served so

person accounts filled with

others associated with the

tirelessly following this tragic

details, vignettes, glimpses

Salvation Army’s relief

day in our history. If we were

of grace. Photos of every

efforts. EPA judges called

successful, it is only because

scene were just right. Enough

this approach “exemplary

of the Lord’s help and guid-

“Powerful, powerful issue,”

www.armyconnections.org

To see the issue in its entirety,

EVANGELICAL

PRESS ASSOCIATION

5

Header Here

Upfront: Long hot summer

Photo by Advocate File Photo

A (Red) Shield from Storms, Fire, Heat

‘We want to be an oasis for people who need to get out of the heat,’ said Doc Bartlett, a caseworker in Victoria, Texas.

S

on south Florida. Wildfires caused mass evacuations and destruction across the West.

A string of fast–moving thunderstorms knocked out

many Salvation Army centers opened their doors to become cooling stations. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Army gave out ice cream cones to homeless people.

For the people who receive help from The Salvation Army, it’s about much more than the tangible. The Newark, Ohio, Advocate reported on an 75–year–old woman, Clara Roshon, who came to an Army cooling station to recharge the battery on her oxygen tank.

“I have been treated like royalty here,” Roshon said.

“I didn’t know what to do.

Everyone down here is so helpful. I appreciate them so much. Thank the good Lord they have places like these.”

Photos by Associated Press

ummer had just begun, and already, the U.S. had seen its share of disaster. Tropical Storm Debby dumped 20 inches of rain

power to millions in the mid– Atlantic, and record–breaking heat gripped the nation.

And everywhere, The Salvation Army was on the job.

Following Debby, Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) teams from all over Florida brought mobile canteens to help flooded–out residents with basics like food and water, hygiene and cleanup kits.

In Colorado, where wildfires raged in Waldo Canyon and High Park, EDS workers from as far away as Montana and Wyoming came to provide shelter, clothing, food, and comfort and counseling to evacuees.

During the heat wave and sustained power outages,

Kelly Berggren holds up a fan at The Salvation Army in Medford, Ore. The Army distributed many fans during the heat wave.

6

Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton speaks with Christina Pontow, who is homeless, about shelter information. He joined Salvation Army and City of Phoenix Homeless Programs volunteers delivering water and information during a weeks–long period when temperatures were 100–plus. www.prioritypeople.org

Upfront: Media Cymbala quotes Booths in new book

J

im Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, is a longtime friend of The Salvation Army and often mentions the organization and its rich history in his books.

Cymbala’s latest offering, Spirit Rising, a book about the Holy Spirit, is no exception. He quotes both Salvation Army founder William Booth and his wife, co–founder Catherine.

In his remarks about Catherine Booth, Cymbala said she understood the significance of fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit and paraphrases her as saying, “I travel around the country and I hear a lot of eloquent words and many sermon masterpieces. But what my soul longs for are burning words.”

Cymbala, who has spoken at various Salvation Army events over the years, also mentions in the book the large Salvation Army mural on the second–floor lobby of his church, the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The painting is of an early 1900s Salvation Army street meeting.

Cymbala, during an interview with The Salvation Army in 2007, was asked about the painting: “When we were restoring this building, built in 1917 … we had these five panels in the new lobby. … [I said to the company doing the work], ‘Hey, if I brought some pictures that have affected me from church history, could you try to replicate them?’ They said, ‘Sure.’ … General [William] Booth and Catherine have been two of my inspirations, two of my teachers. So I brought in that picture (circa 1900) in New York of a street meeting, a concert, [with] Salvationists kneeling, praying for the people. … That picture’s very dear to me.”

Cymbala is the author of several best–selling books, including Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, and was profiled in the Spring 2007 issue of Priority!

‘It’s a Girl!’

I

n our culture, this is a happy announcement from proud parents. But a new movie by that title from Shadowline Films says that these are the “three deadliest words in the world.”

In India, China, and many other nations, girls are killed, aborted, and abandoned simply because they

www.prioritypeople.org

are girls. The U.N. estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing because of this so–called “gendercide.”

“It’s a Girl,” shot on location in India and China, tells the story. The movie, which comes out in September, is available for screening in churches, nonprofit venues, and even homes.

where to BUY Amazon.com

screen The Film At Your church

itsagirlmovie.com

7

Who’s News

Emergency Mobile Kitchens A Passion to Serve

by Linda D. Johnson

An EMK trailer

A mobile canteen built by EMK for The Salvation Army

S

ara Helbert was a caterer and chef.

Her husband, Paul, worked in logistics, moving, and storage. For several years, the couple had talked about building a mobile kitchen, but their busy lives got in the way. Then, finally, Paul began constructing a kitchen trailer in a

8

dirt lot at a friend’s commercial garage.

Before he was halfway finished, the U.S. Forestry Department caterer had bought it.

So began Emergency Mobile Kitchens (EMK) in Glendale, Ariz., on July 15, 2008.

“We love what we do,” says Sara. “For both of us, it is our passion. We enjoy the fact that we do something different every day. Our clients are all very different and need different things. We enjoy the fact that we work closely with nonprofit groups, government caterers, local small business owners, and so many other people.”

The Helberts’ closest relationship is with The Salvation Army.

“There are many reasons the Army is so special to us,” Sara says. “My grandparents met in a Salvation Army band in 1920 in Washington, Pa., and were married a year later. I had several great– aunts and –uncles in the band as well.”

Sara goes so far as to say that were it not for that relationship with the Army, she would probably not have been raised in a Christian home.

As it was, that Christian home was “awesome,” and Sara says she had “the best parents ever.”

“I became a Christian as a little 7– year–old girl at a Christian camp called Hume Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. … I recommitted my life to Christ as a junior in high school.”

The Helberts, with their four children, attend Christ’s Church of the Valley in Phoenix. Sara says, “My faith is part of my everyday life.”

It’s part of the Helberts’ motivation in their work too. www.prioritypeople.org

“We try to do as much work with Christian–based nonprofit agencies as we can,” Sara says. “We believe that getting Christ’s message out as well as helping people is the most powerful work that can be done.”

And their favorite Christian–based nonprofit is The Salvation Army.

“We have a deep passion for the work the Salvation Army does and how we are a part of that work,” Sara says. “We want to help not only people who are in need in a disaster but also people who need a hand in their everyday life. The Salvation Army gives without wanting anything in return from the people they help. That is an impressive thing in this day and age.”

Anyone can purchase or lease equipment from EMK, and they do so for many reasons, the most obvious being

for an emergency like a natural or human–made disaster: a hurricane, flood, tornado, fire, or earthquake.

People also buy or rent from EMK to feed large groups for occasions like weddings, fairs, city events, concerts, and much more.

“We have built mobile shower trailers, beverage trailers, bunkhouses, barbecue trailers, and anything else you can imagine,” Sara says.

EMK’s involvement with The Salvation Army began with renovating mobile canteens and building some too.

Sometimes, EMK partners with a donor and The Salvation Army. For example, FedEx recently donated $100,000 toward a $135,000 canteen for the Army. The Army came up with $20,000, and EMK reduced the cost by $15,000.

The Helberts also donate some of

their own income to The Salvation Army.

“We have partnered with local charities to use our equipment, but instead of EMK receiving compensation for use of the kitchen, we will have the client donate the money to The Salvation Army.

“We do this because we simply love The Salvation Army and the work they do. It is our way to give back.”

For more information about EMK, go to www.emkusa.com.

The Helbert family

Miss Mary’s Mission

by Robert E. Thomson o the baker’s dozen or more of teen and pre–teen girls she supervises each Tuesday evening, “Miss Mary” is mentor, confidante, counselor, confessor, spiritual guide, role model—and friend. And she’s 87 years old.

“She’s the best,” one of the young

T

www.prioritypeople.org

women says. “I know, because she’s helped me so much.” After three years under Mary’s tutelage at the Clearwater, Fla., Corps, a Salvation Army church, she was recently enrolled as a senior soldier (member).

Major Mary Leidy and her husband, Ralph, were Salvation Army officers who served for more than 45 years; they spent more than two decades as pastors

of local corps, where Mary always made young people a priority. Twenty–five of Mary’s protégés from those days went on to become officers themselves.

The Leidys retired in 1991 and continued to be very active in corps life and leadership. When Ralph was promoted to Glory in 2009, Mary was on her own.

“When Ralph died, I just figured I had to do something worthwhile with 9

Who’s News

the rest of my life,” Mary said. “A plea was made for help with the young people’s program. So I volunteered to help to serve the meal. But before long, I was involved in a deeper and more meaningful way.”

Most of the young women in Mary’s group are from broken and/or dysfunctional homes. One girl’s mother is an exotic dancer. Another’s has a live–in boyfriend and gets drunk almost every Saturday night. Other girls live with their mothers in the Army’s residential shelter. Still others live with family in cheap motel rooms.

“All these young people want is to know that you really care about them,” Mary says. “They always greet me with a big hug because they want to love and be loved. I don’t think they get many hugs at home.”

Mary prays for her girls by name every morning. “I keep a list in my Bible,” she says, adding with a twinkle in her eye, “I sometimes tend to be forgetful, you know.

“I’m hoping and praying that I may have a part in salvaging some of these

young people for the Lord,” she says.

