New Frontier Chronicle Vol. 32 No. 9

A SHINING LIGHT

CHANGING COFFEE CULTURE

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BACK-TO-SCHOOL

CALLED TO ACTION ON SEPT. 11

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ON ASSIGNMENT IN CHUUK

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NEW FRONTIER SEPTEMBER 2014 Volume 32, Number 9

INSIDE this issue: Camp learning Redwood Glen Camp gives children the freedom to be kids each summer, along with programs to combat summer learning loss.

KID PAGE 3

Confronting obesity

The Salvation Army of Sacramento and Raley’s Food for Families partnered to offset the high cost of nutritious food for residents.

REFRESH PAGE 6

Rebuilding continues

A year following Arizona’s Yarnell Hill Fire, The Salvation Army unites with community organizations to continue restoration.

FIRE PAGE 7

Outbreak response

The Salvation Army is working against Africa’s recent Ebola outbreak—the most severe in recorded history.

PAID

GLENDALE, CA PERMIT #654

NON PROFIT US POSTAGE

EBOLA PAGE 13

CELEBRATION OF LIFE

The Salvation Army’s role in the ‘5th Birthday and Beyond’ coalition

BY SAM ELDERS

Production to be based on General William Booth’s funeral covenant

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enators, congressmen and representatives from a myriad of charitable organizations gathered at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., this summer for the first meeting of the “5th Birthday and Beyond” coalition.

Lt. Col. William Mockabee, national secretary, and Brian Swarts, director of strategic planning and partnerships, of the Salvation Army World Service Office (SAWSO), along with Major Dean Pallant of International Headquarters (IHQ), attended the event on behalf of The Salvation Army, which was recognized as a member of the Host Committee of the coalition.

The “5th Birthday and Beyond” movement acknowledges and promotes the philanthropic efforts of organizations that aid impoverished children around the world, helping them live to see their fifth birthday and thrive beyond that.

The coalition consists of groups that have demonstrated a commitment to this cause.

“This ‘5th Birthday’ is when we join in partnership with other agencies to collaborate and to begin to document what types of progress we’ve been making,” Mockabee said. “The goal is to do everything we can to reduce poverty among children—health, education, anything to

Larsson and Larsson musical in the works for Boundless VIVIAN GATICA

B SAWSO National Secretary Lt. Col. William Mockabee and Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), at the “5th Birthday and Beyond” event. |Photo by Brian Swarts

reduce their needs.”

The event served as both a celebration of the coalition’s collective accomplishments, and an expression of gratitude to those who contributed. According to Swarts, “This is really about taking the opportunity to celebrate the huge success that organizations like The Salvation Army have had fighting child poverty, and really addressing the ability of children to live beyond their fifth birthday.”

He also mentioned that beyond the celebration, “the whole purpose was to raise awareness and 5TH BIRTHDAY PAGE 14

oundless: The Whole World Redeeming in July 2015 will feature an array of dance, theater and music presentations.

Among the performances slated for next year’s international congress is a new musical—script by Karl Larsson, music by Kevin Larsson and lyrics by Commissioner Keith Banks. Karl Larsson will direct alongside Barbara Allen.

The Larssons and Banks first thought of basing the musical—as yet untitled—on the song “Boundless Salvation,” a hymn written by Salvation Army Founder General William Booth. After finding it limiting, they decided to create the musical around the covenant that Booth wrote for his own funeral program.

“It’s all tied together with Booth working on this funeral program... but that will be small vignettes of him writing that, and then we’ll come back at the end, but then the MUSICAL PAGE 14

The Salvation Army

P.O. Box 22646 Long Beach, CA 90802-9998

Salvation Army leaders meet with President Obama The Salvation Army’s national leaders Commissioners David and Barbara Jeffrey met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office Aug. 5, along with Lt. Colonels Ron and Carol Busroe, national community relations and development secretary and national director for public policy, respectively.

“The President was very cordial and expressed gracious comments about the nonpartisan service of The Salvation Army across America,” David Jeffrey said. “We also spoke to him concerning our work around the world, and in particular in Mexico, Central and South America.”

Other subjects covered in the 20-minute meeting included Pathway of Hope, Kroc Centers, adult rehabilitation centers and corps programming.

“We shared in some detail the economic impact of the Philadelphia Kroc Center,” Jeffrey said. “We also suggested that he might wish to visit the center in Chicago or Hawaii.”

PRESIDENT PAGE 14

President Barack Obama prays with Salvation Army national leaders Commissioners David and Barbara Jeffrey and Majors Ron and Carol Busroe during a recent meeting at the White House. |Official White House photo by Pete Souza

Page 2—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

ON THE CORNER

BY BOB DOCTER

An absence of empathy The newspaper called the beating “vicious.”

Five young men had attacked a single young woman, broke several bones in her face, knocked out her four front teeth and pummeled her into unconsciousness. They left her disheveled, torn and bleeding, lying by a trash can at a downtown corner.

Four drivers, aware of the action on the corner, increased their speed. One motorist, also driving by, called the police anonymously, but did not stop. The corner liquor store keeper rushed to his entry, locked the door, turned out the lights and hid behind the counter, cradling his shot gun.

Where are your thoughts right now? About whom are you concentrating? The young hoodlums; the fearful drivers; the somewhat helpful driver; the storekeeper; the young woman? Who in these short paragraphs is most like you?

In America, it seems we repeat this fictional scene many times over with only slight changes in the nuances. Have we become a culture without empathy, without a feeling for others? Has our desire to expand brain power pushed aside any concern we might have developed for a sense of caring otherness? Are we becoming so narcissistic, so self-centered, so power hungry in our grandiosity that we give ourselves permission to trample others and leave them in our wake?

Humans learn through the modeling of others. Sometimes that’s intentional. Sometimes it’s spontaneous. It happens every second. It begins with continuing reinforcement

and continues with repetition. It teaches life in the house continuously to every observer—how husbands treat wives and vice-versa; how roles become established; what is allowable and what is forbidden; what is talked about; and what remains hidden; what values should be developed.

These situations connect with empathy.

Empathy also carries an anticipatory communication.

We read a person’s behavior and anticipate its impact on us—threatening, loving, dismissive, and so on. Then, we behave according to aspects of our personality in relation to our needs at the time. (Is this driver going to turn, or not?) It is a non-verbal alerting mechanism.

I believe we fail to engage in teaching empathy in our homes or our schools or our churches. Maybe it’s because too many of us don’t even understand the word because of its complexity. It makes demands on our cognitive processes as well as our affective processes. We sense (feel) something about another person. Then, we identify (thought) what we believe that feeling is and then use it in following behavior. It’s natural and available to all. Yet, some doubt empathy even exists.

Jesus didn’t. The New Testament is a text book on empathy.

Here are some ideas about how we can learn empathy.

First, model it yourself. Show praise when tasks are well done, but don’t stop there. Also, show some appreciation.

Learn fundamental benchmarks in child development of

understanding. Around age 4 or 5, a child’s thinking ability allows him to associate his feelings with the feeling of others, and that they could be different. Teach about facial expressions being a doorway into discerning other’s feelings.

If the child observes something that triggers feeling ask him how it feels, and teach him the words. This is especially helpful if it is at all traumatic. Don’t be overly concerned about his feeling vocabulary—mad, glad, sad, afraid—often are enough at this age.

If you teach a Sunday school class, know the Bible. A search through the internet provides an abundance of verses that indicate empathy. Among them is “the golden rule,” a message from God contained with differing words but the same substance in every sacred book of each religion.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets (Matt. 7:12 NIV).

Here are a few of my favorites.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn (Rom. 12:14-15).

Live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble (1 Peter 3:8).

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22).

You empathize more than you are aware. Now, begin conceptualizing it in relation to your feeling for others.|NFC

‘Alcohol gave me wings but then it took away the sky’ PEOPLE COUNT OPINION

BY GLEN DOSS, MAJOR “I know that God loves me but…but…”

The young man had been conversing casually, easily with the chaplain, but now his demeanor took a decidedly different turn.

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, his face downcast.

The chaplain asked him again: “Al, you said you have known for a long time that God loves you. But are you loveable? Loveable, in the eyes of God?” Tears mounted in the young man’s eyes.

“No,” he finally said. “Cause I sure don’t feel lovable. I have hurt so many people….in the streets…in the gang life. People who didn’t even deserve it, just so my friends would like me. But God loves me anyway, doesn’t he? But how can he? Considering all the bad things I’ve done.”

Al had a tough upbringing. Repeatedly abused as a child, he blamed himself for it. His self-esteem was shot through and through. Consequently he did not believe in himself and had turned to alcohol and drugs to escape the emotional consequences. When intoxicated he felt on top of the world. The fabricated sense of self-confidence was so euphoric he quickly fell in love with it and eventually became dependent.

In the normal progression of addiction, life degenerates. As Al’s life began to fall apart, eventually his self-esteem hit an all-time

low. He told the chaplain, “As they say in AA, ‘Alcohol gave me wings, but then it took away the sky.’ I realized I was trapped in my addiction.” Today he was seeking a new life, one free of drugs, alcohol and the criminal lifestyle.

I told the young man, “As you follow the directions given to you, your self-esteem will grow and the attraction of the intoxication high will fall away. You know the Lord, Al. Christians have a decided advantage here, for they know that God loves them.

The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, tells us so: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. To ‘believe in’ Jesus is to trust in him, cling to him, rely on him. That is the meaning of it. As you rely on Jesus rather than yourself, you tap into the greatest power source in the universe.

“Today, Al, God’s love is raining down on you. Close the invisible, love-proof umbrella you’ve been holding above your head for so long and accept his love; let it drench you through and through. Allow yourself to sense just how much God loves you.” At this the young man eagerly nodded, smiling.

“Do you realize how much God loves you?” I asked. “You must be loveable, of more worth to him than you can ever imagine. Consequently you can count on the man who died for you to be there with you, supporting you as he teaches you in the midst of each new challenge. And you must

learn to love yourself.”

Al was shocked. “Love myself?” He exclaimed. “But how can I love myself? After all the bad things I’ve done! The people I’ve hurt! Why…why, I hate myself! I’ve hated myself my whole life!”

I opened my Bible and suggested he read Matthew 22:36-40. When Al looked up from the text, I asked him, “Now, what did Jesus say are God’s greatest commandments?”

He replied, “To love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love my neighbor as myself.”

I pointed out, “Notice Jesus didn’t say that we should hate our neighbor as ourselves or even dislike our neighbor as ourselves, but love our neighbor as ourselves. You see, Jesus wants you to love yourself, just as he loves you.

“God loves us all, not just the ones who do good, but everyone. As we realize this and then come to love ourselves, a most wonderful change occurs within our hearts: we love God back. In 1 John 4:19 we are reminded: We love because he first loved us.

“Just as God wraps his arms around our necks and holds us close, so we wrap our arms about his neck and hold him close. As we do so, the bond of love between God and us grows stronger and stronger, the scales fall from our eyes and we see the truth that has been there all along, but until we obeyed remained hidden from us: the God of love is revealed in a most profound and life-transforming way.” |NFC

Freddy, an OC614 success story

BY MICKEY JORDAN The first time I met Freddy his eyes were red, clothes were worn and his primary concern was finding a job and a place to stay. He had been in America for only a couple of days and he was scared to sleep on the streets.

That particular night someone had told him that he could get a hot meal at the Santa Ana Corps during an OC614 Gathering.

