Accepted into Training 2018 Andy and Lexee Dunlop, Gore Corps
Andy and Lexee grew up in Pukekohe. They have been married for three years and currently live in Gore with their cat Toast. Lexee started attending The Salvation Army Pukekohe Corps at 15 after her mother saw its sign one Sunday morning. This was the first church Lexee had attended and a few months later she decided to become a Christian. Andy and Lexee share a love of music and met through an orchestra they both played in. When they began dating Andy came along to Pukekohe Corps, and at around 19, he became a Christian too. Andy was an apprentice mechanic when he first felt God call him to serve as a Salvation Army officer. He saw a poster of Lieut-Colonel Rod Carey’s call to officership, with the quote: ‘Instead of fixing brokendown cars, God placed a passion within me to fix broken-down lives.’ In 2014, Andy and Lexee moved to Winton where Andy worked on a dairy farm and Lexee trained to be a veterinary nurse. In some ways, this was an attempt to ignore God’s call to officership, but the call only got stronger. After a literal mountaintop moment, the couple fully surrendered their lives to God and said ‘yes’ to whatever God wanted them to do. They feel privileged to have been able to serve as Mission Team Leaders at Gore Corps for the past two years years. Andy and Lexee have had many blessings in Gore and have learnt a lot from the challenges they’ve faced, but they are excited to see what God has in store for their lives in the future. INTERESTED IN EXPLORING OFFICERSHIP | salvationarmy.org.nz/SayYes
WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO CRAWL DOWN OFF THE ALTAR. I love oxymorons. You know, those little phrases where two opposing words are put together in one phrase. Like ‘my sweet sorrow’, ‘seriously funny’ or even ‘military intelligence.’ The greatest oxymoron in the Bible is found in Romans 12:1, ‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.’ Sacrificial animals in the Old Testament were skinned, sliced and then burnt at the altar. They were anything but ‘living’. Yet as Christians, we’re called to give ourselves to God as ‘living sacrifices’. And for a good reason! Unlike slaughtered lambs or bulls, we have the ability to crawl down off the altar. I grew up in a small Free Wesleyan Church in Tonga that often sang the chorus ‘I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.’ This ends with the words ‘no turning back, no turning back’. I wish this were so, because in reality, we turn back regularly. For even the ‘righteous fall seven times’, says Proverbs 24:16. Because of our ongoing battle with sin and self, we always have the option to retreat. That is why Jesus told His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ (Luke 9:23). No one knew better the pain of crucifixion than first-century Christians. They were eyewitnesses, and some were unwilling participants. Although the pain was considerable, at least the victim could only be tortured once. But the disciple of Christ must torture his selfish will ‘daily’. Sometimes we—soldiers, officers, Christians—speak of this returning after a retreat event as ‘a rededication’, but perhaps this is far too beautiful a description for the painful re-crucifixion that must take place in our life. Every day we must echo the apostle Paul’s declaration: ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20), and ‘I die every day’ (1 Corinthians 15:30). Daily we ‘living sacrifices’ must determine to place our lives on the altar of God and remain there. It is only on the altar that we are truly pleasing to God. So, as we strive to achieve our 2016–2019 territorial goals of Living like Jesus and Doing Mission Together, let us be ready to look deeper into our lives, our roles, our family, our corps, our division, and our calling. Are there areas where we need to return to the sacrificial altar and prayerfully offer ourselves again before Christ’s throne? Captain Sila Siufanga Regional Commander, Tonga 17 JUNE 2017 WarCry 19