Most of the “Tuesday night crew” also attend Sunday school and church, and they are often found at the mercy seat (altar), where Mary and other mentors pray with them.

Mary is involved with the girls in other ways too. The past two years, she has accompanied them to regional youth meetings. She has gone with them on ice–skating outings and a trip to Disney World. “I went on some of the rides,” she says, “but I drew the line at roller coasters.”

Miss Mary may be an octogenarian, but in many ways she’s still “with it.”

Recently she saw a Facebook message from one of her girls that included inappropriate language. The next Tuesday, without identifying the offender, she talked about the temptation to use coarse language.

“The message got across,” Mary says, “because I saw the girl hang her head in shame.”

One young woman spoke for the group when she said, “Thanks, Miss Mary, for hanging in there with us.”

‘Miss Mary’ and Taylor Muntz, who recently became a Salvation Army soldier.

10

The Parable Of the Wire

M

ajor Mary Leidy remembers one evening when her young women’s group was making bracelets and necklaces with wires and beads. But Sandra (not her real name) was wadding her wire up.

‘I said to her, “Honey, why aren’t you making something pretty with the beads?” ‘ “I don’t want to,” she said.

‘She kept twisting the wire, entangling it into a ball. And then she gave it to me. ‘ “This is for you, Miss Mary,” she said.

‘I looked at it and thought, What do I do now? I’ve got to do something with it.

‘On the table was a bobby pin. I’m convinced the Lord put it there.

‘So I took the tangled ball of wire and pinned it in my hair like a flower because I wanted her to know that I appreciated her gift, unusual as it was. And I wore it there for the rest of the evening.

‘Reflecting on it afterward, I thought perhaps the wire ball was a symbol of her complicated life, which she thought was useless. By wearing it as a decoration, I hope I conveyed to her that her life can be both beautiful and useful.’ www.prioritypeople.org

Jim Daly:

Dedicated Disaster Volunteer

by Craig Dirkes

E

mergency Disaster Services (EDS) volunteer Jim Daly is one of the prized assets of the Salvation Army’s Northern Division, which comprises Minnesota and North Dakota.

Jim, a 65–year–old resident of Little Canada, Minn., became an EDS volunteer in 2000 after retiring from his job as a police lieutenant with the Ramsey County, Minn., Sheriff’s Department.

He’s since logged an estimated 10,000 volunteer hours.

Jim offers himself ’round–the–clock to provide support at local house fires, floods, and other disasters in the Northern Division. He’s also been involved

www.prioritypeople.org

with countless large–scale disasters, with instrumental roles at the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, major flood sites across the Midwest, Ground Zero in New York City, and many others.

Salvation Army leaders value Jim for his intelligence, professionalism, commitment, and humility.

“Jim doesn’t just do what we ask, he takes the initiative to do more,” says Major Byron Medlock, who is in charge of disaster services for the Northern Division. “Whether he’s teaching an EDS class in North Dakota, planning disaster strategies, or just serving coffee at a local fire, Jim has literally helped to shape the

way our division responds to disasters.”

Jim served others during his entire career in law enforcement. But he says that doing so for The Salvation Army is different for one key reason: he’s free to express his Christian faith.

“It’s one thing to help people, but it’s quite another to help people in Christ’s name,” says Jim, a lifelong Catholic. “I like the motivation of The Salvation Army, the fact that there’s a religious component.”

One of his favorite quotes is one often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, a 13th–century Italian Catholic friar and preacher: “Preach the gospel at all times.

If necessary, use words.”

“That’s what it’s all about—actions,” Jim says. “The Salvation Army is out there preaching the Gospel through a ‘ministry of presence.’ People appreciate the fact that you’re out there at 2 o’clock in the morning to offer them that cup of coffee.”

He performs his EDS volunteer duties as if he were working a paid, full–time job. And he treats disaster survivors and relief workers as if they were his own personal friends or family members.

Jim volunteers for one simple reason: to give back.

“I remember being on a S.W.A.T. team call in a trailer park at 2 a.m., and somebody from The Salvation Army 11

Who’s News

showed up with hot coffee and food,” Jim recalls. “I appreciated that, so volunteering is the least I can do.

“The Salvation Army has a tremendous reputation of ‘doing the most good’ [the Army’s national slogan]. And I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Word of Jim’s outstanding volunteer commitment even spread to the White House. On Aug. 21, 2007, then–President George W. Bush met Jim at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport to present him with a President’s Volunteer Service Award.

“Jim represents Christ in everything we do; he reminds us of why we come to work,” says Drew Hasty, assistant director of disaster services for the Northern Division. “Jim Daly is, in a word, remarkable.”

‘Bike Angels’

Make Christmas Dreams Come True

by Bryan Mahoney

Bike Angels creator Elaine Pease (third from left) with Lieutenants Kari and Eric Rudd and (l–r) Ferris Kawar, recycling specialist; Kreigh Hempel, recycling coordinator; and ‘volunteer extraordinare’ Carlos Galindo.

W

hat began as a woman’s desire to fulfill a Christmas wish has blossomed into a full–fledged community commitment in Burbank, Calif.

In 2008 The Salvation Army placed two Angel Trees in city buildings. They inspired Elaine Pease, a Burbank city employee who had never volunteered for any kind of fund–raising or outreach program, to do something more.

“When I saw (the trees), I saw a lot of necessities [requested] … [but] there were a few who asked Santa for what they really wanted: a bike,” she says.

12

Knowing that a big–ticket item like a bike would be hard to come by, Pease thought that a way to answer these wishes might be to collect used bikes and have someone fix them.

She contacted the city’s fire department and recycling center, both of which answered the call to help collect the bikes and fix them up.

“It was as if Someone up there was making it happen,” she says.

That first year the city collected and distributed 20 bikes at the Burbank Salvation Army Corps Community Center. www.prioritypeople.org

The following year netted 65 rides. Last year, under a flurry of fake snow in the Salvation Army courtyard, the “Bike Angels” distributed 146 ship–shape bicycles, and the Burbank Police Department provided helmets to go along with them.

“I could never have afforded to purchase a bike for my twin girls, but The Salvation Army has made that possible,” said Stephanie Diaz of Burbank.

“Jesus does provide,” said parent Lucresia Brandon. “I just needed some clothes for my girls. I can’t believe that they are each getting a bike this year!

This is amazing!”

The growing program has forged a new connection between the city, its residents, and The Salvation Army. This community–within–a–community, once a gathering of strangers, now calls itself “family.”

By June this year, a converted construction trailer near Burbank City Hall was already packed floor to ceiling with bikes. Hundreds had been collected through private donations and at the local mall, which helped promote a collection day.

Volunteers work all year to clean and repair bikes and see that each one is paired appropriately to the boy or girl who asked for one. Pease says many times she’ll see people walk in off the street and ask how they can help. www.prioritypeople.org

Many of the volunteers are Bike Angels recipients themselves.

“It’s about ministering to the marginalized, but also about being a part of this beautiful community,” says Salvation Army Lieutenant Kari Rudd of the Burbank Corps. “We tell families, ‘You don’t have to settle for what you’ve been

told. You really can do great things, but you’ve got to get up.’ ” The Bike Angels accept only “gently loved” bicycles because part of the effort is making connections, Rudd says.

“And it’s really fun making a difference. Lives are getting changed,” she says.

Twins Alissa and Adreanna Diaz show off their ‘new’ bikes.

13

All That We Are

Ivy League Siblings

by Robert Mitchell

T

hey laugh easily and fit in well with their Cornell University classmates.

But the road Jeremy March and siblings Xavier and Javail Bourne took to the Ivy League was an unlikely one.

All three were raised from an early age by their grandmother, Susan Bourne, in Ithaca, N.Y. Bourne remembers the judge asking 14

her, “You’re going to take all three of them?”

“I said, ‘Yep, that’s right.’ I couldn’t see breaking them up. I just couldn’t see it. They have each other and always have. I really felt sorry for them,” she says.

After raising two daughters of her own, Bourne adopted her grandchildren

when Jeremy was 6, Xavier was 5, and Javail was 4.

Javail, for one, says she thanks God that the family was kept intact and she didn’t end up in a foster home.

“We didn’t miss out on anything growing up, I feel,” she says.

Bourne says life wasn’t always easy, and she often prayed for her new chilwww.prioritypeople.org

Photography by Michael Okonlewski / Getty Images

dren. She took them to a Pentecostal Baptist church on Sundays.

“They were raised up in the church,” she says. “I think it had a lot to do with their faith and how well they’re doing.

I’m very proud of them.”

Music and mentors When Bourne found out The Salvation www.prioritypeople.org

Army in Ithaca offered free music lessons on Wednesdays, she enrolled the kids.

Jeremy says he and his siblings found early role models at the Ithaca Corps (church), among them Majors Ronald and Deborah Lugiano and Ben Payton, the music director. The Lugianos were corps officers (pastors) at the time.

“We had father figures in The Salvation Army who we could go to and talk to about certain things,” says Jeremy, who learned to play the piano at the Army. “Big Ben Payton was a great example.”

Xavier, who learned the tuba at the corps, describes Ronald Lugiano as “amazing” and “awesome” and a major influence.

“They were aware of our situation, and they were not like our surrogate fathers, but, in a sense, [they were] very accommodating in providing their knowledge for us as father figures,” Xavier says.