After we ate, he told me how things were rough back in Tijuana with his family. He had suffered from a meth addiction and at the time he was not on speaking terms with his wife. They fought and he had left.

From our first conversation he conveyed that he missed his family desperately. His goal in coming to America was to find work, reconcile with his wife and kids, and eventually move them here. I told him that the Hospitality House could offer him a place to stay while he tried to get on his feet. That weekend he moved in to the center and within three days of being in America he got a job.

Since that time Freddy has found an apartment, started serving at our OC614 Gathering, and is regularly attending service at the Santa Ana Corps. While at the Hospitality House his wife started talking to him again, and when he moved out she came with their kids to visit. Even though she was a nonbeliever, Freddy invited her to come to the Santa Ana Corps on Sunday. The sermon moved her that day and she gave her life to Jesus. The corps invited them out to lunch and Freddy told me he had never felt so loved.

Please pray for Freddy as he continues to serve the Lord, reconcile with his family, and seek a higher paying job. Pray that all of us here in Orange County can persevere in our faith, as we continually aim to show Christ’s love to those who are on the fringes.

|NFC

IN THE WEST Decisions for Christ Worship attendance Became members People helped People referred

3,516 108,083 56 814,047 2,714

Data for August 2014. See more at peoplecountusw.org.

is published monthly by The Salvation Army USA Western Territory P.O. Box 22646, Long Beach, CA 90802-9998 Commissioner James Knaggs, Territorial Commander Colonel Dave Hudson, Chief Secretary

newfrontierpublications.org Member of the Evangelical Press Association EDITORIAL STAFF Robert L. Docter, Editor-In-Chief 562/491-8330 bob.docter@usw.salvationarmy.org Christin Davis, Managing Editor 562/491-8723 christin.davis@usw.salvationarmy.org Erica Andrews • 562/491-8334 erica.andrews@usw.salvationarmy.org Vivian Gatica • 562/491-8782 vivian.gatica@usw.salvationarmy.org Karen Gleason • 562/491-8332 karen.gleason@usw.salvationarmy.org Major Kevin Jackson • 562/491-8303 kevin.jackson@usw.salvationarmy.org Major Linda Jackson • 562/491-8306 linda.jackson@usw.salvationarmy.org Jared McKiernan • 562/491-8417 jared.mckiernan@usw.salvationarmy.org ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA Shannon Forrey, Web Editor • 562/491-8329 shannon.forrey@usw.salvationarmy.org LAYOUT AND DESIGN Kevin Dobruck, Art Director • 562/491-8328 kevin.dobruck@usw.salvationarmy.org Adriana Rivera, Graphic Designer • 562/491-8331 adriana.rivera@usw.salvationarmy.org ADVERTISING/BUSINESS Karen Gleason, Business Manager • 562/491-8332 karen.gleason@usw.salvationarmy.org CIRCULATION Arlene De Jesus, Circulation Manager • 562/491-8343 arlene.dejesus@usw.salvationarmy.org ISSN 2164-5930

To donate to a Salvation Army project or program, visit salvationarmy.org and click “Donate.”

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To be a kid

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 3

Redwood Glen camp offers adventure and learning

BY CHADWICK PHILLIPS

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ocated on 206 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the coastal range of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Redwood Glen Camp in Scotts Valley, Calif., gives children the freedom that many of us took for granted: a chance to just be a kid.

Every summer, The Salvation Army’s Redwood Glen Camp hosts approximately 1,000 children between the ages of eight and 16.

During their one-week stay, campers have the opportunity to learn new skills and experience the outdoors while remaining centered on the Christian faith.

Camp Director Ed Covert explained that he looks for program activities that are not only fun for campers to participate in, but that will also help combat summer learning loss.

“Over the last few years, we have migrated our approach to camp from viewing it as a purely recreation and play perspective to viewing it more through an education lens,” Covert said.

He explained that he found a variety of resources and studies that tracked and detailed the impact of summer learning loss—claiming a loss of around 70 percent of the knowledge gained throughout the school year.

“As we look at each of the electives we provide and other program areas, we identify the scope and sequence of what the staff is going to teach and what they hope to accomplish and how that will help combat summer learning loss,” Covert said.

A popular elective and one that Covert enjoys watching is archery. Out at the archery range, instructors will fill balloon targets with strips of paper letters. While the campers retrieve their arrows, they will simultaneously pick up the pieces of paper from their balloons.

If they can make a word out of their letters, the campers will earn extra points for themselves and their cabin.

“They are having a great time shooting arrows and popping balloons, and we as instructors are getting the opportunity to contribute to reinforcing their literacy skills,” Covert said.

Redwood Glen Camp focuses on giving children opportunities for adventure and challenging their imaginations while inspiring them to meet great people. Not only are the camp counselors well trained and excited to meet the new campers, they take an interest in each individual. Covert believes and hopes that by the end of camp, every camper will take away a belief that God loves them deeply and that regardless of their current circumstances, they are going to find hope and opportunity.

“The core values that we try to impress on the campers first and foremost are that God loves you deeply and wants to have a relationship with you. I want kids to know that and to be able to experience the depth of God’s love and presence in this place and in their lives,” Covert said.

In reviewing the demographics of the populations the camp serves, Covert realized that many of the kids tend to be fairly transient.

In order to follow up with those that attended the camp, Covert and his staff put together a spiritual well being report from data collected through surveys and input from counselors in hopes that once this data is sent to the corps officers, they will follow up with the kids in order or influence and guide them.

“It is really critical that we have continuity in our staff and retain as much of the ‘cream of the crop’ staff every year so that for those kids who do come back, they have some familiar

faces to see and can re-engage with them,” Covert said.

Instead of setting goals for the camp and those that attend, Covert likes to come up with a set of core values that he wants the kids and staff to experience. By beginning with the end in mind, Covert creates a set of values that he and his staff agree to honor and protect in order to ensure that the kids can experience and appropriate these core values for themselves.

“I believe that, in life, we value the things that we can name.

And so, interpersonally, we want kids to know each others’ names, we want them to know the names of the staff, but we also want them to know the names of the tree species that are out here, or the names of the salamander,” Covert said. “It is my belief that if they know the names of the species of the trees out here, maybe they will be less likely to bust off twigs from a tree. Because they can name it, our hope is that maybe they will value it a little more.”

Covert believes that one of the camp’s biggest strengths is its commitment to guiding the discovery of the hope of the Gospel.

“You cannot come through the gates of any Salvation Army camp and leave the same person you entered as,” Covert said.

“God’s power and presence is alive and evident in the created order of what you see around you when you come into these places.

Our greatest strength is to be able to give to people and to introduce them to the creator of all. Being in a position to guide people’s discovery of who God can be in their life is one of our biggest strengths.”

Making a difference in a child’s life is what Covert loves to see the most. He views the week at camp as an opportunity to get away from anything and everything that is going on at home. Giving children the opportunity to put their worries behind them, even if it is for a short amount of time, is something that brings out a lot of emotion in Covert.

“We give these kids a week at childhood, and many of them need to be able to just be a kid and do kid stuff and not have to worry about the issues at home,” Covert said. “If we do not do anything else for these kids but give them a week to just be a kid, to do kid stuff, to have fun, run, be free, free of any of the adult responsibilities… If we do not do anything else for them, I hope that we can at least do that.”|NFC

Campers play basketball and learn archery at Redwood Glen camp. \Photos courtesy of Redwood Glen Camp

You cannot come through the gates of any Salvation Army camp and leave the same person you entered as.’ ­—ED COVERT

Page 4—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

Sept. 11 brought Giovanny Guerrero to The Salvation Army.

CALLED TO ACTION

BY STEPHANIE JONES

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he Salvation Army’s own Giovanny Guerrero is indeed one of New York’s finest.

His journey with The Salvation Army is interwoven with a day honored by remembrance and service.

After passing Brooklyn Bridge station on Sept. 11, 2001, Guerrero heard on a train what many New Yorkers dread—an announcement.

“I was actually on the last train that got there and I remember the conductor saying, ‘There’s an emergency going on. The next stop will be the last stop.’ And then he said, ‘What used to be two, now is one,’” Guerrero said. “When I got there—actually we went through the tunnel to get to the exit to the street—one tower was already hit. I guess the conductor considered it done.

But in the middle of chaos, people were running toward uptown.

I did the opposite.”

Guerrero used to work at a chiropractic office near the World Trade Center. In fact, he had an interview the next day with Cantor Fitzgerald, where his cousin worked. She was already at work that day and Guerrero went to find her. Then the second plane hit.

“It was total chaos,” Guerrero said. “So no one could go in but there was a lot of action going out. Only fire trucks were [coming] in. Some of The Salvation Army trucks were already lining up on the Westside Highway. I was just helping out with whoever needed me to deal with the other [people]. I worked there for that afternoon until about four or five in the morning assisting firefighters, moving debris, and also working with other nurses and doctors that came on site to clean the eyes of some the rescue workers.”

For three weeks, Guerrero gave out water, sandwiches and rides using Salvation Army vans to aid workers, rescue personnel, and other volunteers. As a familiar face who knew the area and was present at ground zero, he often returned to volunteer. But after missing a van to Far Rockaway, he was asked to coordinate a Thanksgiving dinner event instead. And the position paid.

“So, I started working for The Salvation Army,” Guerrero said.

“I started working toward the Thanksgiving event. So, the social services coordinator said, ‘Listen. We’re going to have a site and the site needs to be BMCC [Borough of Manhattan Community College], which is in the lower side of Manhattan, right across from the place where I was working. So I said, ‘I know the area.’

It was like going back to the same site where I was working.”

The organization’s significance at ground zero continued long after the streets were cleared. While coordinating 289 volunteers and food for 800 people, Guerrero got a call from a woman who pleaded with him to let her serve at the Thanksgiving event. She said it was the only place she felt comfortable. Despite maxed out attendance and having to serve meals outside because the

The cross that stood over ground zero.

Right: A Salvation Army canteen parked nearby served recovery workers.

venue closed early, Guerrero couldn’t turn away someone who really wanted to be there. At the end of the night, her father spoke to him.

“He said, ‘Thank you so much. What you did means the world to me.’ And I said, ‘How so?’ And he goes, ‘Well, that lady that came in to serve. She actually came late—I’m her father as you know—because she went to the Thanksgiving Day Parade to take her daughter. It was actually something that her husband and her used to do ever since the girl was born.’ She was about 4 or 5 years old. And she said she wanted to come here because this was the only place she felt comfortable to be because it was the closest place to where her husband died.’

“Right in that moment,” Guerrero said, “I realized that that if I would had said no to that last call, maybe I would have stolen someone’s joy.”

Moved by how the Army impacted lives, Guerrero continued to work in the social services department at The Salvation Army until about 2005 when he became a city caseworker in domestic violence situations. But he was called back to the organization when a friend and captain at The Salvation Army passed away.

A few days before he died, he asked Guerrero to give a sermon.

Four months later, Guerrero became an assistant and is now an auxiliary captain in The Salvation Army.

Even though the city has constantly changed since he moved there in 70s, Guerrero holds onto his faith and takes life one day at a time.

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 5

“When you become part of history yourself and you see the transition going on, it’s kind of hard for you to formulate an idea or an opinion because time changes,” he said. “But I do tell you this, though. Some of us have forgotten what went on back then and sometimes are a little bit tested about the needs and the pain and the scars that people still have and are there from Sept. 11.

“But other people that went through it, like myself, we pay attention to what goes on,” Guerrero said. “Of course, with everything happening in the city and everything happening in the world, the only thing we can actually do is just try to make the best that we can with what we have and try to resolve each issue as it comes.”

