Back on Their Feet

Photo: Courtesy of Kelley Sherin

Selfie Smiles Jordan Sherin, left, and his aunt, Kelley Sherin, were helped by The Salvation Army when they needed it most

by Megan Atkins-Baker

ASaanich, B.C., woman who cares for her autistic teen nephew says she was greatly helped by The Salvation Army’s Victoria Citadel church during a breaking point in her life.

Homeless and Penniless With no children of her own, Kelley Sherin took in 16-year-old Jordan to provide him with the care he deserves—but wasn’t receiving.

Jordan had moved around a lot within his extended family prior to moving in with Kelley. Being the only adult in her family who was single and able, she felt it was time to advocate for him by providing a consistent and loving home base.

However, Kelley had issues of her own before Jordan moved in. She had trouble finding appropriate housing and experienced homelessness for two weeks before finding a basement suite through sharing her story in an online ad.

Moving costs and paying her initial rent rendered her penniless once they’d moved in, so she was forced to search for a food bank,

which ultimately led her to Victoria Citadel.

Changing Circumstances “I found The Salvation Army downtown and was then promptly directed to the citadel, which also happens to be just a few blocks from where I live,” she says.

She was welcomed with open arms by Michelle O’Connor, community ministries director, and the on-site pastor.

“Michelle encouraged me to be open about how I was really doing—from physical and mental to emotional and spiritual,” Kelley says.

She was then assisted with food and one-on-one practical support through joining the Next Steps Program offered by the organization.

Kelley and Jordan attended a movie night a few weeks later, where families came together to enjoy games, treats and door prizes, and Jordan is now a part of the youth group.

“He said that he lives for youth group—and that was only after going one time!” Kelley says.

With the support from Victoria Citadel, she feels immense relief knowing she has others to lean on when times are difficult. After going from an independent career woman with no one else to support but herself to a single parent in survival mode within a short time period, Kelley was humbled by how quickly life’s circumstances can change.

Community support from Victoria Citadel has helped her get back on her feet, she says, and allowed her to provide the best care possible to her nephew.

Reprinted from Saanich News/Black Press Media, November 14, 2021.

RÉJEAN CONQUERED HIS ADDICTIONS WITH THE HELP OF THE SALVATION ARMY. NOW, WHILE HE CAN, HE WANTS TO BE AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS. by Larisa Chis

“Iam a former junkie,” states Réjean. “I wasn’t able to support my family and went through a divorce, all because I did drugs. I’m sure had I continued on the path I’d been on, I would have died. But The Salvation Army saved my life.”

Open Doors Réjean’s first contact with The Salvation Army came about 13 years ago, when he discovered The Salvation Army’s Booth Centre in Montreal, which offers temporary housing and the support of intervention workers for men 18 and over who are experiencing housing difficulties and struggling with addiction or mental illness.

It was when Réjean was active at the Booth Centre and helping out at The Salvation Army’s Camp Lac L’Achigan that he got to know Major Rock Marcoux.

“The pastors, such as Major Rock, and the staff at the Booth Centre, took the time to listen and take care of me so I could get better,” Réjean says. “It was there that I welcomed God into my life.”

With the support of Major Rock and the staff, he entered the Booth Centre’s addiction treatment program and started the process of recovery. As he healed spiritually, physically and emotionally, doors opened to another part of his life that he thought were forever closed.

Together in Friendship Réjean (left) with Major Rock Marcoux. “I’m not going to sit at home and twiddle my thumbs”

“Thirteen years went by without my children having any contact with me,” Réjean says. “I reconnected with them in 2012. They gave me a second chance and we got to know each other. I am part of their lives and they are part of mine now.”

Volunteering While at the Booth Centre, Réjean was told about The Salvation Army’s Nouveaux Départs (New Starts) Community Church in Sherbrooke, Que.

There, he volunteered with community and family services, assisted in renovating the church, took care of the volunteers, worked at the food bank and, most of all, offered help to anyone who asked for it.

“I volunteered three times a week,” Réjean continues. “When I decided to get involved, I did it with my heart. No one forced me. Growing up, I was taught the importance of helping others. That was the most beautiful lesson my parents ever taught me, that helping others is priceless.

“I love volunteering,” he says. “Giving to people as much as I can. I do it with heart. Seeing people come to the food bank reminds me of where I was in another life. Without The Salvation Army, I would have been homeless and probably would have lost my life on the street.