Major Deborah Lugiano started the music program at the corps in 1997.

“She was definitely like a mother too,” Xavier says. “She was very warm and comforting.”

Wednesdays at the Army Javail, who also learned to play tuba, was close to Payton’s daughters.

“That was just another reason for me to go there,” she says. “It was a family kind of setting.”

Javail would attend both her home church and The Salvation Army if she had to play in a concert on a Sunday.

When the kids came to the corps on Wednesdays, they made a night of it.

“Every aspect of The Salvation Army was great, from the meals we had after lessons to watching the band practice,” Jeremy recalls. “We could talk to our instructors about Christ and our walk with Christ as we were learning to play an instrument, which was great. It 15

All That We Are

Tower of Strength

A

t 6’ 7”, Jeremy March towers over his peers at Cornell University, but a humble Christian spirit keeps him grounded.

Jeremy was a basketball star at Ithaca High School, where he played power forward and was known for his defensive prowess.

He then played basketball for two years at Tompkins Cortland Community College near Ithaca.

When he came to Cornell, Jeremy decided to give up basketball because of his rigorous schedule.

He also was diagnosed last year with a low–grade malignant brain tumor.

Jeremy admits he was ‘spiritually broken’ upon hearing the news and prayer was hard at first, but he continues to seek God’s face.

‘God just sort of comforted me,’ he says.

The tumor has limited his vision, but radiation treatment has helped.

‘It has been shrinking a lot,’ Jeremy says of the tumor. ‘I’m just waiting to see if there’s any vision coming back.’

Jeremy calls the ordeal ‘a humbling thing,’ but he is encouraged that his long–term prognosis is good.

‘I didn’t quit on life because I have this now, but I’ve accepted it and just learned to continue on and be happy,’ he says.

16

www.prioritypeople.org

was sort of killing two birds with one stone. It was great having that guidance.”

Xavier says, “We got to grow instrumentally and spiritually as well. The whole atmosphere of going there on Wednesdays and doing band and seeing the people who were in the band and building relationships with them, it was just a great time.”

Ben Payton called the trio “great kids” and says he still follows their achievements.

“I’m really extremely proud of them and the hard work they put in,” he says.

“It really was against the odds.”

Bright futures All three siblings display a spiritual maturity far beyond their years at Cornell as they balance academics and their walk with God. Jeremy is involved in Campus Crusade for Christ and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA); Xavier takes part in those two organizations along with a dorm Bible study; Javail teaches Sunday school at her church.

Jeremy transferred to Cornell after graduating from Tompkins Cortland Community College near Ithaca, where he played basketball. (See sidebar.)

Xavier transferred from Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens. Javail entered Cornell right out of high school.

Javail remembers the day they all found out that they would be going to Cornell together.

“Once we all got in at the same time, www.prioritypeople.org

we were like, ‘Wow, we actually did it!

Can you believe that?’ We’re all here at the same time and it’s kind of unreal for us,” she says.

A 21–year–old senior, Jeremy is majoring in development sociology with a minor in law society. He hopes to work in policy analysis and possibly do data analysis or research for the federal government. His associate’s degree is in criminal justice.

Xavier, a 20–year–old junior who has already earned his pilot’s license, majors in hotel administration and travel and tourism. He hopes to be an upper–level manager in the airline industry or an airport manager.

Persons of influence Javail, 18, is a sophomore majoring in development sociology, and she would like to be involved someday in social work with children.

“I want to work with families that have kind of gone through the same thing that I’ve gone through, but more in a way of just inspiring them to stick together and move on from different situations in their lives,” she says.

Javail is already an influence at her church, where she works with children from toddlers to teens.

“It’s really great to just talk to them and have them talk back to me about what they’re going through and just chatting about the Bible and their experiences,” she says. “I get very positive feedback from them.”

Javail’s brothers are also giving back outside the classroom. Jeremy will soon 17

All That We Are

be volunteering at a basketball camp at Ithaca High School.

Xavier says that whatever he is doing, it’s important that the Lord be at the center of it.

“You want to have a relationship with God no matter what you do, so if it’s through music, dance, theater, kind of take advantage of those opportunities and get to know God more,” he says.

“It will come back to you in the long run. God will bless you when you seek God first and then everything will come after.”

Blessings and challenges Looking back, Jeremy says family and friends prayed for him and his siblings since they were little, that they would be healthy and prosperous, but still, it’s hard for him to comprehend the miracle that he and his siblings were accepted to a prestigious school like Cornell.

“It’s a blessing,” Jeremy says. “In retrospect, we certainly have had angels encamped around and about us to pro-

tect and watch over us. … We’ve made it through the trials, and now God is bestowing His goodness on us … . ” Xavier called being accepted to such a prestigious university a mixed blessing.

“It’s a blessing because we made it to Cornell, but God is holding us to higher standards, and so we have to perform to those standards—nothing less.”

Leon Lawrence, who recently retired as Cornell’s director of the Office of Minority Educational Affairs, told the Cornell Chronicle newspaper that the students are “exceptional” and “have demonstrated their strong motivation and intellect.”

“They’re very focused, no–nonsense,” he told the Chronicle.

Javail said going to The Salvation Army and other programs growing up “kind of got my mind off the negativity and put my mind to something more constructive.” She knows that many of her friends who grew up in similar circumstances were not as blessed.

“I always say I was able to get here because we had The Salvation Army, because we had my own church, and then many other different programs that … kept us active and kept our minds on a positive road,” she says.

Her brothers agreed. Xavier recalls all the opportunities he received to go to Salvation Army music camps and competitions, which helped him to grow and develop as a person.

“God is doing a lot of things in our lives,” Xavier says. “He is providing opportunities that I wouldn’t necessarily be offered. Just going to Cornell and being associated with The Salvation Army, it offered me a lot of opportunities.”

Jeremy quotes Matthew 23:12 (“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted”) when he thinks of the family’s journey.

“Our lives have pretty much been a humble walk with Christ, and now we’re being exalted because of our walk thus far,” he says.

Javail, Xavier, and Jeremy on campus

18

www.prioritypeople.org

-

Prayer Power

‘Wherever You Go’

by JoAnn Shade

A

well–deserved retirement was stretching out before her. She was looking forward to “loving on” her full quiver of grandchildren as well as continuing to support the Salvation Army’s ministry of child sponsorship around the world.

Then, in 2004, Major Hildred Schoch received a devastating diagnosis: Diffuse Lewy Body Disease. With a here lifelong habitcaption of prayer, Hildred prayed, as did hundreds around the world, but this Alzheimer–like illness brought its destructive forces to bear on her body and mind with no mercy.

Where was God in this? Her husband, Carl, tells of God’s grace: “During surgery for [my] lymphoma cancer in 2001, my wedding ring disappeared in the recovery room. In the summer of 2010, I was sorting clothing in a basement closet when the ring dropped out of the cuff of the pants I had worn on the day of surgery. Inscribed in the ring are two Scripture references, Romans 8:28 and Ruth 1:16–17. The words from Romans, ‘all things . . . together for good . . . according to His purpose’ give foundation, grace, and strength for this experience that will give way in His timing to the fulfillment of His plan for us. Until then, we live by faith and daily prove His grace is sufficient.”

And it is the promise of the second passage—“wherever you go, I will go”— that testifies to the power of prayer in 20

Above: At her retirement with husband, Carl. Right: Holding a sponsored child

the lives of God’s people, for when He doesn’t change the circumstances, God changes us, giving us the strength and courage to live in a way that reflects His image. As Carl pushed Hildred’s transport chair in the neighborhood or on the river walk along the Conestoga River, “wherever you go, I will go” became more than mere words. His example of care and commitment over the course of a debilitating illness stretching more than seven years is one that will forever touch the lives of those who know of or hear their story.

Answered prayer? Yes, for on June 24, 2012, their 51st wedding anniversary, Hildred gently slipped into the arms of Jesus, home at last. www.prioritypeople.org

A Persistent Bell

Majors Curtiss and Sandy Hartley

S

ometimes God speaks, and it’s just a matter of being open to listen.

In 2005, Major Curtiss Hartley, a Salvation Army officer who was then a captain serving as a publications editor, heard a distinct message from God when he was attending an international publishing conference.

And the message wasn’t about writing or editing. Then–Colonel William Francis, one of the speakers, made a comment about developed nations in the Salvation Army world being willing to tithe, not just with their dollars, but also with their personnel.

For Curtiss, it was as if a bell was sounding, loud and clear. His wife, Sandy, also an officer, heard that bell too.

“On our way home that night we started talking,” Curtiss says, “and we both felt that God was asking us to make our willingness to go somewhere, sometime, known to the Army.”

www.prioritypeople.org

The Hartleys prayed about it, and after a couple of days, Curtiss says, “That bell was still ringing.”

They wrote a letter to their leaders saying they would be willing to serve overseas.

“There! We had done the deed,” Curtiss says. “We had responded. Sometimes that’s all God asks of us, right? I mean, we weren’t ‘called to the mission field.’

We never sensed God telling us to go to a far country. We aren’t bilingual ... sometimes I struggle being uni–lingual.

But God said, ‘Make yourselves available,’ so we told The Army that we were available.”

Nothing happened that year. Each year after that, for six more years, the Hartleys checked off a box saying they were still willing.