Guerrero currently serves at Queens Temple in Jackson Heights, where services include clothing distribution and a food pantry.

“People should know that The Salvation Army isn’t just there to be there,” Guerrero said. “I see The Salvation Army as a blessing, a bridge of communication, and an institution that is actually there when people really need it. People can actually trust The Salvation Army and it’s full of people who are willing to work and willing to serve. Mind you, that when you come and volunteer at The Salvation Army, you don’t get anything in return.

“But the experiences that you have, it helps us to carry on,” he said. “Like myself, I started doing one thing and look where I am now. If you ask me, most of my experiences, most of my connections with the people I have met are because of The Salvation Army, because they served on Sept. 11, and because I allowed myself to just forget about me and start serving others without asking anything in return. I think that people should be aware when they assist The Salvation Army, they are not only serving or helping for a moment but they’re helping for the future as well.”|NFC Giovanny Guerrero |Photo by Ester Rosamilia

People should know that The Salvation Army isn’t just there to be there. I see The Salvation Army as a blessing, a bridge of communication, and an institution that is actually there when people really need it.

People can actually trust The Salvation Army and it’s full of people who are willing to work and willing to serve.’

—GIOVANNY GUERRERO

Page 6—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

Over 2 in 3 adults are considered to be overweight or obese and about 1 in 3 children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are considered to be overweight or obese, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association’s 2012 study.

‘ReFresh’ CONFRONTS OBESITY The Salvation Army offers Sacramento residents healthy options.

BY SYDNEY FONG Eating healthy can be challenging, especially if it’s more expensive.

The Salvation Army of Sacramento partnered with Raley’s Food For Families to offset the high costs of nutritious food for Sacramento residents.

The two organizations handed out fresh fruits and vegetables, along with groceries already provided by The Salvation Army, to 75 families at The Salvation Army Family Services Center in Sacramento on July 29.

“The Salvation Army is happy to partner with Raley’s to launch this fresh food program,” said Major Ray Yant, Sacramento county coordinator.

“I think what Raley’s is doing is fantastic for the lives of the kids in our community. We believe that if there’s a chance to provide families a more wellrounded meal, then we should do it.”

Raley’s formed the ReFresh pilot program in June to make high-quality, healthy foods accessible to children and ultimately counter obesity.

“Our finances are limited, so it’s not always an option to have fresh fruit and vegetables every month,” said Kelly, a mother of two girls.

“This is super important to their growth, to being healthy and well balanced.”

A meta-review of 27 studies in 10 countries, published in the British Medical Journal, found that unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day, or about $550 per year, than healthy food. The review, however, examines an exceptionally healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and fish against one replete with processed foods, meats and grains—making for a relatively inflated contrast.

Furthermore, the added $550 per year fails to consider the long-term healthcare costs of a poor diet. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association 2012 study. The medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer—some of the leading causes of preventable death, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Food For Families plans to reach more of its approximately 70 partner food banks throughout Sacramento and Placer Counties, said Jennifer Teel-Wolter, Raley’s community relations manager.

“We really started to look at how can we make a greater impact,” Teel-Wolter said. “We saw a link between families in need and a poor diet. So we decided to have our Food for Families program refreshed with fresh fruit and vegetables and find a way to get healthy nutrition to people who need it the most.

“The Salvation Army is one of our longest and most important Food for Families partners, and it’s wonderful to see the shared partnership of really doing good in our community.”|NFC

TEACHING LIFE SKILLS New Salvation Army garden brings Tacoma community together.

BY KELSIE ATKINS Digging in the dirt may not seem like the place to learn life skills and meet others in the community, but that’s exactly the case in Tacoma, Wash.

The Salvation Army Tacoma Corps Community Center opened its first ever community garden this year through the SHIELD program, which stands for safe housing, healthy habits, increase habits, increase assets, encourage relationships, life skills and developmental assets.

“The community garden is an inexpensive way to get people around the community involved and help our clients see that they can make a change,” said Major Donald Sheppard, Tacoma Corps officer. “Clients are trying to change their lives and grow as people. The garden provides all the resources to help them start making those changes.”

The Tacoma Chamber of Commerce sponsors the garden while McLendon Hardware helps provide clients with new relationships, life skills and confidence. Gardening has brought the Pierce County community together and strengthened ties between The Salvation Army and community members. Residents from all backgrounds collaborate to produce fresh fruits and vegetables for themselves, as well as The Salvation Army food bank and shelter.

|Photos by Martha Sheppard

“The community garden helps clients to increase their skillset and witness something they are able to do themselves,” Sheppard said. “It promotes self-esteem and does wonders for their sense of value.”

SHIELD instructs clients to grow and maintain fruits and vegetables in their own gardens, which they can then donate to The Salvation Army shelter and food bank. Each participating veteran receives one free garden bed. Clients can also teach classes, depending on their prior gardening experience.

“There are 30 garden beds total,” Sheppard said.

“This helps our client’s welfare, not only physically but also psychologically and spiritually.”|NFC

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 7

Yarnell continues rebuilding a year later

Community and local organizations unite to restore the city

I

t has been over a year since the Yarnell Hill Fire, the deadliest wildfire in Arizona history.

The fire became infamous on June 30, 2013, when it killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots as they fought the blaze, and burned 8,400 acres, destroying more than 100 homes in the community.

“Receiving the text about the tragic loss of life was the last text anyone would want to receive two days prior to arriving at their first appointment as the corps officer of Prescott and as a new lieutenant,” said Lt. Elaine Mansoor, Prescott corps officer.

The Salvation Army immediately deployed an Emergency Disaster Services team to help meet the needs in Prescott, serve those fighting the fire, assist in the services for the 19 fallen firefighters, and aid in the recovery of the Yarnell community.

“An answered prayer arrived on welcoming Sunday when [Divisional Leaders] Lt. Colonels Joe and Shawn Posillico introduced us to Jack Clitheroe and Karen Vail who were new to the area,” Mansoor said.

Both Clitheroe and Vail had previous experience in Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services, including Hurricane Katrina, floods in Alaska and California wildfires.

Clitheroe volunteered as a liaison and Vail became emergency disaster administrative assistant.

When Yavapai County opened the affected area to residents, Vail was immediately stationed there to provide case management.

“The sense of community was evident from the first day the roads were opened as residents ran into each other’s arms in tears, rejoicing,” Mansoor said. “The last time they had seen each other was when one of them went running through the neighborhood pounding on doors telling people they needed to leave. Now, maybe their houses were gone but they were okay.”

The Salvation Army offered food, cleanup kits, grocery gift cards and other short-term needs, along with its ministry of presence.

Yarnell residents immediately jumped into action and formed a Yarnell Hill Recovery Group to assist in the rebuilding of this community, focusing not on the past but on the future. Stakeholder and community meetings took place three times a week. The Salvation Army participated in the stakeholder meetings along with the state, county and participants of the Yarnell Hill Recovery Group to discuss how to best meet the needs of the community, moving from short-term to long-term needs.

“The Salvation Army has been credited for being at all the meetings early on,” Mansoor said. “It gave people a place and face to turn to. [It] was not just a phone call away, but was made up of real people who became familiar and reliable to the community.”

Workers developed a three-phase recovery plan. First, rebuilding homes for the uninsured; second, assisting the underinsured residents; and third, meeting unmet needs following the first two phases. Yarnell is currently in the second phase.

Of the 127 homes destroyed, 42 building permits have been issued so far—half of which are cleared for occupancy.

These were funded by United Way of Yavapai County, Arizona Community Foundation, The Salvation Army and other private donations.

| Courtesy of The Salvation Army Southwest Division

Chuck Tidey, Yarnell Chamber of Commerce president and chair of the Yarnell Hill Recovery Group, said this accomplishment and the speed at which it occurred is most meaningful to him, crediting the interagency collaboration and everyone’s ability to remain focused on the goal of getting people back into homes as soon as possible.

“Everybody said, ‘We’ve got to pull together,’” Tidey said.

In collaboration with Joan Brown, case manager at the Arizona Division of Emergency Management, The Salvation Army addressed many individual needs of residents, allowing the recovery group a bit more breathing room to focus on the bigger picture.

“As a community I see [the residents] working really, really hard and strong to honor the firefighters who lost their lives. One way to do that is to bring the town back strong,” Brown said. “What’s brought them together is their grief and determination. This tragedy has changed them in a way that they are now connected to each other by a bond that will last their entire lives.”

Army representatives continue to attend meetings in Yarnell during the long-term recovery process, and are available to assist with unmet needs. In addition, The Salvation Army in Prescott is active in the newly formed Yavapai County Volunteer Organizations Assisting in Disasters (VOAD) with a representative as the vice-chair and is participating with the county and other organizations in the development of the county’s emergency operations plan.

“One year later, we thank God for his provisions, which include the right people to assist and resources allowing The Salvation Army to assist this community to rebuild and become even stronger,” Mansoor said. “Looking back...a community that lost homes is now stronger than before.”|NFC

What’s brought them together is their grief and determination.

This tragedy has changed them in a way that they are now connected to each other by a bond that will last their entire lives.’ ­—JOAN BROWN

Page 8—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

New housing complex opens in Modesto Bennett Place provides homes for people with mental health disabilities The Stanislaus County Affordable Housing Corp. (STANCO) recently expanded its low-income community housing efforts with Bennett Place, a new residence complex in Modesto, Calif., for individuals with mental health disabilities.

“The project is designed to provide permanent supportive housing for folks who have mental health disabilities, and in terms of the supportive housing that means that not only do they have a safe and strong housing environment but there’s also an array of supportive services that will be available,” said Stephen Madison, executive director at STANCO and Salvation Army Modesto Citadel Corps Advisory Board member.

According to Madison, the idea for this came about a few years ago after representatives from housing agencies, the city of Modesto and Stanislaus County met to create a 10-year plan to eradicate homelessness and found that not enough housing existed for people with mental health disabilities. STANCO contributed 50 additional housing units for these efforts, 18 of which are at Bennett Place.

In addition to housing, Bennett Place provides case management through

county staff and a community center offering a variety of resources including clinical assistance and training in job and life skills, such as applying for and receiving benefits and financial and household income management.

“The community center is a place where they can interact with other residents and their families, and the ultimate goal is to provide a structured environment where they can integrate into society in a way that they’re productive,” Madison said.

The city of Modesto and Stanislaus County funded the project. Stanislaus County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services refers residents for housing who will pay $270 in rent each month.

“Ideally, we would like to house people as long as necessary to get them to the next run of the ladder, whether they go into a different rental situation or purchase their own home,” Madison said. “We want to get them integrated back into society to where they have employment and the ability to manage their own finances, that they have their illness well in hand, and can move on with their lives.”

Bennett Place is named after former

Salvation Army Modesto Citadel Advisory Board Member Bart Bennett.

“We named that complex after Bart Bennett because he was a champion for the disadvantaged in the community and a champion for affordable housing,” Madison said.

“He dedicated his life to helping others and we felt that this was a fitting tribute to [him].”

The Salvation Army in Modesto will help Bennett Place tenants with various resources, including rehabilitation services, food and clothing bank services and emergency utility assistance.

Madison said he hopes that Bennett Place will not only be a housing facility, but a place for residents to develop the confidence they need to progress.