“When people come to the Army for help, they know we care. We’re here to help them. Sometimes people come to the food bank and, often, the next time we see them, it’s in the church on Sunday.

“Helping others is priceless, it’s rewarding, and I know that the people I help are happy.”

He’s Coming to Town One of Réjean’s favourite holidays is Christmas and he used to love to dress up as Santa for Salvation Army functions before his hospitalization

Goals But just as Réjean started a new life, he received some difficult news. Doctors diagnosed him with cancer, which necessitated surgery on one of his lungs in 2020. Unfortunately, after further tests late last year, doctors found more cancer, which

RÉJEAN

wasn’t operable.

The diagnosis might well have paralyzed someone with less spirit, but Réjean refused to be cowed.

“We all have a way of grieving,” he says, “I’m not going to sit at home and twiddle my thumbs.

“All I asked God was to get me through Christmas and New Year’s,” he continues. “They are my favourite holidays. Then, for the darker days, Major Rock purchased tickets to a Christmas show at Place Des Arts and he told me to put them on the fridge and think about that when I had difficult moments.”

Réjean opened his heart to God when he arrived at the Booth Centre. He also knows his feelings of love and respect for his Salvationist friends are reciprocated.

“I know that the people at Nouveaux Départs are praying for me on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings,” he says.

Réjean has decided not to have any extended treatment and is now in a hospice.

“I don’t want to be in hospital for six months,” he shares. “I don’t want to put my children through that. I don’t want them to worry. I spend weekends with them. I asked my son if I could talk to my 12-year-old grandson about my health. I told him that I would soon pass away, and he understands.

“What little time I have left, I want it to be beautiful and useful.”

Which is why he decided to share his testimony, to be an example for others.

“If I can help one person ask for help and pull them out from their own darkness, my goal will have been achieved.”

(left) Larisa Chis is the communications officer at The Salvation Army’s divisional headquarters in Montreal.

Sole Man McTelvin Agim, a second-year defensive lineman for the NFL’s Denver Broncos, auctioned a customdesigned boot he wore in a recent game. The money raised went to The Salvation Army in Texarkana, Texas

Photos: Courtesy of the Denver Broncos

Turkey Time McTelvin holds two turkeys as he helps distribute Thanksgiving meals to families in need in 2021

a successful player with the National Football League’s Denver Broncos, but his team commitments don’t get in the way of his support of The Salvation Army.

“When I was a kid, we had a rough time, a rough patch growing up,” McTelvin says. “We didn’t have anywhere to go.”

Or almost nowhere. He says it was The Salvation Army who helped his family, so he understands the pressures and struggles many families face in similar situations across the United States and Canada— especially at Christmas. Giving It the Boot The 24-year-old, six-foot-two, 308-pound second-year defensive lineman says he remembers as a six- or seven-year-old child the Christmases when he only got socks, or when he and his family had to sleep in their car or seek refuge at the Army shelter in Texarkana, Texas.

“The Salvation Army gave us sanctuary,” McTelvin recalls. “They gave us a place to lay our heads. I wouldn’t be here without them. I can’t ever repay them for that time; for how important that was for us, but to be able to do something and

MCTELVIN AGIM

give back something to them is something I try to do every time.”

As part of the annual NFL My Cause My Cleats campaign, McTelvin put up for auction one of the custom-designed boots he wore at a recent Broncos game. He had the Army shield printed on them and autographed them. The proceeds of the sale of the single boot went to The Salvation Army in Texarkana.

Valuable Opportunity Captain Juan Gomez, the pastor of the Texarkana Corps, says it means a lot to The Salvation Army for McTelvin to give back to a community that helped him and his family through a difficult time.

Captain Juan goes on to say that he could identify with how important such a response was, having been helped by the Army when he was a child, too, as his family was once chosen from an Angel Tree.

“I have gone from one side of the feeding line to the other,” he says.

Angel Trees are a popular Christmas tradition where trees are decorated with angels bearing the name of a person or family on them, and people are invited to choose one or more and buy gifts or hampers for that person or family.

“It really is an opportunity for these children and for these families as a whole to be seen as valuable,” Captain Juan says.

Photos: Courtesy of the Denver Broncos Shoe-In McTelvin’s one-of-a-kind boot

Worry-Free Home McTelvin states that, by being part of the Angel Tree initiative himself, he represented his family and countless others like his who needed help.