“We never prayed about a future appointment or sought an opportunity to go overseas,” Curtiss says. “But we did pray that God would use us where we

were and prepare us for each new day— for whatever opportunities He would bring our way.”

Then, in the fall of 2011, the Hartleys’ divisional commander, Colonel Dennis Strissel, called them into his office. The meeting seemed to be about a small matter. But then the other shoe dropped.

“Now for the real reason I’ve called you in,” Strissel said. Then he asked whether the Hartleys would be willing to have their names put in for possible service in Papua New Guinea (PNG), half a world away in the South Pacific.

“After a befuddled moment of awkward silence, we asked if we could take some time to discuss and pray,” Curtiss says.

Strissel gave the Hartleys two days.

“We prayed. We talked. We Googled,” Curtiss says. “We asked our parents and our children. And the overwhelming message, loud and clear, was that we should say yes.”

The bell they had heard years before was still sounding.

“It’s an exciting and scary adventure,” Curtiss says. “But it comes down to this: We put our lives in God’s hands years ago when we said ‘yes’ to becoming officers, and we know that we can trust Him with our lives—even when we are as far away as Papua New Guinea.”

The material for this article comes from one originally published in the Salvation Army’s Central Connection.

21

Prayer Power

‘First–class Miracle’

by Linda D. Johnson

I

t was June 4, 2011. Mark Smith had just moved with his family to a new home atop a steep hill in Sonora, Calif. His daughter Sydney, 11, was riding bikes with a friend who had come to visit. The friend started down the hill behind the house. She suddenly realized that she was about to lose control, so she threw her bike down and screamed.

Sydney heard her friend’s cry and pedaled over the hill after her. Soon, she too realized the hill was too steep.

But her pants leg caught in the gears, and her bike hurtled down the hill. At the bottom, Sydney crashed into an 18–wheeler trailer.

Sydney’s little brother saw it happen and rushed to get his dad. When Mark got to his daughter, she was unconscious, and he could see that she had significant injuries, especially to her head. She was flown by helicopter to University of California Medical Center in Sacramento.

Mark called his uncle, Major Joe Hoogstad, a Salvation Army officer 22

stationed nearby. Joe had retired, but he was serving as Alameda County coordinator in Oakland. When Joe got to Sydney’s bedside, he was shocked at what he saw.

“I didn’t realize a human head could swell to that size,” Joe says. He spent the weekend with the family and came back home. About 10 days after the accident, Sydney’s doctors advised that she be taken off life support; they couldn’t detect any brain activity, and they didn’t have any hope that Sydney could exist as anything but a “vegetable.”

“Nothing indicated that Sydney was aware of anything,” Joe says. “She made no sounds—nothing. But the family wasn’t ready to pull the plug. They couldn’t make that decision, so they started this long wait.”

Early on in the process, Mark asked Joe to baptize his daughter.

While The Salvation Army doesn’t observe this sacrament, Joe says that as an ordained minister, he can perform baptism if asked.

“When I prayed, I made it very clear what I was asking the Lord to do in the life of Sydney,” Joe says. “First of all, we wanted His will. I said that we recognize that You [Jesus] are Lord and Savior, that you have the power to heal this girl so she can know a relationship with you. I said that we trusted her to the care of the Shepherd. I told Sydney that we would do this again when she

knew what was going on.”

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, many of whom were Salvationists in the USA Western Territory, began praying for Sydney.

Nothing seemed to be happening.

Sydney was in a deep coma for five months. Then, one day, she uttered a couple of words.

“Everyone was elated,” Joe says. “That began the process of her coming out of the coma. That probably took another month. Meanwhile, people continued to pray for her healing.”

The doctors had written Sydney off.

Because of the intensity of the trauma to her brain, they said she would never be able to communicate.

Today, Sydney, who walks with a walker, is not just talking but singing and making wisecracks.

“Her mind is sharp as a tack,” says Joe. Because of the strong Salvation Army connection forged through Sydney’s illness, Mark and his family, including Sydney’s great–grandmother, Laurel Hammer, and Mark’s partner, Tracey Johnson, all began going to church at the Salvation Army’s Sacramento Citadel Corps.

“When I saw Sydney at her dad’s house, she asked me when she could get baptized again,” Joe says. He has no doubt about why Sydney is doing so well.

“It’s a first–class miracle, and I just attribute it to all the prayers,” he says. www.prioritypeople.org

With Eyes of Faith

God’s Provision Through It All

by Linda D. Johnson

Photography by Philip Jensen-Carter

It was mid–July 2010. Colonel R. Steven Hedgren was just finishing up two years as chief secretary (second in command) of the Salvation Army’s USA Eastern Territory. He and his wife, Colonel Judith A. Hedgren, would soon become commissioners; he would be territorial commander, and she would be territorial president of women’s ministries. They were getting ready for a two–week vacation to Florida, where their daughter, Heather, was about to have her first child.

With Eyes of Faith

T

hey were to leave on Saturday. But on Friday, everything changed.

“The day started for me as the best day of my life,” Judy says. “I was finishing up one job and would be starting another, one we were so excited about. I arrived home at 5:30 or 6. I was still in uniform when I got the call from Steve.

‘You’ve got to come right away,’ he said.”

He was at the hospital with excruciating back pain. It had begun back in March, and he had already been to the emergency room once, on July 4, when doctors gave him medicine to treat strained muscles.

But this time, it was so much worse.

Tests had shown nothing. The doctor said there was one more test she could perform.

The initial shock At 4:30, the results were in. Steve overhead the doctor in conversation.

“I heard the word cancer,” he said.

Then the doctor told him it was a cancer called multiple myeloma, and that it was incurable.

“It was really surreal,” Steve says.

“The doctor might as well have been speaking Greek. All these words I’d never heard before were coming at me.

I had thought that with every cancer, there would be a chance of fighting it off. Then I thought, ‘Lord, this can’t be me.’ I just shut down into a mode of ‘I’m just going to get through this moment.’ ” What had been the best day of Judy’s life suddenly became the worst.

“It was a nightmare,” she remembers.

“He is the love of my life,” Judy says.

24

www.prioritypeople.org

‘This Is a Love Story’

“And I heard the word I never wanted to hear: incurable.”

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone and bone marrow. For Steve, it had manifested in a large tumor that had wrapped around his spinal cord.

“The only thing to do now is treat it,” the doctor said. “You’re not going to Florida.”

The news got out to the Salvation Army world.

“It was incredible how people responded,” Steve says. “People were praying—officers and soldiers here and around the world. It was so overwhelming.”

When he reported for radiation treatment, God provided again. The radiation therapist, it turned out, lived next door to an officer couple the Hedgrens knew well, and he took a personal interest in Steve’s care.

“He got us through the first part of the journey,” Judy says.

Twelve days of radiation reduced the tumor so that Steve was out of immediate danger from the tumor snapping his spinal cord—or killing him.

Important phone call At the hospital, Steve spoke to General Shaw Clifton, the worldwide leader of the Army, who makes decisions about major appointments such as territorial leadership.

“That was an important phone call,” Steve says. “He could have said that under the circumstances, we need to make some adjustments. But he didn’t say that.

He said, ‘Get well. You will have time www.prioritypeople.org

C

ommissioners Steve and Judy White Hedgren have been married for 37 years, and 34 of those years have been spent as Salvation Army officers.

‘This is a love story,’ says Judy.

‘It’s about the love we have for each other, for our family, for God, and for the Army,’ says Steve.

Judy describes Steve as not just her husband but also her pastor.

‘Over the last 34 years as officers, there has never been a sermon that I have not taken notes.

There wasn’t a time when I didn’t learn something new from him.’

At home, Judy and Steve shared everything, including the cooking and cleaning.

‘He would bring me toast every morning,’ she says.

For all his life until July 2010, Steve would work from early in the morning until late at night.

‘I was never sick,’ he says.

The diagnosis of cancer came as a shock at first.

‘Why now, God?’ Judy remembers crying out. ‘We were so excited, so thrilled and honored to be the territorial leaders. Then you’re struck down.’

At first, she had to face a major stumbling block: fear. She turned to Psalm 56: 3–4: ‘When I am afraid, I will trust in you, in God, whose word I praise. In God I trust, I will not be afraid.’

These words of Scripture echoed in her mind: ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you.’

In their love story, in which Judy

became Steve’s caregiver—he says she has been ‘incredible’—they have never been alone.

‘I have always felt God by my side,’ says Steve.

Before the diagnosis, he was memorizing books of the Bible, and when he feels well, he keeps up that practice.

He often turns to the Psalms, especially Psalm 46, which says ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever–present help in trouble.’

Steve also leans on verse 10 of that psalm, in which the Lord says, ‘ “Be still and know that I am God.” ’ For Judy, a mainstay is this verse: ‘Do not be anxiously looking about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will uphold you.’

(Isaiah 40:10) She says, ‘He renews our joy, even in the darkest hour. I just can’t imagine my life without Steve.’ But she adds, ‘God gives us strength for the journey.’

They are looking forward to many more days of their love story.

‘Each day is a gift,’ Steve says.

25

With Eyes of Faith

26

www.prioritypeople.org

to get well.’ I was incredibly grateful for that.”