“We want to ensure that [residents] have a safe and wholesome environment where [they] will feel comfortable to live and advance on their life goals,” Madison said. “This provides stable and comfortable housing so that we can move on in addressing the other issues that they may have in their life.” |NFC

Program connects with local tribes and pueblos

Albuquerque ARP reaches out to Native Americans Acknowledging the population of more than 38,000 Native Americans in Bernalillo County, The Salvation Army in Albuquerque, N.M., is extending its Adult Rehabilitation Program (ARP) outreach to local tribes and pueblos.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, American Indians and Alaska Natives account for 10.4 percent of the New Mexico population. The state contains 19 Native American pueblos and three reservations, including the Navajo Nation.

“Native Americans in New Mexico are a large and important part of our state makeup,” said Major Joyce Takeuchi, Salvation Army Bernalillo County/ Albuquerque city coordinator.

The Albuquerque ARP offers support to all men in surrounding neighborhoods wishing to overcome a problem, including alcohol and drug abuse. Like other Salvation Army ARPs and adult rehabilitation centers, it offers not only counseling and education, but also work therapy and spiritual components through Bible study and chapel services.

According to the New Mexico Department of Health’s 2013 Substance Abuse State Epidemiology Profile, 10.73 percent of individuals over age 12 reported having an alcohol or illicit drug dependence in Bernalillo County alone.

“New Mexico has a high rate of alcohol and drug abuse,” Takeuchi said. “Although there are several good

rehab programs in the area, they are on a fee basis. The state offers several programs also, but these are often overcrowded. We work with men who need our help, but do not have the resources to pay for rehab.”

Takeuchi said that the ARP connects to Native Americans by contacting the probation departments and detention centers of the neighboring tribes and pueblos with program information. Others are referred to the ARP by the court system, while some choose to seek residential treatment on their own.

“Most of the men are eager to participate in the program, stating that they are thankful for the opportunity to turn their lives around,” said Kelly Patterson, ARP intake counselor. “Upon graduation, the men thank us for saving their lives and providing them with the tools for a new way of living.”

Takeuchi said 25 to 30 percent of the residents are Native American and have an above average graduation rate.

The Albuquerque ARP has most of its success with men from the Navajo nation and the Zuni Pueblo, and Takeuchi said they will continue to talk with the other pueblos and provide resources for recovery when they call.

“We hope to continue to make inroads into the Native American community,” Takeuchi said. “It is a very slow effort, but we hope that as we have success with their men that this will encourage them to use us more.”|NFC

ILLICIT DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE BY AMERICAN INDIAN OR ALASKAN NATIVE IN THE U.S. ILLICIT DRUGS

13.4 12.7

ALCOHOL

44.7 44.7 41.7

10.1

PERCENT OF POPULATION

2002 2011 2012

Source: cdc.gov

PERCENT OF POPULATION

|Photo courtesy of Statesman Journal

Inmates build new beds for shelter The Salvation Army Lighthouse Shelter gets help from Oregon Corrections Enterprises The Salvation Army Lighthouse Shelter in Salem, Ore., will soon be able to serve its maximum number of 83 individuals.

After closing for renovations in summer 2013, it reopened in January but couldn’t operate at capacity because the top bunks of donated beds couldn’t handle an adult’s weight.

The Salvation Army looked for a local partner to help solve the problem, and found a work program for inmates.

“When I contacted Brad Atkins with Oregon Corrections Enterprises I immediately knew this is who we wanted building our beds,” said Melissa Baurer, director of social services for The Salvation Army in Salem. “They understood the need for heavy duty, quality, long-lasting beds.”

Inmates are building new bunk beds that they plan to deliver and set up this summer.

“Their hard work is benefiting one of the most vulnerable populations, the homeless,” Baurer said. “At the same time they are benefiting by learning skills that will allow them to transition from prison to our community with valuable experience needed to find work and have stability—something our residents are striving toward.”

Donations covered half the $55,000 cost; the remainder came from the Army’s general fund.

The Army will donate the lighter-weight bunk beds to programs serving local youth.

Since 1966, The Lighthouse Shelter has provided the community with six-month temporary housing for individuals, rescuing them from homelessness and offering them the opportunity to get back on their feet.|NFC

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 9

Sometimes ministry W is all faith,

no logic

BY JEFF WALTERS, CADET

Cadet shares

his summer

experience on

assignment in Chuuk.

Top: Sunset on the island of Chuuk Middle: Cadet Jeff Walters spends time with children living on the island.

Bottom: Cadets Jeff and Maryellen Walters |Photos courtesy of Jeff and Maryellen Walters

arm rain trickled down as we trekked into the jungle. Believe it or not, we were making a routine home visit. Our surroundings became denser and more difficult the farther we went. At times the trail was so thick with greenery that my feet disappeared beneath it all, and soon I began to wonder, “How did I get here?”

Majors Jaime and Lilia Macayana led us past the outdoor toilet and under the clothesline to the front door, where Maryellen, my wife, and I kicked off our sandals before entering.

Contrasting the kind of living room we’re used to, this Chuukese family had exactly nothing but the swept laminate floor. There was no television. No couch or carpet. As we sat on the floor in a spirit of fellowship, I could see the earth beneath the wooden floor panels. Yet, despite their humble living conditions something else caught my attention—their smiles.

They were joyful and thankful for the presence of The Salvation Army.

Chuuk has a lot to see. If you look hard enough online you will see plenty of images revealing its crystal blue waters, private picnic islands and lush green mountains. These things are real, but what you will not see online is the hardship the people endure in one of the poorest states of Micronesia. As my wife and I stepped off the plane into the humidity of Weno, Chuuk’s central island, we soon discovered that reality.

Welcome to our summer assignment.

It was a unique sort of cadet training experience given the uncertainty of exactly what God was going to show us. As our vehicle dipped and bounced around potholes I looked hard at my new surroundings. Miniature shacks were set up for selling local goods. Slightly larger stores looked old and torn. No malls, no Starbucks, sometimes no toilet. We were far, far from home.

We were only there for a full two days before something went wrong. The Chuuk corps family kindly invited us to a barbeque where I ate something my stomach didn’t entirely recognize.

Later that night I became seriously ill. The following 10 days

were plagued with fevers and other gross experiences, but worst of all were the tears of my wife, who cared for me in those dark moments. The darkness, though, provided us with an opportunity—either we go forward in faith or seek a safer, more comfortable path. In hindsight, I am grateful that we stayed the course.

God gave us victory because we didn’t give up.

I find a portion of that victory in the memory of Wichap Outpost, an outreach of The Salvation Army in a village nestled on the side of Weno’s largest mountain. In order to get there one has to wait for a reasonably dry day and risk wrecking a vehicle, for there is no road. There is no logic behind it all, just faith. It’s like hiking, except on wheels. On our first journey there I remember holding on for my life as the vehicle tossed me around.

Eventually, Major Jaimie said, “Here we are!” and I leaned forward in awe, lowering the window to the sound of children singing so joyfully that it echoed from a distance. When we sat at the table prepared for us they crowned our heads with local flowers and offered a fresh coconut with a straw poked into it. “Yep,” I thought, “This is really happening.” It’s like heaven but with the sort of humidity that can put you to sleep. I’d sleep with a smile, if that were the case.

The adventure of serving in Chuuk this summer opened my eyes to brokenness and poverty, but also joy and the victory of perseverance. I’ve seen the most beautiful culture shine through rough circumstances—kids with machetes turning to Christ and families learning to harvest crops—all at The Salvation Army. But it would only be a dream had we not trusted in the Lord. Sure, we might see a few things along the way, but it was only because we had faith enough to keep going. |NFC

Page 10—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014 Veterans meet with Veterans Employment Services Center career development specialists to determine their ideal career path. |Courtesy of The Salvation Army Southern California Division

Haven Veterans Employment Services expands Recent grants and awards allow outreach in the San Fernando Valley.

BY VIVIAN GATICA Underemployed and unemployed veterans in Los Angeles comprised 6.6 percent of jobless veterans in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Salvation Army Southern California Haven Veterans Employment Services program (formerly the Return to Work program) has worked since 2009 to link the veterans to jobs.

To do so, the Veterans Employment Services Career Development Specialists partner individually with veterans to identify a career path matched to their strengths, qualifications and interests. The program provides pre- and post-employment counseling

and coaching, as well as training in job searches. It connects veterans to employers and housing resources while also providing resumé and interviews skills training.

“We’ll meet them wherever they’re at—whatever their barriers, needs or interests,” said Lisa Anderson, Veterans Employment Services program manager.

At its outset, the program was fully funded by the U.S Department of Labor’s Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program grant, but the need to expand to include at-risk veterans became apparent.

“We really saw a need to do some homeless prevention—to work with veterans who were precariously housed and, due to either unemployment or underemployment, were at risk of becoming homeless,” Anderson said. “Veterans atrisk of losing their housing may fall into depression and spiral into mental health issues, substance abuse and homelessness.”

Through a grant from the Carl and Roberta Deutsch Foundation, The Salvation Army program expanded its efforts to serve. The program then doubled the number of veterans it could serve after receiving the Call of Duty Endowment’s 2013 Seal of Distinction award and its accompanying $30,000—as well as a $300,000 grant that they were eligible to apply for after receiving the award.

Veterans Employment Services learned of the Call of Duty Endowment after one of its veteran clients obtained employment at the video game company Activision Blizzard. Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, founded the endowment in response to the growing need of jobs for veterans.

“The endowment’s mission is to fund quality veterans’ employments services agencies, like ours, to increase the capacity to help more veterans gain meaningful employment,” said Linda Broughton, Veterans Employment Services relationship manager. “They really vetted us. They only choose a handful of agencies across the country so we were extremely grateful that they chose us.”

This allowed The Haven’s Veterans Employment Services to open an office and hire three career development specialists at the San Fernando Valley Corps in Van Nuys, Calif., to serve veterans in North Los Angeles County.

“We felt that it was a really underserved area,” Anderson said. “Right now we’re focusing on really ramping up...and getting the word out to all of the veterans.”

She also said that they chose this location because of the large population of veterans moving there for affordable housing. In a little over two months, since opening the office to the public in June, the Van Nuys office has already provided employment services to more than 60 at-risk veterans.

“Veterans, from the Vietnam era through to currently transitioning veterans many times don’t quite know where to go to get the services they need. Some fall into a downward spiral and end up being one of the 40,000 homeless veterans that are on the streets of LA,” Anderson said. “Our services allow us to preemptively engage at-risk veterans now so that they do not become a sad statistic in the future and so they can achieve the high quality of life that they deserve.”|NFC

OREGON VETERANS CENTER REACHES OUT TO FAMILIES The Salvation Army facility offers resources, while keeping families together.

BY TERESA STEINMETZ The Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center in Beaverton, Ore., provides support to veterans from the World Wars to those who recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Multnomah County alone, 11 percent of homeless individuals are veterans, affecting 220 households. In Washington County, there are 94 veteran households listed as homeless.

Rick Stoller, executive director at The Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center, has worked in veterans services for six years, and over time has watched the need for veterans services rise. That is why, in 2011, he helped move this veterans program from downtown Portland to a suburb that offered the family atmosphere needed for it to grow.

The Veterans and Family Center is the only grant per-diem program in the area that provides shelter and case management services to both veterans and their families.

“It is necessary so veterans do not have to choose between breaking up their families and receiving services,” Stoller said. “The Salvation Army has a long history of supporting families, [and] this is merely another example of that commitment.”

Since 2011, the shelter has been at capacity with an average wait list of 20 family units, meaning that all 60 rooms in the facility are in use, helping reorient veterans and their families into civilian life.

