Together 2024: Stories from the Defenders of Justice!

As the new lieutenants are commissioned, four of them share their stories.

I first felt a calling to officership 10 years ago, at a corps in the heart of the red light district in Amsterdam. My wife, Sophie, and I had signed up to a three-week programme of prayer, Bible study and social action, called Find Your Mission.

One evening as we sat in prayer, I felt a gnawing sense that God was calling me to become an officer. This sense grew and grew, until I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I had to make a choice: do I share this or do I pretend like nothing had happened?

Of course, I chose the latter. As the prayer time drew to an end, Sophie opened her eyes, looked at me and said the very words I hadn’t been brave enough to say: ‘I think God is calling us to Salvation Army officership.’

There was no pretending now. I fessed up and told Sophie that I had heard the same call. That moment set us on the adventure of a lifetime. We spent the next few years testing that calling, all while being supported and encouraged by some incredible role models in Huddersfield and Leeds Bramley, until we felt that the time was right for us to continue our training at William Booth College.

Throughout my time at the college, God has continued to surprise me! Drawing me out of my comfort zone and into deeper levels of trust, all the while embedding a confidence that the one who called me will continue to equip, empower and provide, wherever I may find myself in the years to come.

Although I set out to Amsterdam 10 years ago to ‘find my mission’, in the end God invited me into his. And that’s an invitation God extends to each and every one of us.

I was called to officership before being part of The Salvation Army. I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home and I professed a faith, but it was head knowledge. However, aged 14, I had a tangible experience of God’s presence. I had walked to the next-door village church and ‘Here I Am, Lord’ was left on the music stand. In this empty church, as I played and sang, I became aware the church was filling with God’s presence.

A year later I had a dream: I was wearing Salvation Army uniform, preaching. I had never been to a meeting before, and the only time I had seen the Army was on TV adverts, but after this dream I knew that God was wanting me to go to The Salvation Army.

Aged 18, I went to university in Edinburgh. On my third week, I went to Edinburgh City Corps. The family atmosphere was beautiful and I went back. I asked one of the members what the different coloured epaulettes meant. She explained red was for officers. This was a moment of affirmation since, in the dream, I had been wearing red epaulettes and I had previously felt a call to ministry.

I became a soldier and, for two years after university, worked as a community mission facilitator at Buckhaven, then entered William Booth College. In this time, I also met and married my husband, Luke. The journey in this time had its challenges, but a real moment of peace came on appointments day. Long before the calling to officership, I had felt a calling to island ministry, but was warned this may not be possible. However, God has enabled Luke and me to serve him on the Isle of Wight as our first appointment. We pray he will continue to use us.

‘Surrender’ has never been a word that sits well with me. For me, there has always been a negative association with it. To surrender felt like giving up.

Like many others before me, I felt my calling to officership a long time ago, but I was not ready to let go of the little bit of control I thought I had over my life. However, little by little, God started to put me into roles and situations that implored me to do just this.

Having surrendered enough to serve as a territorial envoy for 11 years, I still felt God was asking more of me. During the Covid-19 pandemic, as I looked at the fragility of life, I knew that now was the time to give my full surrender to the one who gave his all for me.

I would love to say that, since surrendering to God’s plan, everything has been easy. There have still been challenges to face, but one thing I can assure you of is that, when we say yes to his plan and fully trust him to provide for our needs, we will be able to achieve anything he is calling us to do.

I am truly thankful for the love, trust and grace the Lord has shown me throughout my life. There are so many ways I feel I have failed him, but each time he has welcomed me back into his presence, holding nothing against me and allowing me to partake once again in his unconditional love.

As I enter into this next phase of my ministry and journey with God, I do so knowing these words are true: ‘Because I set you, Yahweh, always close to me, my confidence will never be weakened, for I experience your wraparound presence every moment’ (Psalm 16:8 The Passion Translation).

My testimony is one of God’s persistent faithfulness and patient calling on my life. Many people have nurtured my faith in God since I was a young girl, including family and friends at my home corps of Staines. Because of this, I have always pursued God’s will for my life, while studying at school and university and then eventually working as a speech and language therapist.

I had frequently prayed to God as to whether I should pursue a calling into full-time ministry, often at large events or during particularly powerful times of worship. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, everything changed. I had a choice to make over who was in charge of my life and what my first purpose in life was.

At this time, God gently called me and my husband, David, into officership – not in a moment of heightened emotion, but in a simple conversation while sat together on our sofa. Our response was an instant and easy ‘yes’.

Of course, there has been a cost to following God in this way; we’ve physically moved, sold possessions, left our careers, etc. But this has been nothing compared to the sense of freedom and release we’ve experienced in answering the call to full-time ministry. Making that decision has taken us on a real adventure to new and unexpected places. At William Booth College, I’ve discovered new depths to my relationship with God, my understanding of the Bible and my love for God’s people.

God has been faithful in providing for us as a family while at college and I feel a strong sense of peace as I am now released into a new season. As a family, we look forward to joining the community in Maidstone and seeing what God has in store as we step out in faith again!