While he was in treatment, he met some doctors who had a connection with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and he began chemotherapy treatment there.

Even the relatively mild dose took a toll.

“I lost 50 pounds within a month and a half,” Steve says. “The radiation and chemo caused nausea and burned my esophagus, so it was hard to swallow. At least I could sleep; some cancer patients can’t do that.”

The time was approaching for the Hedgrens’ September public installation as territorial leaders. Judy wasn’t sure Steve was strong enough to make it. After a day of meetings, Judy came home and found Steve dressed in his uniform and ready to go to the evening meeting.

“What a great sight that was!” she says.

The Hedgrens’ kids, Heather and Matthew, held the flags for the installation ceremony. When he spoke, Steve shared openly what had happened to him and that he expected to be in continued treatment.

“But the great news about all this is—I have an Army that is praying for me!” he said triumphantly to the congregation.

People stood in a sustained ovation, to affirm him.

“When the kids saw the response that night, that solidified their own calling to officership,” Steve says. “That’s what completed it for them. www.prioritypeople.org

Heather and her husband, Jay Needham, and Matthew and his wife, Jessica, are now cadets, in training to become Salvation Army officers in the Southern Territory.

‘This is the time.

You need to be with your children and grandchildren.’

Stem cell transplant Steve spent the next five months on chemo, gaining strength and learning how to live with the treatment. He went to the High Council, a meeting in London to elect a new General of the Army. When he returned, it was time for a stem cell transplant.

His red blood cells were harvested on March 8, 2011. On March 9, he received the heaviest dose of chemo yet.

“It kills everything—your own blood cells, everything—and brings you almost to the point of death,” Steve says.

On March 11, his own red blood cells were poured back into him.

“As we watched that, we couldn’t help but think of the song, ‘There’s power in the blood!’ ” After 17 days in the hospital in isolation, Steve went home, but he could have only minimal contact for 90 days.

“Some people would think I had a pretty nice deal,” Steve says. “But when

you can’t have contact with people, it really gets to you.”

Another big Army event was approaching in June: the commissioning of new officers. That was right about the time the doctor said, “You’re free to do whatever you think you can do.”

“The doctor had no idea what he was saying,” Judy says. Commissioning is really a weeklong series of meetings, and Steve would be speaking seven times.

“You just had to pace yourself,” Steve says.

From that point forward, Steve was to see the doctor only once every three months. He would be on chemo for the rest of his life, but because he could do it at home, it was manageable.

Then, after another major meeting in March 2012, Steve contracted pneumonia and had other complications.

‘This is the time’ “We had to move to the next level of chemo, and it would have to be given intravenously,” Steve says. “I was tethered to the hospital weekly, and the after– effects became increasingly difficult, with frequent trips to the hospital.”

Steve was told that the cancer had become aggressive and that his immune system was compromised.

Then came these words from the doctor: “This is the time. You need to be with your children and grandchildren.”

“We felt that we couldn’t continue as territorial leaders,” Steve says. “It was the most painful decision of our lives.”

He went to International Headquarters in London on business and spoke 27

With Eyes of Faith

with Commissioner Barry Swanson, Chief of the Staff (second in command of the worldwide Army). Swanson agreed with Steve and Judy that they should step down as territorial leaders, but with three and a half years left until retirement, they would still play a consultative role as secretaries for mission in the USA Southern Territory.

When the news was announced, once again, the response was immediate and overwhelming. One letter from a dear friend included a quote from Henry Nouwen that the Hedgrens treasure: “I leave you with the image of a leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. It is the image of the praying leader, the vulnerable leader,

28

and the trusting leader. May that image fill your hearts with hope, courage, and confidence …”

“That’s him,” says Judy of her husband.

Steve says that he is glad he spent two years as chief secretary before becoming territorial commander, getting to know the people of the territory before he became ill.

“It’s been a joy to lead the Eastern Territory,” Judy says. “We’ve been here for four years and have loved the people and the places.”

What would Steve like his legacy to be as territorial commander?

“I’d like people to say that I emphasized the importance of people, of

relationships, of the Army providing hope and meeting critical needs with the vision of our Founders,” Steve says.

These days, Steve’s thoughts have been turning to what eternity will be like.

“It looks different, depending on what I’m going through at the time. But one thing I know and claim is Job 19:25: ‘I know that my redeemer lives and one day I shall see him stand upon the earth.’ ” In the meantime, both Steve and Judy continue to trust in God’s provision.

They are still asking for a miracle—and for prayer that they will be able to finish their last three and a half years of officership strong.

“His plan for our lives is perfect,” Judy says.

www.prioritypeople.org

MyTake

Recycled Trophies

by Steve Garrington

I

t was a Wednesday, and my wife and I were heading home after church choir practice. Our car made the turn off the busy street and into the quiet neighborhood we called home. Tomorrow, Thursday, was garbage pickup day, and already the street was lined with cans and recycling bins.

In our town, as in towns all over the nation, citizens place paper, glass, metal, and plastic into those “recycle” boxes, which are picked up by a special truck.

Seeing milk cartons and soup cans in those boxes is standard. But this evening something different caught my eye.

“Did you see that?” I said to my wife as I made a U–turn.

She had not noticed anything, and as I drove back a block, I pointed out a blue city recycle box filled with—trophies.

There must have been a dozen of them.

I did another U–turn and slowly drove by again. Sure enough, there in that box were the awards of a lifetime. All of someone’s hard work and effort—years of striving and success—were dumped into a plastic box to be “recycled.”

I couldn’t help but think of the words of George Bennard, a former Salvation Army officer/pastor: “So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down.” www.prioritypeople.org

Trophies in a recycling bin

Never again would the owner look upon these trophies with pride.

Never again would they grace a fireplace mantle or bookshelf. No longer would they bring back memories. I thought they might be the trophies of someone who had laid them down for the very last time.

“I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it some day for a crown.”

Perhaps this person was already wearing that crown of life. Perhaps this

person was already finding an eternity with Jesus so rewarding that the trophies of earth, now just so much rusty trash to be recycled, had been forgotten.

So I thought of my own honors, my own trophies. Someday they, too, will be placed in a box for recycling. It was now clear to me what George Bennard meant. Like him, I will cherish that wonderful, old rugged Cross, knowing that someday I too will lay my trophies at His feet. But I will lay them down with joy, knowing that I am exchanging them for a crown.

29

Dorcus Beads Support African families through

“ Our vision is big, but we continue to see each and every person as a valuable part of the ministry of Dorcus Beads,” says April Foster, a Salvationist who has ministered in Africa for many years.

She and Kenyan Meble Birengo started Dorcus Beads in 2008 to help the women of the Kithutuni community in eastern Kenya earn an income for themselves and their families, including children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS.

WOMEN’S TESTIMONIES “ I have been able to save and make plans for the future …” “ I am able to send my children to school and buy the everyday things needed in our home.” “ My mother visited me recently, and I was able to support her with the bus fare.”

WHEN YOU’RE PLANNING FOR HOLIDAY GIVING, THINK DORCUS BEADS! ~ Many products are under $10! ~ Beautiful jewelry with beads made from recycled paper! ~ New items such as Christmas ornaments, bookmarks, and paper and sisal coaster sets.

To see the products and the story, visit dorcusbeads.blogspot.com.

For price lists and to order, email apriljoyfoster@gmail.com or mvilika@gmail.com

First Person

‘Most Inspirational Mom in America’ Has Harrowing, Uplifting Story

Lorrie Wolfe, a 41–year–old employee at The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of Hickory, N.C., was recently named Most Inspirational Mom in America by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

This is her story, in her own words.

First Person

T

he nine years before I started working here on Oct. 31, 2005, were a nightmare. My husband, a hulking 6’–7”, 330–pound man, became a raging alcoholic and drug addict, and over time, he became more violent.

My son Thomas can tell you what it was like to have to jump on his father’s back to keep him from beating me.

My son Christopher can tell you what it was like, at age 5, to feel that he had to put a knife in his backpack. When I found it, he told me, “I have to protect you, Mommy, because Daddy said he’s going to kill you. What would I do if he killed you?”

I can tell you what it was like to lie to my mother about how baby Angeleah’s playpen got destroyed. I didn’t want her to know that my husband had thrown me across the room in a rage, and I had landed so hard on the playpen that it busted to pieces.

Everything seemed so bleak. But God began working on me.

A TV ‘nudge’ One day, I got home from class at the local community college and turned on the TV to have a little background noise while I did my chores. When I had left the house that morning, I was sure that the TV was on the cartoon channel, but now there was a woman [Joyce Meyer] ministering to her viewers. I thought that was odd, but I just brushed it off.

I could hear this woman talking while I washed dishes. I really wasn’t paying attention until I heard her say, “There is a young woman, a mother of 32

www.prioritypeople.org

three—you’re listening to this program.

God has been talking to you for many months now, but out of fear, you’ve been ignoring Him.” I dropped the dish in my hand and stood frozen at the sink. I knew she was talking to me. I found myself standing in front of the TV. The woman said, “God wants you to go talk to someone and you know who it is. … Stop what you’re doing right now and go do what He wants you to do.”

For a second, I tried to tell myself that this was crazy. Then I grabbed my purse and ran out the door. I had no money and very little gas in the beat–up little red car my father had let me borrow. But I pulled out of the driveway anyway.