The veterans receive assistance with employment and housing, opportunities to further skills such as time and money management, and support in navigating the U.S Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) system to redeem veteran benefits.

According to Stoller, the focus of the center is to address the issues that resulted in homelessness, increase veterans’ income, and secure permanent housing for the veteran and his or her family. Other goals include addressing spiritual needs, supporting all clients from a Trauma-Informed Care model, developing a community of support, and

maintaining a safe and peaceful environment for veterans and their families to heal and grow.

He hopes to expand these services to include childcare and alternative models of treatment, and increase the program’s visibility within the community.

“It has helped me live in a pleasant, safe and healthy environment while striving to make a successful transition for my life, and being independent,” one client said. Another added, “More than anything it has given me hope for a brighter future, and having stability has helped me help myself.”|NFC

Oregon Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center emphasizes family unity, while giving them the resources they need to get back on their feet.

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 11

Brianne Zelinsky looks toward Syria from the top of Mount Bental. Below: The group enjoys a camel ride through the desert hills.

A SHINING LIGHT

|Photos courtesy of The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory

Finding purpose as a disciple on a trip to the Holy Land

BY BRIANNE ZELINSKY

“W

elcome to the Holy Land and, most importantly, welcome home.”

Our tour guide, Tamar, smiled as she led us out of the airport in Tel Aviv and into the light of the Promised Land.

We were a group of 20 Salvationists from the Ontario Central-East Division who received funding for a trip to Israel and London, England, through the generous donation of a Salvationist from Toronto. I was elated to learn that the purpose of the pilgrimage was to connect young Salvationists to the roots of their faith by visiting the lands where Jesus and William Booth had ministered.

Israel, though scarce in fresh water, is blessed with an abundance of agriculture and is home to thousands of years of excavated history. Tamar’s welcoming remarks were true—I did feel at home on the cascading terrain of the Holy Land.

While on the tour, I walked the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, swam in the Sea of Galilee, floated in the Dead Sea and kayaked down the Jordan River.

Yet what had the greatest effect on me were not these adventures, but the moments where I stood in darkness. It was then that I felt God working in me.

Darkness first enveloped us when our group ventured 130 feet below the City of David in Jerusalem to walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which was constructed more than 2,000 years ago to access fresh water. When I was about halfway through this stone tunnel, the eeriness of the space hit me and left me cold. As the stone walls narrowed and the water level rose, so did my anxiety.

Suddenly, I heard a voice singing at the back of the tunnel. As the song made its way up the

line, the volume swelled, harmonies echoed off the walls, and anyone walking through there would have heard our jubilant voices belting out the chorus of “This Little Light of Mine.”

That little light overcame the darkness.

Later, we found ourselves descending again, this time underneath the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. The church and its lower cavity, also known as the Sacred Pit, are located on the slope of Mount Zion. This pit is the holding cell where Jesus was imprisoned on the night of his arrest.

The cell was a cold, dimly lit stone dungeon with a hole carved in the ceiling. Prior to modern additions, the pit did not have any windows as a source of light, and there were no stairs descending to the bottom. It is believed that Jesus was lowered through the hole in the ceiling by a rope harness.

It was a humbling experience to stand at the bottom of the pit and imagine the pain that Christ suffered while in captivity.

As our group gathered in a circle and reflected on the words of the chorus “Above All,” “He lived to die, rejected and alone,” I was disturbed by the thought that the Light of the World, someone so pure in heart, could be rejected by those he loved and cast into a pit of darkness. And then I was struck by the realization that I have also denied him, and he went to the cross anyway. Standing there in my own shame, I wept for him, knowing that in that place thousands of years ago, he probably wept for me, too.

Yet, somehow, even that cold dungeon could not compare to the darkness I witnessed at the peak of Mount Bental. While there, I could turn to my left and look out on the colorful canvas of Israel and, to my right, the dry land of Syria where rolls

of detonated bombs and shell blasts sounded in the distance.

Many of us paused and stood in silence as the conflict roared below. As much as I had heard of the unrest in Syria over the years, my heart broke knowing that while I was safe on a mountaintop, people on the ground were dying.

“Would you pray for the Syrians, Israelis and my family?”

Tamar requested before we left. Our group stood together and prayed for peace throughout Syria and the surrounding countries, for political reconciliation, and that God would heal the nation and restore the lives of its people.

Walking away from the site, I felt stung—completely helpless. But just before I got back to the bus, I spotted a growth of poppies lining the hillside. This simple sign, affirming that our prayers were heard, lifted my spirits as I remembered that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. We serve a God who is alive, who has never left the Holy Land and who will never leave us.

Throughout the pilgrimage, and in that moment of heartbreak, I gained a new understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. For me, it means striving to emulate Christ, not simply by walking where he has walked, but by giving off a light that no darkness can stand against. The Scripture verse, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matt. 5:14), has stuck with me since that day. Whether we are standing on a mountain or in a trench of darkness, hundreds of feet below the earth, God can use us, through our acts of prayer and praise, to glorify him and be a shining light to those around us.|NFC —From Salvationist (Canada & Bermuda Territory)

Page 12—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

Salvation Army clinic provides health services for Paraguayan women and children.

|Photo courtesy of Major Gladys Barrios

A HOPE FOR HEALTH

I

n response to the lack of medical services in the Villa Laurelty neighborhood of San Lorenzo in Paraguay, The Salvation Army established the Tekokatú Medical Clinic.

“The Tekokatú Clinic was formed as a response to the need for medical attention, especially for women and children who live in extreme poverty,” said Major Gladys Barrios, director of the clinic.

The Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook indicates that in addition to 34.7 percent of Paraguay’s population living below the poverty line, the physician density is only 1.11 physicians per 1,000 and the hospital bed density is 1.3 per 1,000 of the population.

“Much inequality exists socially [in Paraguay], and the health system of the country is not enough to meet the needs of the population,” Barrios said. “The Tekokatú Clinic opened its doors in 1998, offering love through actions, creating a space where people could be helped, and facilitating access to the health needs of our community.”

Clinic resources include medical and psychological services, nutritional guidance, family planning, help with domestic violence prevention and police complaints, and assistance in filing paperwork for identification documents.

Takokatú Clinic staff administer general medical

consultations, and the clinic’s psychologist also conducts group therapy sessions with women in the program.

In addition to monitoring the physical and mental health of the women and children, the clinic offers nutrition services to prevent future illnesses. It does this through its Leche and Avena (Milk and Oatmeal) program for underweight, malnourished babies and children up to age 2. The program helps 20 babies and children each year, starting in March with the goal of getting them to a healthy weight by December.

Participants of Leche and Avena and their mothers receive milk, oatmeal, eggs, fruit, and vegetables at each Friday session. The mothers involved in this program must complete certain requirements, including checking in with the infirmary to make sure they are a healthy weight for their height, and participating in educational programs in nutrition, family planning and music.

The clinic also offers workshops in hairdressing, cooking, and making cleaning products for participants who wish to gain these skills for the workforce.

“People have responded positively to the work of the clinic,” Barrios said. “They value the way they are helped, and the interest that all of the staff have toward all the patients’ of the clinic, as well as those they encounter in community visits.”

According to Barrios, the community of Villa Laurelty has improved significantly in the areas of health and education since the clinic opened. She said women are now seeking medical assistance when giving birth instead of doing so at home, and mothers are also learning the importance of vaccinating their children.

Barrios said, “My hopes for the future are that because of the work of the clinic, people living in extreme poverty can be transformed in their way of thinking, change their habits, and understand that by educating themselves and looking for the help of God, a better life is possible.”|NFC

Filling bowls, fighting hunger

BY CARAMIE SCHNELL Each day, The Salvation Army fills empty bowls for hungry people around the country.

It’s a fitting name then for an event that helps to fill the Vail Valley Salvation Army’s coffers each year.

For the sixth year, the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser took place in a high school cafeteria in Edwards, 20 minutes west of Vail, Colo., in mid-August. The event draws around 400 people and raises roughly $15,000 each year, however, it does more than attract charitable donations.

“It brings awareness to people about how much hunger there is in our community,” said Tsu Wolin-Brown, service center coordinator of The Salvation Army’s Vail Valley Service Extension.

For a $20 ticket, attendees first choose a pottery bowl from the hundreds that are handmade and donated by local artists and community members in the months preceding the event. Next, they grab a tray and line up for lunch. The meal is simple— bread, a bowl of soup and a tiny dessert torte.

Lunch may be styled after a soup kitchen, but the offerings are homemade in the kitchens of some of Vail’s best restaurants.

Options range from classic, like tomato basil, to the more creative, like corianderscented carrot or parsnip with bacon, brussels sprouts and calabrian peppers. All of the food and supplies are donated.

There’s also a silent auction, with gift

Volunteer Elaine Turnbull ladles up soup at the Empty Bowls fundraiser event held in Edwards, Colo., on August 12. Right: Gabrielle Leonardo and Lily Marion, both 9, take a break from clearing people’s trays to pick out their own bowls. |Photos by Caramie Schnell

certificates donated by local restaurants.

Volunteer Diana Mathias saw an Empty Bowls fundraiser take place in Taos, New Mexico, to raise funds for its local food bank. She loved the sense of community surrounding the event and, after a little research, learned that Empty Bowls is an international grassroots effort to fight hunger. The group encourages people to start new events wherever and whenever they’re able, and so Mathias brought the idea to Wolin-Brown and soon after the first Eagle County Empty Bowls event took place.

Similar fundraisers happen in cafeterias and soup kitchens in towns and cities across America, and in at least a dozen other countries, according to emptybowls. net. “Many millions of dollars have been raised and donated to hunger-fighting organizations,” according to the website.

The event draws some of the same volunteers and attendees year after year, but there were some new faces at this year’s event as well. Anne Anderson moved to the Vail area from Southern California in July and attended the event

for the first time as a volunteer.

“It’s a very unique way to raise funds to build awareness of the needs of the local residents and community,” she said.

Stephany Marreel, director of gift planning for the Intermountain Division, volunteered at the event, calling it unique.

“I had an inquiry about it from people in Phoenix recently,” she said. “It’s a growing trend, I think. It really draws the public in.

People get to fill an empty bowl and know that we fill empty bowls on a daily basis for people in need.”|NFC

SAWSO helps wipe out polio in Angola M

BY KAREN GLEASON

ost Americans don’t think about polio, a highly infectious disease caused by a virus and spread in unsanitary conditions, which can paralyze and sometimes kill its victims, who are usually children. The polio vaccine, first developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, effectively halts the spread of the disease if enough young children in a community receive it.

Polio was prevalent as a dreaded childhood illness in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century. According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the last recorded case of naturally occurring paralytic polio in the U.S. occurred in 1979.

In 1988, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the worldwide eradication of polio and launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Since then, new cases of polio have decreased by 99 percent—with GPEI recording just 406 new cases worldwide in 2013.

Yet according to the World Health Organization (WHO), as long as a single child is infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to completely eradicate the disease could result in as many as 200,000 new cases annually worldwide.

The Salvation Army is part of the fight to eradicate polio and other diseases, particularly by campaigning for strong participation in routine vaccination. In Angola, it works with WHO, UNICEF and the Red Cross, along with local partners, to assist the Angolan Ministry of Health (MOH) in planning, implementing and evaluating efforts to fight polio and other infectious diseases.

Through its polio project, The Salvation Army supports the Angolan MOH’s immunization and polio control efforts.

Salvation Army staff and volunteers do not administer immunizations; their primary role is to educate and mobilize people to bring their children to be immunized. To achieve this goal, they work with community leaders, traditional healers and individual households in assigned areas.