As a six-year-old, McTelvin says he was old enough to feel embarrassed at being homeless and having to live in an Army shelter: “If somebody asked you where you live, you didn’t want to say. I knew that much.”

For about a year, McTelvin and his family stayed there. In a trying situation, a youngster was able to make the best of it.

He says that the Salvation Army staff tried to make the communal living space homey and would take him and the other children on trips to the park or the basketball court.

During that time, McTelvin formed friendships with other children. Though some schoolmates couldn’t relate to what he was going through, his friends at the shelter could.

“They understand you,” he says. “They understand they’re in the same boat as you. The counsellors working at The Salvation Army were trying to make sure that we didn’t have to worry about that either.”

Finding Hope McTelvin’s surroundings may have changed with the Broncos having drafted him last year, but he knows he hasn’t changed.

“I don’t think you ever forget where you come from,” he says. “You don’t ever forget the struggles, the trials, any of that. It’s still fresh on your mind, but you try to help as much as possible.”

Captain Juan says, just as McTelvin has, the Army continues to provide opportunities where people can find hope.

“Every day, we have men, women and children who are coming through our doors, and we don’t know who they are, and we don’t

Taking a Knee for the Army McTelvin warms up in his custom-designed football boots

Photo: Courtesy of the Denver Broncos

know who they’re going to be,” Captain Juan says. “We don’t know what successes they’re going to have in life or what struggles they’re going to have in life, and the truth of the matter is none of that weighs on our decision to help them.”

“The thing I want to do is just give back,” McTelvin says.

Reprinted from Others, January 2022.

(left) Ben Swanson is the managing editor at DenverBroncos.com.

In theatres this month, The Unbreakable Boy is a faith-based film that shares the true story of Scott (Zachary Levi, American Underdog) and Teresa LeRette (Meghann Fahy, One Life to Live), whose son, Austin (Jacob Laval, The Plot Against America), was born with a rare brittle-bone disease and autism. Based on Scott’s book of the same name, the film chronicles the family’s struggles and triumphs through Austin’s medical setbacks and educational challenges.

The Unbreakable Boy is Austin’s story, but just as much, it’s Scott’s. Life just hasn’t turned out the way he thought it would. Not only does he have a son with serious medical issues but he also struggles with addiction to alcohol. These circumstances are the one-two punch of failure and regret in Scott’s life.

“This is not what I thought it was going to be like,” he says. “I feel like I’m failing every day, and the harder I try, the worse I do.”

Scott can’t stop his son’s bones from breaking. He can’t prevent the bullies from teasing Austin about his funny hats and his over-thetop enthusiasm for life. Every part of his life is a fight, from staying sober to persuading the school to allow Austin to learn in a regular classroom.

When Austin tries to befriend the boy who bullies him, his family wonders why. All they see is a mean bully, but Austin sees the sadness in the boy’s eyes and wants to help him.

Scott can’t believe it. He has always viewed Austin as broken because of his medical issues, but he is starting to realize his son’s indestructible optimism has made him strong, virtually unbreakable.

What does this mindset shift mean for Scott and his own internal battles? Will he ever be able to forgive himself for past failures and experience joy in the present moment, despite life’s challenges?

it.” SCOTT LERETTE

Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate Films Promises Kept Scott knows that it would be normal—even expected—for someone with Austin’s problems to feel unhappy much of the time. But Austin has a gift for finding the bright side in every situation.

“I wish I could enjoy anything as much as my son enjoys everything,” Scott says. “For Austin, every day can be the best day ever. You just have to be able to see it.”

But that’s not easy. In this world, our problems can feel overwhelming and blind us to the good things that are still in front of us. Health issues, family problems, financial concerns—the list of potential worries can seem endless. God knew that we would face struggles in this life, but the Bible still instructs us to rejoice and be glad each day (see Psalm 118:24).

How can we rejoice when everything is going wrong in our lives? Because joy isn’t about our circumstances. True joy comes from the Lord and the hope He offers us. No matter how many challenges we face in our lives, we are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (see Romans 8:37).

In other words, Jesus’ death and Resurrection was a victory over sin. He offers this victory to us as a gift, and when we accept it, it becomes our victory, too. It erases our past failures and gives us the promise of eternal life.

The best way to feel more joyful each day is to focus on gratitude. Giving thanks in all circumstances isn’t easy, but it reminds us of God’s unbreakable promises to us, in this life and the next.