I was convinced that I was supposed to speak to my pastor. I worried that the car would not make it to the church.

Again, I felt His nudge. When I made it there, I looked down at the gas gauge; the hand had not moved. I thought this was odd, but I just brushed it off.

steps. Comfort came over me. He had been waiting for me to have FAITH and to turn everything over to Him. I walked out knowing that whatever lay ahead, God would take care of me and my children.

I finally found the courage to leave my husband. There I was, homeless, with three small children, two bags of clothes, no money, no job, and no car of my own.

It was so humiliating to apply for food stamps, day–care assistance, housing assistance—all of which I needed to help me get on my feet. At first, we had no furniture. I made beds on the floor by piling up comforters. Then The Salvation Army helped me with beds

and a couch, groceries, and clothing.

To someone on the outside looking in, it may have looked as though life was pretty bad for me and my babies, but to us, we might as well have been living in a castle, and we had hope that life would get better.

But I needed a job if we were going to make it. I hunted and hunted for two months. Then one day a woman called to say that she knew of a job, but she didn’t think I’d really be interested. The position was only part–time, paid just a little more than minimum wage, and involved watching kids. I told her I’d take anything. So she gave me the number and I made a call to The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs of Hickory.

Lorrie gets a high–five at the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club in Hickory, N.C.

Laying it all down I couldn’t find anyone outside or inside the church. Just as I was about to leave, I felt His nudge again. I decided I would look one more place—the sanctuary. I walked in, and as if for the first time, I noticed that the banners hanging on the walls each had a different name for God. I slowly walked toward the crucifix, then dropped to my knees and cried like I had never cried before. It was then I realized that it was not Pastor Steve I was supposed to talk to—it was Him, my Father. I laid all my sorrows on those www.prioritypeople.org

33

First Person

Not your average interview I did everything I had learned in my job training classes: I had my resume ready; I wore the one good two–piece dress suit I owned; and I fixed my hair and makeup real nice. The receptionist, Ms. Rachel, told me to wait while she got the executive director, Mr. Demauro. When she came back, she told me he would not be able to interview me that day. I was crushed. As I pulled out of the parking lot, tears just spilled down my face.

But the very next day, Ms. Rachel called and said that Mr. Demauro could interview me—if I could get there in the next 15 to 20 minutes. Now here I was—no makeup, hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing an old pair of jeans and an oversized Mickey Mouse sweatshirt. But there was no time to change.

So off I went.

Mr. Demauro asked me why I wanted this position. The next thing you know, I started crying. Now that has got to be the number one cardinal rule in job interviewing—do not cry. I told him that I was willing to do anything. I would scrub toilets, change Pampers, take out trash. I just needed a job. I also shared my situation with him. In my mind I could hear my ex–husband’s words, “You’ll be back. You can’t make it on your own with three kids.”

I found out that the position was from 2–6 p.m. I apologized for wasting Mr. DeMauro’s time; I told him that I really wanted the job, but my baby girl was in a day–care on one side of town, and my two boys were in an after–school www.prioritypeople.org

program on the other side. I had to do all my pickups by 6 p.m., when the day– care closed. Once again, I pulled out of the Boys & Girls Club parking lot with tears streaming down my face.

I hadn’t been in my apartment more than 10 minutes when my neighbor

Search for Top Mom

T

he nationwide search for this year’s Most Inspirational Mom began last November.

Leading the search team were Lucille O’Neal (NBA player Shaquille O’Neal’s mom), the Boys and Girls Clubs (BGCA), and longtime partner Kimberly–Clark Corporation.

Most Inspirational Mom is part of a joint venture to implement

came over and said someone was on the phone for me. (She was letting me use her phone to apply for jobs.) I ran next door. It was Mr. Demauro.

He asked me if I could start the next day. He said he had changed the hours from 1:30 to 5:30. When I said that 30

family strengthening at BGCA. For the seventh consecutive year, Kimberly–Clark and BGCA are teaming up to provide the Family PLUS (Parents Leading, Uniting, Serving) program at clubs around the country.

Lorrie Wolfe was chosen from among 15,000 applicants. She and the two runners–up, Karen Baker of Little Rock, Ark., and Sue Trnka of Callaway, Minn., will all receive full–tuition University of Phoenix scholarships, along with Kimberly–Clark back–to–school survival kits.

35

First Person

minutes just wouldn’t give me enough time to get to both locations in time to pick up all three of my kids, he told me I didn’t have to worry about the boys because they would be at the Boys & Girls Club with me. When I said that my day–care vouchers wouldn’t be enough to pay the fees, he said, “Don’t worry about it. One day you will [be able to pay].” Once again, heavy tears streamed down my face.

A second home Today the Boys & Girls Club is a second home for my children. Thomas, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, went from making C’s and D’s on his report card to making honor roll the first semester he started coming here. He went from having no friends at all and constantly having meltdowns to being this phenomenal, compassionate, and ambitious young man who has friends and smiles and laughs often. Now 14, he’s in the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and has big dreams of graduating from high school and going on to college.

Christopher, 11, is the star of our local championship Little League team, plays two instruments, and lives to come to the Club. Angeleah, 8, looks forward to getting on the bus after school every day to come to the Club.

The Salvation Army is more than just a place to work for me. After “church–hopping” for several years, I asked myself one day, Why don’t I go to church here at The Salvation Army?

I already know firsthand the wonderful 36

work they do. So I tried it, and unlike at other churches I had visited, I didn’t feel like a visitor. I felt like I was home.

Christopher looks up to our corps officer [pastor], Captain Mike Harris, so much that he is learning to play the tuba because he wants to be just like him when he grows up. And Angeleah is so proud that she is a junior soldier [member].

I am currently the project coordinator for the Boys & Girls Clubs’ very successful Street SMART Gang Prevention Program. I serve three counties and more than 3,000 children. I love my job. It means the world to me that I am making a positive difference.

And now I have the incredible honor of being named Most Inspirational

Mom in America. The award comes with a full scholarship to the University of Phoenix, where I will be pursuing a degree in criminal justice with a concentration in human services, so I can continue to serve and help at–risk children.

If I were to share with you all the wonderful things that have happened to my children and me since we came to The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of Hickory, this would end up being a novel. But let me say this; I know for a fact that The Salvation Army saved us.

I believe that part of my purpose is to share my story with others so that I can effect change and maybe save the life of another young woman like me.

Arm–wrestling with son Christopher

www.prioritypeople.org

‘Son, You

Don’t Have to Live Like This’

by Daryl Lach

‘At 12, I first smoked a joint, given to me by my seventh–grade schoolteacher,’ Alex Velasquez recalls. ‘Later, he taught me how to snort cocaine.’ The below– the–radar, white, middle–class teacher was obviously a scoundrel. At the time, though, young Alex thought he was cool.

Salvation Story

“H

e preyed upon vulnerable, fatherless boys to run drugs for him,” Alex says. “In a few weeks I was his number one drug runner, catering to kids my own age and

younger in schoolyards throughout the neighborhood.”

South Side Blues Today, Alex is a captain in The Salva-

tion Army. But his life of crime and addiction might never have ended if someone hadn’t put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Son, you don’t have to live like this.”

Alex, born in 1958 on the South Side of Chicago, was the third of three children born to Cruz and Antonia Velasquez. Alex’s brother, Joe, and sister, Marie, were six and five years older. Home life for the Velasquez kids was unstable because Cruz was a raging alcoholic. And in 1965, things went from bad to worse. The family lost their meal ticket when Cruz hailed a cab and skipped town.

Antonia got a job working long hours as a spot welder. She kept the kids in Catholic schools.

“The nuns and priests tried hard,” says Alex. “I was even an altar boy, but the three of us rebelled.” The kids eventually transferred to public schools, and Joe and Marie joined street gangs.

“They never got into the life as deeply as I would, but they were involved in drug and stabbing incidents,” Alex says.

Learning the Ropes

Photography by Cliff Jette / Getty Images

The family moved to a housing project near Cook County Jail. Alex stole the materials he needed to start a shoeshine business at the Criminal Courts Building. Before age 10 he got to know several big–name lawyers and politicians who became his clients. Shining shoes, he’d listen to their conversations, all the while taking mental notes on how to beat a rap. He also studied arrest cases and sat in on court hearings during 38

www.prioritypeople.org

lunch breaks.

When Joe entered the military and Marie married, they straightened their lives out. But Alex’s career on the streets was just beginning. Antonia moved to the Humboldt Park area, where Alex began running drugs on his Stingray bicycle. He attended high school for a year only because, he says, “It was one way of getting into a bigger schoolyard [to sell drugs].”

Gang Life

in a basement apartment, he took in his dying, regretful father, who had lung cancer. A seed was planted in Alex’s mind. Did he really want to end up like his dad?

Destitute Arrested for possession again, Alex spent four weeks in jail. When he returned home, he discovered that his father had died. Through a complex series of events, by Ocober 1998, Alex had lost all contact with his family—and his gangland status— after gang members ransacked his apartment and left him destitute.

He found himself on the streets during a brutal Chicago winter. January saw a 22–inch snowfall with wind chills dipping to –50 degrees at night. Alex would walk for miles trying to get into any place warm. He would slide under recently parked cars for heat from their exhaust pipes.