Funded by USAID and the Gates Foundation and with technical support from the Salvation Army World Service Office (SAWSO), the project covers specific, hard-to-reach areas of Angola; other partner organizations cover the rest of the country. Coordination with these partners and the MOH is another important aspect of the program, particularly in border areas to prevent the re-introduction of polio at border crossings.

In addition to polio vaccine and other routine immunizations, the SAWSO program helped introduce three newer vaccines in Angola to protect against deadly diseases including some types of pneumonia and meningitis, hepatitis B and a virus that causes life-threatening diarrhea in young children.

Salvation Army workers encourage community volunteers to be leaders in local health education efforts. During house-to-house visits, the volunteers inform mothers about the newly-available vaccines and urge them to take their children to be immunized and expectant mothers about available medical care.

During a recent technical support visit to Angola, Dr. Lisa Firth, SAWSO’s technical advisor for health, met with Salvation Army immunization volunteers, who expressed a desire to take on additional health problems that are plaguing their communities.

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 13

The Salvation Army works with other

groups toward universal immunization of children under age 5.

|Photo courtesy of The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory

Salvation Army responds to Ebola outbreak Canada and Bermuda Territory assists its African Partners in Mission countries.

House to house workers are prepped before being sent into the community to urge mothers to have their children immunized. |Photos courtesy of Angola Command

ANGOLA ROUTINE VACCINATIONS OVERALL

Firth witnessed volunteers presenting a skit about the importance of immunization. The role-play included an animated argument between a community mobilizer and a father who objected to immunizing his children.

“The enthusiasm of the volunteers and their willingness to tackle difficult subjects was inspiring,” Firth said. Her visit included meetings with health and government officials in two of the areas where The Salvation Army works.

“Every official I encountered expressed gratitude for the good work that The Salvation Army is doing,” she said. “Our success is opening the way for other, much-needed Salvation Army community development and education work in Angola—a country that does not always welcome such help.”

Angola, formerly an endemic country that registered 33 polio cases in 2010 and five polio cases in 2011, did not register a single case in 2012. According to SAWSO’s annual report, by the end of 2012 routine vaccination rates rose to 91 percent compared to 64 percent in 2008. |NFC

The Salvation Army is working against Africa’s recent Ebola outbreak—the most severe in recorded history in terms of human cases and with over 1,500 fatalities. Cases have occurred in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria.

The Canada and Bermuda Territory is partnered with Liberia and Sierra Leone in The Salvation Army’s Partner in Mission program, and responded to the emergency by providing sanitizer, chlorine and other sterilizing chemicals; gloves, mouth guards and safety buckets; food items including beans, rice and cooking oil; and protective wear for 200 medical professionals working with Ebola patients.

To prevent the spread of disease, the Liberian government shut down all schools, including Salvation Army schools.

“As a result of the outbreak of the Ebola virus, lots of people are leaving the country and offices and businesses are closing,” said a Liberian Salvationist. “Everyone is so scared. There is no one to trust because we don’t know who has the virus and who doesn’t. There is no food. How are we to survive when those places we get our necessities from are closed?”

The Salvation Army’s immediate goal is to prevent the disease from infecting people lacking the means to protect themselves.

In Liberia, the target locations include Monrovia, Lofa and Bong counties. Items are distributed through Liberia’s Ministry of Health, which safely transports them to remote areas. The William Booth Clinic in Monrovia will also receive supplies to distribute to patients, suspected Ebola patients, and others in the clinic and in the community, without discrimination.

The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory estimates that 6,000 people will be helped through its support.

The Salvation Army World Service Office has not yet received requests for emergency assistance, and any such request would come from International Headquarters Emergency Services. The Salvation Army is not active in Guinea, and Nigeria is partnered with the Switzerland, Austria and Hungary Territory.|NFC

Countries with confirmed Ebola cases

NIGERIA

Page 14—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

MUSICAL

FROM PAGE 1

rest of it is true Army stories from around history,” Karl Larsson said. “Hopefully they will be relatively obscure stories with all kinds of different themes from all periods.”

The stories featured in this musical will tie into the process of Booth writing this covenant that he wanted everyone at his funeral to sign.

“We got some [stories] from just a couple of years ago, some from back in the 1910 period, and then in between those we’ll jump back and see Booth wondering how the Army is going to be when he goes,” Larsson said. “He’s sick, he’s ill, he’s coming to the end, and he’s worried about what’s going to happen and that’s why he’s working on this covenant.”

As the musical is currently under development, Larsson said Banks is a “fountain of all Army knowledge and he helped us find all these stories and he knew ones that people didn’t know so much that deserved a wider story.

“I’ve been writing the script and I leave gaps in the songs and I describe what kind of song I want, [and] what needs to happen in the song,” Larsson said. “I hand it off to Keith, and then he writes the lyrics and we go back and forth on those. When we’re all happy we hand it over to Kevin and he writes the music.”

Casting for the musical was done a year in advance to meet the congress registration deadline.

Rehearsals, however, will begin in January 2015.

“We had to cast the play before hardly any of it was written with only having a vague idea of what the characters were going to be,” Larsson said.

“We’ve loosely cast all the main roles in our heads, and we have a really good cast. There’s some fun roles I think they’re going to enjoy playing.”

Larsson said that like the musical “Spirit! II: Empire”—which he previously wrote and directed for the Western Territory’s 2012 congress, The Gathering—the Boundless performance will make good use of technology, incorporating projection mapping for the sets and video interviews of the people actually involved in the more modern stories featured in the production.

“I’ve seen some of these interviews and it’s very humbling. Some of these people are just doing the Lord’s work and helping the Army, and we’re trying to tell their stories as part of the musical,” Larsson said. “We’re going to have a mix of good drama on stage and then we’re going to back that up with good use of technology and video [for] a multimedia experience.”

He wants people to be inspired by the stories in the musical.

“All of the stories seem to be a bit dramatic—some of them are going to have you at the edge of your seats—but all of them have a very strong message at the end, and that’s partly why we chose them,” Larsson said. “These stories are supposed to encourage the audience to be inspired and to go out and feel good about the Army and feel empowered and motivated to follow these great people.”

Larsson said that there is a deeper goal to this production.

“The idea behind this musical is based on this covenant that was in General William Booth’s funeral, and it was a way of people signing that commitment to the future of The Salvation Army,” he said. “We want people to come to the musical to be entertained, but also to be inspired [to] hopefully sign some sort of covenant of their own.”|NFC

PRESIDENT

FROM PAGE 1

When the President asked if there was anything he could do for The Salvation Army, the visitors stressed the importance of the charitable deduction, since most Army funding comes from private donations. They also suggested greater visibility from the White House by including the Army’s work in speeches like the State of the Union.

The Jeffreys and Busroes also met with several key staff members for over an hour, discussing Salvation Army programs and how the Army might better serve the needs of others in America and around the world.

“To conclude our meeting [with the President],” Jeffrey said, “I asked if we could pray with him and his family, and he readily and eagerly agreed.”|NFC

The Most Good Music Festival Proceeds will help The Salvation Army in Texas feed the hungry.

The Most Good Music Festival—a new event on the Texas music scene presented by The Salvation Army— premiered Sept. 6 at Fort Worth’s Panther Island Pavilion, Texas’s only waterfront stage, located on the banks of the Trinity River. The concert featured well-known country and folk performers, and proceeds will help The Salvation Army feed the hungry.

“The musical roots of The Salvation Army make this new event particularly meaningful,” said Major Ward Matthews, Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex commander.

Performers included Stoney LaRue, one of America’s best-known red dirt country artists, whose style combines Texas Swing, Kentucky Bluegrass, southern rock and even a little Tejano; Jack Ingram, a Texas-born songwriter and singer who has rocked roadhouses, theaters and stadiums since 1997; Mike and the Moonpies from Austin, Texas, well-known throughout the state for a signature sound that includes country and 70s rock classics; Folk Family Revival, with an Americana-folk-country sound; and Stewart Mann and the Statesboro Revue, with a reputation as the hardest-working, hardest-playing band around, combining several musical genres to create “rootsy Southern rock and roll.”

Launched in conjunction with The Salvation Army’s 125th anniversary in Texas, the concert aimed to raise

awareness of the Army’s services. This year alone, The Salvation Army will serve more than 1 million meals in Dallas-Fort Worth at a cost of more than $2 million. The organization also distributed 34,535 grocery orders last year to help struggling families put food on the table.

This year the Army in Texas is focusing on engaging a new generation of young supporters, inviting them to join its “Doing the Most Good” movement to make a difference in their communities.|NFC

PROMOTED TO GLORY Clifford “Cliff” John Dickinson, J r . , 77, was promoted to Glory July 28 from his home in Forest Grove, Ore. One of four children, Dickinson was born Sept.

22, 1936, in Walker, Minn., to Clifford, Sr., and Doris (McKinney) Dickinson. The family moved to Walla Walla, Wash., where Dickinson graduated from high school in 1956 and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving four years.

Dickinson met his future wife, Lynn Luke, at a café in Walla Walla and they wed in 1958. In 1969 they moved to Forest Grove. The pair owned the OK Auto Parts store in Cornelius, Ore., and ran it for over 20 years.

In 1985, the Dickinsons entered ministry with The Salvation Army as auxiliary captains and moved to Bend, Ore., as corps officers. They also served at corps in Reno,

5TH BIRTHDAY

Nev., and Albuquerque, N.M., and as chaplains at the Tucson Hospitality House until they retired in 2001.

After his retirement, Cliff became a part-time postal carrier in Sherwood, Ore., until 2004. He enjoyed outdoor activities, sports and reading, and loved spending time with family, especially his grandchildren.

Cliff is survived by his wife, Lynn: three brothers: Gary, Bill and, Mike; seven children: C. Brian (Robin) Dickinson, Daniel (Annette) Dickinson, Cindy (Barry) Shrum, Lori Dickinson, Shannon Pedrocelli, D. Levi Dickinson, Tatiana Dickinson; nine grandchildren and seven greatgrandchildren.

Donations in his honor can be made to The Salvation Army, the Hillsboro Nazarene World Evangelism Fund, or the American Heart Association.

A memorial service took place Aug. 10 at Hillsboro Nazarene Church, presided over by Pastor Bruce McCrite.

Dickinson’s brother, Major Bill Dickinson, gave the message.|NFC

FROM PAGE 1

encourage organizations, donors and government policy makers to continue to prioritize these issues so that we can continue to make greater progress in the future.”

Agencies that are involved with the “5th Birthday and Beyond” global network, especially members of the Host Committee, have their own programs related to child survival, so their efforts are not coordinated in the name of the coalition. The Salvation Army, for example, has an initiative called the Child Survival Program that works to provide health care necessities to children in poverty.

“The most recent project we did was in Zambia, a large-scale multimillion dollar project that we did over three years to ensure that all of the children in a certain region were meeting the health requirements necessary to survive their fifth birthday,” Swarts said. “That includes immunization, health education, referrals to proper medical care and nutritional support. The goal over that time period was to help raise the health status and health care for children in that specific region.”

This program is designed to empower communities in need by promoting sustainability and expanding access to life-saving care. Beyond supplying medical assistance, Salvation Army teams provide training to members of the community, so that they are able to identify when there are people at risk and act accordingly. “Whether [the problem] is financial, health-related or any other thing, we really seek to help people help themselves,” said Vince Dickens, communications manager at SAWSO. According to Swarts, the “5th Birthday and Beyond” movement does not have any further events or activities

planned. The coalition may reconvene in the future and follow up on the initial meeting, but as he pointed out, “It was really about this one event and raising awareness.”