He was no longer of any importance to anyone. “When you’re homeless, 50 percent of people act as if you’re invisible while the other 50 percent scapegoat and exploit you,” says Alex. He witnessed firsthand what can happen. “A [homeless] friend cleaned someone’s garage all day for $5. He invited me to sleep in the garage one night. When I arrived, I found him frozen to death.”

By age 13, Alex was a gang member and full–blown addict hooked on pot, cocaine, and heroin.

By age 13, Alex was a gang member and full–blown addict hooked on pot, cocaine, and heroin. He hid sawed– off shotguns for his gang.

During a turf war, he and his best friend, 14–year–old “Puppet,” were retrieving guns in an alleyway when a rival gang member shot Puppet in the head. “Puppet was dying on the ground, bleeding profusely and convulsing in front of me. I knew I was next, so I shot the rival and ran!” Alex says.

The rival survived, but a “shoot–on– sight” order went out to kill Alex. When Alex was leaving a shopping center with his mother one evening, bullets sprayed at them from a passing car. Alex pushed Antonia down and shielded her.

Antonia feared for her life and couldn’t handle one more wayward child. So one day while Alex was at school, she escaped back to Puerto Rico.

For the next 27 years, Alex continued his descent into hell. His status increased among gang members as he worked himself up the ranks to become www.prioritypeople.org

“President.” On his watch the gang grew from 2,000 to 5,000 members. Alex was in and out of jail for possession, assault, and aggravated battery but beat most of the raps because of his knowledge of the system.

“Out of nine division buildings at the Cook County Jail, I was locked up in six of them,” he says. He was also shot several times and had gang war sniper bullets removed from his buttocks, thigh, gut, and skull.

When he was young, Alex had married an older woman after she gave birth to his son, but the marriage failed. He then moved in with another woman, and they had two daughters. Addicted to snorting heroin and cocaine, she overdosed in 2004.

At times Alex and his girlfriend had plenty of money from drug dealing, but it never lasted. Most of it went up their noses. The home environment was dangerous as shady characters traipsed through the apartment to deal drugs and exchange weapons. Because of his personal power, his girls were never harmed. But Alex wants people to know that children of drug addicts are in great danger of being kidnapped and trafficked into child pornography.

Alex’s life began to deteriorate at an accelerated pace by his late 30s. Living

Unexpected Grace Tired and shivering on a street corner, 39

Salvation Story

Alex felt that hand on his shoulder and heard these words, “Son, you don’t have to live like this.” The elderly man (a Chicago Salvation Army Advisory Board member) drove Alex to the Army’s Harbor Light. (See sidebar.) After a period in detox, Alex was admitted into the recovery program.

In spite of the help he received, Alex had every intention of returning to his old haunts when he got healthy.

“I saw several men in the program I had known on the streets as users,” says Alex. “I thought, Give me another month and I’ll be running this popsicle stand.”

But God had other plans.

Under the caring ministry of Majors Geoffrey and Marian Allan, Alex’s attitude slowly changed.

“I saw men in the program who were serious about their recovery, testifying to how the Lord had changed their lives,” Alex says. “I started to think … that could be me.”

A New Creature One Sunday morning Major Geoffrey preached a sermon about a man crippled for 38 years lying by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus told the man to “get up and walk.” This Gospel story had a profound effect on Alex. Two Sundays later, he says, it was as if a supernatural power shot through his being and led him to the mercy seat (altar). He cried in public for the first time. At the altar, he heard Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven, paid on the Cross. Get up! Walk away from your sins and follow me.”

Today Captain Alex Velasquez is a 40

Harbor Light Centers and ARCs

A

s the largest provider of residential addiction recovery services in the United States, The Salvation Army has two main points of entry—Adult Rehabilitation Centers (ARCs) and Harbor Light Centers.

ARCs began in the early 1900s as Men’s Industrial Homes, where destitute men could get a fresh start as beneficiaries through work therapy, counseling, and spiritual reclamation. There was a name change in 1935 to Men’s Social Service Centers and again in the 1970s to Adult Rehabilitation Centers, when some programs began admitting women.

ARCs are largely funded by Salvation Army Thrift or Family Stores.

Donated goods are sorted and restored by ARC beneficiaries and sold to the public. There are 104 ARCs in the U.S. today in both large and mid–sized cities. Each of the four U.S. territories administers the centers from its own ARC Command.

Capacities range from 40 to several hundred clients.

The first of today’s 16 large metropolitan area Harbor Light Centers opened on Detroit’s skid row in 1939 in response to the repeal of

Prohibition five years earlier. Over the years, with gentrification and suburbanization, some Harbor Light Centers developed satellites. Harbor Light Programs are clinical in nature, geared toward local needs, and are administered by each region’s Divisional Headquarters.

Two little known facts: For nearly two generations on New Year’s Day, millions of Tournament of Roses Parade viewers worldwide heard the strains of ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus’ as the Salvation Army Band passed by. The refrains were from the ‘Golden Jubilee’ march written in 1952 to honor the 50th anniversary of ARCs. Second, a precursor to Harbor Light ministries were the Salvation Army’s annual Boozers’ Day Conventions held in New York and other cities between 1904 and 1919. Salvationists would fan out across the city with horse–drawn wagons to pick up public inebriates and take them to a rented armory to dry out, eat good food, and listen to the Gospel message. A bit of Americana was born: the expressions ‘on the wagon’ and ‘fell off the wagon!’

www.prioritypeople.org

new creature in Christ, transformed by the grace of God. He’s reconciled with his once–estranged mother, son, and two daughters. They were present in 2004 when Alex was commissioned and ordained as a Salvation Army officer.

His mother, with tearing eyes, revealed that she had become involved with a Christian prayer group in Puerto Rico.

She had been praying for years that God would save her son.

Alex married Captain Jennifer Poore and today they are administrators of the Army’s Davenport, Iowa, Adult Rehabilitation Center. Jennifer says of her husband, “The man has always been something of a workaholic. Only now his energies are redirected toward reclaiming others trapped in the chains of addiction.”

This year both Alex and Jennifer received B.S. degrees in practical ministries from Olivet Nazarene University, an amazing accomplishment, all the more so considering that little over a decade ago, Alex could barely write.

In 2005 Captains Alex and Jennifer were blessed with the birth of a little girl, Jaqueline.

“She and Jennifer are the joys of my life,” Captain Alex says. “I never knew love could be so intoxicating. Every little thing Jaqueline learns or gets excited about thrills me. My life was once only about satisfying the five senses. Since the Lord saved me there’s now an eternal dimension transcending everything.

‘O to grace how great a debtor!’ Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”

www.prioritypeople.org

41

Serving the World

Smiles for the forgotten

Photography Š David Smith/Getty Images

by Robert Mitchell

42

Immigrant workers keep the city of Abu Dhabi dazzlingly beautiful. But Pamela Abdalla was haunted by their downcast faces.

Photography © David Smith/Getty Images

P

amela Abdalla and her husband, Tarek, had been married for five years and were struggling to have a child.

“It was not easy for us,” recalls Pamela.

She made a vow that if God blessed the couple with a child, she would reach out and minister to the needy in her Pittsburgh community. God soon answered her prayers, and Pamela started on a path to make good on her promise.

Her daughter Alexandria, now 16, was only 8 months old when Pamela went searching for a place to volunteer.

“My New Year’s resolution that year was to find a way to give back significantly to our community because I was so grateful to have a child to raise [there],” Pamela says.

“I found the Family Caring Center,” she says. “It’s at the homeless shelter The Salvation Army runs in Pittsburgh. I did an Easter party there with my little baby in tow.”

“I just never turned back,” she says.

“I was raised with service in my life and had done volunteer work before, but not with great satisfaction.”

Finding her niche Then, in August 2008 came a significant move for the Abdalla family. Tarek’s law practice took them to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a www.prioritypeople.org

sojourn of almost four years.

Pamela, an attorney, had been working in the Allegheny County family court system as a hearing officer and master, but there would be no such opportunity for her in the UAE. Sharia, or the “way” or “path,” is considered the divine law of Islam, and it is the main basis for the legal system of UAE. “Under Sharia law and Muslim society, there really wasn’t a need for a family court judge,” Pamela says.

So she decided to focus on doing community work.

“I found there was a very ready outlet for that,” she says.

Pamela says the UAE cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai are built largely on the backs of Asian laborers, who are housed in labor camps 20 – 30 kilometers (about 12 – 18 miles) outside the cities.

“They sleep 10–12 to a room,” Pamela says. “They are bused into the city every day to do their 12–hour work shifts and bused back out at night. So they’re sort of this unseen force.”

The buses roll into the cities each morning between 5:30 and 7:30.

“The [people] are just so compelling,” Pamela says. “You can see them looking out the window. They’re largely young men with faces worn well beyond their years, creased with exhaustion and haggard with loneliness, sadness, and resignation.”

Bus raids The workers wear uniforms as they sweep the streets and do much of the building and maintenance that keeps the cities “dazzlingly beautiful,” Pamela says. However, she was haunted by their downcast faces and desperately wanted to do something to raise their spirits.

Pamela says, “One of my visions was ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to just make them smile and just be a force of positive influence on their day?’ ” She and others got the idea to start “bus raids.” The students at her daughter’s high school held a bake sale and raised money to buy apples, bottled water, and KFC “Twister” wraps.