Until then, The Salvation Army plans to continue to advance the cause of the coalition by providing aid to those who need it. SAWSO is currently supporting a child survival effort in the South America East territory.

“Our people around the world do incredible work in all areas. It’s just staggering to think of what our officers do with the resources we have,” Mockabee said. “We’re going to continue to give and invest where it will do the most good.” |NFC

FORMER OFFICERS RETREAT October 3-5 Redwood Glen Camp Featuring Personnel Secretary Lt. Col. Doug O’Brien Any former officer welcome to attend

Register now at uswestretreat.org

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE­—Page 15

Page 16—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

ILD SPO CH

ORSHIP NS

OVERSEAS

Graham, 5 years old, walks home from school in K ibera, Africa’s largest slum. He is fortunate. Most of the children in his school are AIDS orphans. Graham’s mom is HIV–positive, but she is healthy. She is grateful that The Salvation Army helps with Graham’s school fees. You can help children like Graham all around the world through Overseas Child Sponsorship.

Call Today!

NORTHEAST: | SOUTH: (404) 728-1366 | CENTRAL U.S.: (847) | WEST: (562) 491-8462 Northeast: (845) (845)620-7237 620–7237 | South: (404) 728–1366 | Central U.S.:294-2065 (847) 294–2065 | West: (562) 491–8301

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE­—Page 17

CHANGING THE

COFFEE CULTURE

Salvos Coffee works to decrease labor exploitation and increase sustainability.

BY FAYE MICHELSON

I

magine coffee cherries grown without fertilizers or pesticides in the rich volcanic soil of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) pristine Eastern Highlands and picked, pulped, washed and sorted by hand in remote villages, then dried in the sun for three days.

The Salvation Army works with coffee farmers and their families in this remote part of the world to ensure they receive a fair price for their harvest.

“Coffee growers would walk for days with 30 kilograms [66 pounds] of coffee beans in bags on their backs to get to a roadside to sell, only to get ripped off,” said Luke Soper, business development manager for the PNG Territory. And so the Salvos Coffee program—initiated and developed in 2007 in PNG as a Community Advancement Reform Enhancement— assists 700 growers and their 3,500 family members in growing, harvesting and preparing beans for sale.

Soper’s job is to ensure the program is financially sustainable so that other aspects of The Salvation Army’s work with the farmers—such as health, hygiene, literacy, financial and agricultural education—can expand.

“Coffee growers who once would have had no other option but to sell their coffee for an unfair price at the roadside are now empowered,” Soper said. For instance,

the program started a “passbook system” that releases profits to the growers when they want it until they have proper proof of identity or birth to open their first bank account.

Joseph Manase of the Kesawaka area wanted to become a pastor, but left school in fourth grade. When Salvos Coffee field officers went to his village they talked to him about resuming his education and showed him how to save money for school fees. He now attends high school with the money earned by his wife, who continues to work with Salvos Coffee in their village and also sends their children to school.

When the Ivoti people sold their coffee at a higher price than they expected they used the profit to buy roofing iron, coffee pulping machines and gardening tools. The Salvos Coffee team took them to a warehouse to buy the goods and helped arrange transportation of the equipment.

The program works through a cluster system centered

around local Salvation Army churches in each participating village.

“That’s very important; The Salvation Army is respected and trusted, and people understand we are there to help bring opportunity and fairness,” Soper said. “Community endorsement is vital for this project to succeed. We work to establish a rapport with the village headman and growers, because without that we can’t make headway.”

Salvos Coffee faces many community challenges, including domestic and family violence, so in addition to economics, the program also addresses resolving conflict and managing anger.

Soper divides his time between Sydney and PNG, a country that spans “tropical island to mountainous highlands.”

“One of the tough things, though, is living between a world of excess in Australia and extreme need in PNG,” he said. “We face many challenges— the ruggedness and the remoteness, and the cost of transportation.”

Yet he said he finds reward in helping people in need. “It’s also important for me to be able to share with people in Australia—and my four young children—how well off we are and what we are doing in PNG to make a real and sustainable difference,” he said.

The Church Partnership Program provided funding to sustain Salvos Coffee for many years, and now the program must be self-sustaining. As Soper said, “Your purchase of our coffee helps fund a dedicated team in PNG to provide much-needed support services for remote, marginalized coffee growers and their families.”

See more at salvos.org.au/coffee.|NFC

Page 18—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATES YUNNAN PROVINCE

The Salvation Army provides assistance in China.

The Salvation Army is providing support in Yunnan Province, China, after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 3 caused widespread devastation, particularly around the epicenter in Ludian County. It collapsed roughly 80,000 houses, left 230,000 survivors in need of emergency resettlement, and caused more than 600 deaths and 3,000 injuries.

Emergency relief personnel from The Salvation Army connected with relief officials in Ludian and is providing supplies to the worst-affected areas, including Lungtoushan Township and Huodehong Village. As continuous aftershocks and torrential rain caused landslides, some victims walked from Lungtoushan Township to the center of Ludian County to be housed in tents.

The Salvation Army has distributed instant noodles,

sausages, bags of rice, cooking oil and children’s books to the survivors.

Personnel assisting in some of the 100 temporary resettlement shelters found many children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The Salvation Army is training social work undergraduate students from Hong Kong to serve at resettlement points and offer trauma counseling and play therapy. The Army is also working on plans for assistance to schools in the disaster area to help children return to normal school life in September.

The Salvation Army is appealing to its supporters to donate to the relief response in China, and it will also apply for funding from the Chinese Government’s Disaster Relief Fund in order to put a large-scale relief plan in place.|NFC

Top: A home lies in ruins following the earthquake. Bottom: Salvation Army personnel speak with a Yunnan Province resident. |Photos courtesy of International Headquarters

THE POWER OF STORY An Old Testament for us

OPINION

BY DAN JENNINGS, MAJOR Story is a powerful medium of communication. Writers and filmmakers have understood this truth and used stories to create timeless songs, films and books. We respond well to stories. They speak to us in a way that is deeper than abstract knowledge. Those who teach the craft of preaching encourage the use of stories in sermon delivery, and so it should not surprise us that God chose the medium of story to communicate with us.

This is particularly true within the context of the Old Testament. God’s acts of self-revelation in the Old Testament primarily employ the medium of story. He reveals something of his character and being through story. With Israel as the backdrop, God peels back the veil that separates creator and creation, and invites us to know him.

Rather than simply saying to us that he is a God who saves, the Old Testament tells us a story about God’s salvific intervention in the lives of the Israelites, and in doing so infers that he is a God who saves. The Old Testament does not simply say to us that God loves us. Rather, the Old Testament chronicles the love story of God and Israel, and infers to the reader that God loves them.

One of the challenges of the Old Testament is that we tend to approach it from the discipline of systematic theology in which we see the Old Testament as a collection of independent stories. The stories or narratives are filtered through the particular focus to individual historical writ-

ers. The reader in turn tries to understand the context of each writer and make a theological assessment based on that writer’s context and history.

However, if we could see the Old Testament as one continuous story of God’s relationship with his elect people, Israel, that single story emerges from the collections of narratives. The story communicates God’s character through his self-revelation in relationship with Israel, painted in a beautiful mosaic. The New Testament then deals with the nature of God in much more abstract concepts, particularly in the epistles.

As we gather together in worship or Bible study and interact with the Old Testament, we are, in a sense, retelling the story—what Old Testament scholar Claus Westermann calls “still the most legitimate way for theology to speak about the Old Testament.”

Thus as we engage the narratives of the Old Testament we are well served to remember that the narratives are only facets of a much larger and more robust continuous story—a story of God’s love, provision and salvation of Israel and and an inference to his love, provision and salvation for us.|NFC

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE­—Page 19

OTHERS-FOCUSED

FAIR TRADE

Clockwise from above: Proud carpenters show off Others wooden projects in Jessore, Bangladesh; The goal of Others is to give hope, dignity and independence to producers such as this young lady in Old Dhaka; Production of kitchen towels for Others in Jessore. Bottom of page: Sculptures handcrafted by Others artisans. |Photos courtesy of Others

The Salvation Army employs rural artisans around the world to produce quality goods.

BY CHADWICK PHILLIPS

C

onsumers are more aware of product origin than ever before. Yet for every call to “buy local,” The Salvation Army suggests buying from “Others.”

Run from the International Development office of The Salvation Army in Norway, Others is an initiative that aims to transform lives and alleviate poverty through fair trade.

It started as “Sally Ann” in Bangladesh with then Lt. Colonels Bo and Brigitte Brekke, who were appointed there from 1995 to 2002.

“We [had] been confronted with the harsh realities of life as faced by a majority of the world’s population and we [had] been challenged in our understanding of poverty and what we should do about it,” Brekke wrote in his book “Sally Ann – Poverty to Hope.”

Bo Christoffer Brekke, Bo Brekke’s son, has worked with the Army in Norway for two years and starting in September will work full-time as the Others administration manager working on product development and increasing sales.

“I’ve been involved with Sally Ann or Others since the very start,” Brekke said. “I lived in Bangladesh from the time I was 11 until I was 18 and at that time my parents started Sally Ann. So it has always been something that I have been passionate about.”

In the mid-1990s Sally Ann began as a hand crafted project among women in poverty and commercial sexual exploitation, as well as those who simply needed a job to support a family. The Salvation Army aimed to help women learn a trade and guaranteed that the artisans would be paid for the products that they made. In 1997, the first Sally Ann shop opened in Dhaka, however, sales were not enough to sustain the concept.

In 2002, Sally Ann partnered with The Salvation Army in Norway and worked with Jan Aasmann Størksen who helped changed the design of the products in order to make them more appealing to the Scandinavian market. Within a year Sally Ann opened its first store in Norway with the help of the Norwegian Minister of Development.

“We’ve had to make some changes to the concept in order to really make this program sustainable,” Brekke said. “Having a shop is very difficult for our producer groups because we have had to change products frequently in order to get new products into the shops.

We need to have a wide range of products in order to fill up a whole store.”

In 2013 Sally Ann changed its name to Others to reach a broader audience and explicitly point toward the reason for its existence.

“The name Sally Ann was good in itself in many respects, but also restrictive in some ways. For example, in terms of reaching male customers, we didn’t want a name that was too feminine,” Brekke said. “We wanted a name that could communicate something about the concept in itself while also maintaining the link to The Salvation Army.”

Over the last two years, Brekke has worked to reconstruct the Others sales model. Currently, Others is working to establish other sales channels through wholesalers, corporate gifts and web sales at tradeforhope.com.

“Our goal is to instead of having one shop with 400 products, have 400 shops with one product,” Brekke said. “That makes it easier for producers because they will now have bigger volume orders of the same product and be able to be more efficient. We want to work more with The Salvation Army itself and get people passionate about the concept and support the concept. We want to spread the word and show that we are part of a global family and that we can do something for each other.”

Brekke said that the last two years have focused on implementing the change of name and strategy, but that the ideals of Others remained the same—dignity, independence, and hope.

“We try to give dignity to people by giving them

a way to earn their own living and give them other types of support that they need to be independent,” he said. “We don’t want to make people dependent on us. We want to empower people to be able to make it on their own.”

Brekke said it’s his goal to see an individual join Others, receive training, skills and confidence and then get another job.