“We bagged them up and we went to a designated site and handed the bags [out],” Pamela recalls. “It was just an instant hit. The workers were delighted.

It really caught on and spread.”

Pamela says the group she worked with in Abu Dhabi continued the bus raids after her departure and recently served 1,500 laborers in one day.

The next step was to go inside the labor camps to minister. Pamela took teams into the camps and organized Bingo parties, story times, art projects, and games for the women.

“It was great just to give them some relief from the daily grind and some sense that, ‘Hey, we know you’re here and more than that, we care,’ ” Pamela says.

43

Serving the World

Finding refuge Pamela says the Indonesian and Philippine embassies also host “safe houses” for runaway domestic workers who are abused by their employers.

“I’ve seen many women come into the safe house with broken limbs because they’ve leapt from a second–story window to escape,” she says. “They’re locked in the house, locked in their room, and not permitted out at all.”

She recalls one woman who was wheelchair–bound for life after severing her spinal cord in an escape attempt.

Another woman had a stroke after her employer refused to buy blood pressure medicine for her.

“In the safe house, they sleep something like 30 to a room that is around the size of my daughter’s bedroom,” Pamela says. “No mattresses, no pillows.

Just on the floor.”

Pamela took teams of women inside the safe houses to teach the workers yoga, crafts, dance, and even how to paint their nails. She said about 250 women crammed into quarters smaller than her house.

The words of Jesus from Matthew 25:40 (“… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”) were Pamela’s major motivation while in Abu Dhabi.

“It’s our obligation to humanity and the Christian faith to help one another,” she says.

Finding a way Pamela says the hours when she could 44

go inside the safe houses were strictly dictated. She could only go in from 5–7 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Being a busy mother, Pamela often wondered how she would work it all out.

“Then I would move heaven and earth to make it happen and get there, and when I walked out the door, I knew exactly why,” she recalls. “It just is so gratifying to bring a smile to somebody who thinks that they have been forgotten by the world.

“Their spirit was always so humbling to me because despite their entirely dire circumstances … I would go there and find them smiling and grateful. It was overwhelming.”

Pamela also formed and chaired the Salvation Army’s Middle East Regional Advisory Board, the first Army outpost in the UAE. Her goal was to unite the locals and other non–government organizations (NGOs), but she had to turn that role over to other board members when she returned to the United States in January 2012.

“It’s quite difficult to register a faithbased, Christian nonprofit in a Muslim country, but I believe it will happen,” Pamela says. “The board that is there is committed to making it happen.

“My vision was to unite all the various community sectors in the region— corporate, government, diplomatic, expats and locals.”

Serving back home Since returning to Pittsburgh, Pamela has joined the Salvation Army’s National Advisory Board (NAB). She was www.prioritypeople.org

already a member of the Western Pennsylvania Division’s Advisory Board and had established a goal of bringing the Massachusetts Division’s highly successful Bridging the Gap (BTG) program for juvenile offenders to her area. (See Summer 2012 Priority!)

Pamela recently attended a meeting where BTG officials addressed the juvenile justice community in Pittsburgh.

“We are committed to making that happen here in Allegheny County, where there is a pronounced need for these kinds of youth services programs that seek to stop the problem at its inception,” she says.

Pamela has also remained active with

the Family Caring Center and organizes fundraisers for the shelter, which needs a boost this year because it recently lost a $35,000 federal grant.

One of her ideas was to organize a “Garbage Bag Gala,” where people dress up in trash bags and donate the money they would have spent on an expensive dress or suit to The Salvation Army.

“It has evolved over the years to high fashion,” Pamela says. “It’s now entering its second decade.”

This year’s gala, scheduled for Nov. 1, will be held at the new Fairmont hotel in Pittsburgh. The keynote speaker is Margo Perot, the wife of former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot and one of Pamela’s friends from the NAB.

Gathering supplies for the workers

Staging a ‘bus raid’

Serving the World

Fervent prayer Today, it’s not only fundraisers that keep Pamela busy. She is the mother of three children—Alexandria; 13–year–old Omar; and 5–year–old Gabriella, who was adopted from China when she was 46

just 13 months old.

Pamela said prayer was integral in her having two biological children and in overcoming two strokes.

“That kind of experience obviously teaches you what’s important and what’s

not,” she says. “It has required constant reliance on my faith. God always answers the call. It may not be in our time, but it’s in the right time.”

Tarek, Pamela’s husband, is Egyptian and a Muslim, but he sometimes attends an Episcopal church with the family.

Pamela says her husband’s faith often inspires her to take her Christianity more seriously.

“I look at the Muslim faith, and I see people who pray five times a day, who fast for an entire month every year, and are a very inspirational people,” she says.

For example, when her husband rises at 5 a.m. to pray, she is challenged to do the same.

“It certainly makes you think about it,” Pamela says. “Of course it does.”

Being like Christ Pamela, who was raised in an Episcopal www.prioritypeople.org

church growing up in West Virginia, described her spiritual life today as an “evolutionary upward spiral.”

“There’s always more to learn. There’s always more ways to connect. There’s always another opportunity for God’s intervention, and I just pray for the ability to perceive those opportunities.”

Pamela is also always looking for more opportunities to help the “least of these.”

“What I see as my calling in life is to let people who feel that they’ve been forgotten in this world … to know that at least one other person on this planet sees them and cares for them as they are and who they are,” she says. “[That’s] the way Christ lived.”

Pamela with her children: Omar, 13; Gabriella, 5, who was adopted from China; and Alexandria, 16

THIS END UP F U R N I T U R E

C O M P A N Y

Proudly serving the Salvation Army for over 20 years (800) 979-4579

thisendup.com 47

134 Years Ago

‘The Fighting Sweep’ Elijah Cadman: First Salvation Army ‘Captain’

48

—Courtesy The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre

T

he want ads called for 2,000 men and women to join a “Hallelujah Army” in Whitby, England. The speaker was listed as one “Captain Cadman.” Elijah Cadman worked as an evangelist for William Booth, superintendent of The Christian Mission. When Booth came to Whitby, Cadman’s ad read: “The General of the Hallelujah Army Is Coming to Whitby to Review the Troops. Great Battles Will Be Fought!”

It was 1878, the year The Christian Mission became The Salvation Army. So Cadman was its first “captain,” and he was the first to call Booth “General.”

Born in 1843, Elijah was drinking heavily, smoking tobacco, and working as a chimney sweep by the age of 6. His small stature made him perfect for the job; he literally climbed up the chimneys, scraping off the caked–on soot as he went.

As a teen, Elijah became the leader of a pack of reckless youths and a boxer known for being able to “fight like a devil and drink like a fish.”

Then one day, he and his tough friends went to a public hanging. A friend said, “That’s what you’ll come to, ’Lijah, one day.”

Shaken, Elijah gave up drinking on the spot. But he had one more battle to fight—against his own sinful heart. He listened to street evangelists and even went to church at Wesleyan Chapel. But he wasn’t changed until he spent a long night in desperate prayer.

By morning, “the storm in his heart and mind ceased. Elijah was a converted man—and knew it.”

He plunged into his new mission, fighting just has hard as he ever had in a boxing ring. He preached outdoors, where people threw mud, bricks, and stones at this “five–foot– nothing” firebrand.

One day his brother–in–law brought him a red songbook compiled by Rev. William Booth. Thrilled by the songs, Elijah went to Whitechapel in London to hear Booth preach.

Booth invited him to join the Mission. Elijah, who had

Cadman was known as ‘Fiery Elijah.’

given up his boxing salon to please his Lord, gladly gave up his chimney sweep business for a life of sacrifice as a preacher. He became a world campaigner known as “Fiery Elijah,” described by one newspaper in Newfoundland as “really sincere about the soul business, and in it for all he’s worth.”

Material and quotations are from “Fighting Sweep: The Adventure of Elijah Cadman” by Major H. Benjamin Blackwell, on The Salvation Army’s International Heritage Centre website. www.prioritypeople.org

NOW AVAILABLE AT

TRADE

The New Convertible Jacket 1SJDF $49.95*

Embroidered logo!

.FO TJ[FT 4N UP 9- 9700054 8PNFO TJ[FT 9T UP 9- 9700055

t 100% 100% polyester silky lightweight micro-poplin body with water-repellent finish t Full-zip front t Stand-up collar t Contrasting color side and sleeve panels t On-seam front zipper pockets t Zip-off raglan sleeves t Cape back convert jacket to a vest with mesh upper back t Elasticized drawcord bottom with cordlocks t Zocket™ mesh lining

Detachable sleeves!

* Available on the OďŹƒcer Plan

Front pockets!

ORDER NOW

“Like� us on Facebook

USETrade

We accept all major credit cards or bill to your SA account

www.armyconnections.org/trade

Call (888) 488-4882 or email us at use.trade@use.salvationarmy.org

Se

To uc h

lly arfu s e f m k se I a our wor l.� u a c l y u be made; l we ) l o u y f t lly ha NIV aise "I pr onderfu I know t 139:14 ( w l, ste alm s a P and nderfu T — o Hear are w

e

e Sm

ll

rg o . a s ies-t

tr s i n i nsm

w

e m o ww.w

Commissioners R. Steven & Judith A. Hedgren Territorial Leaders