“Hope is what we see in all of our producers,” he said. “We see hope because we have given someone hope of a future that they didn’t think was possible before they came into contact with us.”

Quality is also a key value of Others, which it maintains with its 1,200 local artisan producers.

“We don’t want people to buy our products just because they feel sorry for whoever made it; we want people to buy our products because our products are nice, attractive, and good quality. That’s something we work very hard to maintain,” Brekke said. “These people are producing something that they are proud of selling, something that they can be proud of selling because it is good quality.”

As an avid traveler, Brekke said he has seen firsthand two vastly different parts of the world, which made him passionate about fighting injustice.

“It makes me realize how privileged I am to have all the resources and opportunities that I’ve had,” Brekke said. “It makes me want to just give back.”

After the passing of his father seven years ago, Brekke said he feels even more privileged to carry on what his parents built and to continue his father’s legacy.

“I want to make it successful because I believe in it and I believe it is a good way of helping people,” Brekke said. “I couldn’t imagine a more meaningful way of spending my time.”

Others recently reached one of its goals as the chosen supplier of goods for Boundless: The Whole World Redeeming, The Salvation Army’s 2015 international congress in London. Others will supply roughly 15,000 bags and lanyards for congress delegates, made by producers in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“This is a very significant order both of these countries,” Brekke said. “This will give many months of work to many producers throughout both countries. We are hoping that this will be a great way to showcase our work and get other people aware of what we do and what we can do.”|NFC

Page 20—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

Photos (clockwise from left): A volunteer from Fitness SF talks with one of 2,000 backpack recipients about her upcoming first day in kindergarten during a back-to-school carnival in San Francisco (by Laine Hendricks); a Colorado Springs Utilities volunteer helps a young shopper during a back-to-school spree in Colorado Springs, Colo. (by Jeane Turner); Cecilia Makar and daughter, JoeAnn, show off backpacks they received from HUGSS in Anchorage ( by Sonya Senkowsky); Echelon volunteers at an event in Oceanside, Calif. (by Elsie Estrada); Pasadena Tabernacle Corps Officer Major Darren Norton and Cadet Jessica Pearce with back-to-school shoppers at Sears in Southern California (by Kimberly Selman); two of the more than 600 kids who received new backpacks and school supplies in Reno, Nev. (by Sydney Fong).

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 21

WESTERN TERRITORY PREPARES KIDS FOR SCHOOL As summer began to fade, The Salvation Army helped prepare kids with back-to-school materials needed for the new academic year. The following is a sampling of events: The annual HUGSS (Helping Us Give School Supplies) and Coats for Kids drive were held in the Sullivan Arena in the Alaska Division in collaboration with the Catholic Social Services and Lutheran Social Services.

Echelon—a local chapter of the National Young Adult Auxiliary of The Salvation Army—helped organize a successful event at the Oceanside, Calif., corps in the Sierra del Mar Division. The group of San Diego young professionals raised funds, collected school supplies and volunteered at the give-away. The corps, led by Lts. Dave and Dawn Preston, also offered free back-to-school haircuts.

The Golden State Division held a back-to-school carnival in San Francisco, where 2,000 children received new backpacks filled with supplies. This year’s event nearly doubled in size from last year’s, thanks to support from The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Development, The San Francisco Unified School District, K to College, Fitness SF, Target, Walgreens and other supporters.

Hip-hop artist E-40, a Vallejo, Calif., native, volunteered and donated $2,500 for a backto-school event in the Del Oro Division’s Solano County, with additional support from the county advisory board and Jelly Belly. The Redding, Calif., corps’ held its first “Shop with a Shield,” and The Salvation Army in Reno, Nev., supplied 600 kids with school necessities.

A back-to-school shopping trip in Sacramento took place at Kohl’s, with backpacks donated by Milgard.

The Southern California Division hosted an online back-to-school drive via CommuniGift for three of its corps. The Pasadena Tabernacle Corps organized an event at a local Sears store for 110 children with donations from the Pasadena Lions Club, Kiwanis Club and Worldwide Financial Group and discounts from Sears.

In the Cascade Division, the Salem Corps held its annual school supply drive in partnership with Shopko, Salem Fire Department and local Fred Meyer stores to provide 1,000 kids with supplies. It also partnered with United Way of the mid-Willamette Valley and the Lyons Public Library to provide backpacks and supplies to Mari-Linn School students.

In the Intermountain Division, Colorado Springs Utilities volunteers helped The Salvation Army in El Paso County with a back-to-school spree.

Page 22—New Frontier CHRONICLE • September 2014

USA WEST NEWS BRIEFS ALASKA

HUGGS for kids in Anchorage

The Salvation Army provided 2,555 kids representing 624 families with coats and school supplies at its annual HUGSS (Helping Us Give School Supplies) event August 13 at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. No one was turned away.

Children expressed their gratitude at a “thank you station,” where they posted messages and pictures.

More than 300 volunteers contributed over 2,000 hours of time leading up to and during the event. Fred Meyer donated the coats and Lynden Inc. and Totem Ocean Trailer Express transported them from Tacoma, Wash., to Anchorage.

CASCADE

Cruise-In supports Veterans and Family Center

Over $21,000 was raised to support The Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center in Beaverton, Ore.—the only facility in the area that houses and serves not only vets but their families—at its third annual classic car Veterans Cruise-In. The funds will go toward construction of an ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) accessible room that will allow the center to extend services to disabled veterans.

The Cruise-In featured approximately 200 vehicles—classic cars, military vehicles, fire trucks, police cars and motorcycles—with owners paying a registration fee to display them. The event was free to the public.

The center’s Executive Director, Rick Stoller, said, “We’re hosting this so community members can show off their cars and support a great program.”

DEL ORO

E-40 visits shopping spree

Hip-hop artist and Vallejo native E-40 visited The Salvation Army Solano County’s back-to-school shopping spree event on August 9 as a surprise guest and volunteered with his wife and his friend.

“It’s all about the kids,” E-40 said. “They were happy to see me and I’m definitely happy to see them.”

Not only did he volunteer, but E-40 also donated $2,500 to The Salvation Army, which helped send 25 youngsters to this shopping event.

“When you have new clothes,” he said, “you have more motivation to do things, like going to school and getting things done. You don’t want to go to school and have nothing new on. I mean, that hurts.”

Each of the 100 participating children spent $100 each on clothes and shoes. The children, who ranged from kindergarten to sixth grade, also received backpacks filled with school supplies.

“This day was amazing,” said Capt. Jonathan Harvey, Salvation Army Solano County coordinator. “To see these kids shopping for what they want and to see our volunteers having fun them, it was truly great to witness this.”

GOLDEN STATE

Turlock stars put on dancing shoes for Salvation Army

Turlock stars put on dancing shoes for Salvation Army Star community members of Turlock, Calif., are heading to the dance floor at the Assyrian-American Civic Hall on Sept.

20 for Dancing with the Turlock Stars—a fundraising event for the local Salvation Army corps.

“The Turlock Advisory Board enjoys thinking outside the box,” said Major Debi Shrum, Turlock corps officer.

Turlock Salvation Army Advisory Board Member Kristin Bettencourt came up with Dancing with the Turlock Stars and serves as the event coordinator.

Participants are well-known Turlock residents—including Shrum—who will be paired up with professional dancers from various neighboring studios.

“Part of the work of the advisory board is assisting with fundraising, or as we say here “fun-raising,’” Shrum said. “There is no reason why having events needs to be anything but fun.”

Dancing pairs have six weeks to get a dance routine together for the event, in which each couple will have two minutes to dance.

People can vote for their favorite Turlock star at dancingwiththeturlockstars. com by making a $10 donation.

first-ever Kroc Play to Win event.

Pacific Island Athletics Association provided information to the young athletes on Division I scholarships and other options to fund their college educations while continuing their athletic pursuits at different levels.

A panel of current University of Hawaii football players shared testimonies of their college journeys, the finality of football and the importance of academics for longterm success. University of Hawaii West Oahu athletes introduced new curriculum programs and the E Ola Pono Ma Kapolei anti-drug coalition spoke of the laws and dangers of underage drinking.

“This shelter will provide a safe haven for these women and children and help them reconnect with their home country so they can resume productive lives,” Zikakis said.

“There were 17,000 child deportations from the U.S. last year alone, many of whom were located without one or both parents. The shelter has nothing to do with politics, and all to do with helping these people transition safely back in Mexico.”

The Salvation Army said the shelter will accommodate 30 women and children at a time. The operating budget is estimated at $100,000 annually and the organization is accepting further donations to assist with its opening and subsequent costs.

INTERMOUNTAIN

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Volunteers train for EDS

Volunteers received an introduction to Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) and ServSafe (commercial food handling) during a one-day training Aug. 9 at the Centennial Corps in Centennial, Colo., as part of the division’s regular training for potential EDS volunteers.

The group included volunteers exposed to The Salvation Army during a five-week response EDS teams supported with a local police department out of Westminster, Colo.

“Hopefully, this is just the beginning of cross-training with a volunteer base from that local police department,” said Daniel Ball, assistant director for EDS in the Intermountain Division. “That’s one of the pleasant surprises—you never know where your volunteers come from. But it’s rewarding too because that means we’re continuing to make an impact in the communities we serve.”

During an emergency, The Salvation Army may provide food and hydr NORTHWEST

Pasadena children shop Sears spree

The Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle joined forces with local community partners Aug. 2 to give deserving children the tools and confidence they need to succeed in the classroom.

In total, 110 boys and girls were set loose upon the Sears in Pasadena to select needed attire and shoes with a $75 gift card.

The Salvation Army in Pasadena pre-selects children to participate in the shopping sprees based on need. Donations from the Pasadena Lions Club, Kiwanis Club and Worldwide Financial Group helped to fund the gift cards, and guaranteed backpacks full of supplies for each child. To help the children stretch their dollars even further, Sears offered a special, extra discount on back-to-school items.

William Booth Society Salvation Army joins San Francisco Giants for Fellowship Day

The Salvation Army in San Francisco took part in Fellowship Day with the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in the baseball team’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Volunteers were stationed throughout the event with a red kettle and at a Salvation Army informational booth.

Golden State Divisional Commander Lt. Colonel Steve Smith, General Secretary Major Rob Birks, and Director of Emergency Disaster Services John McKnight represented The Salvation Army on the jumbotron at the pregame ceremony.

HAWAIIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDS

Members of The Salvation Army William Booth Society in King County, Wash., gathered at the home of Kelly and Judy Foss to enjoy sunshine and fellowship. The annual gathering of the high-level donors is an opportunity for the members to celebrate their common interest—supporting The Salvation Army.

Kelly, who turned 101 years old this summer, was able to visit with guests in a shaded area of the patio. Despite his age and recent hospital stays, he was engaged and enthusiastic about welcoming guests into his home. Judy generously provided the food and drink for the event, and shared information about their home and gardens.

This year, the William Booth Society is chaired by members Daniel C. and Cecelia Regis. While addressing other members at the reception, Daniel said that chairing this group is “the most fun job he’s ever had.”

He cited the work of The Salvation Army in the area, and how proud he and Cecelia are to represent this group of donors.

SIERRA DEL MAR

Tijuana shelter Kroc Play to Win

Kroc Center Hawaii hosted 250 varsity and junior varsity football players from Campbell High School and Kapolei High School, their coaches and parents at the

The Salvation Army and local real estate entrepreneur, Alex Zikakis, have teamed together to open a shelter in Tijuana to provide resources and support to help women and children who have been deported by the U.S. safely repatriate to their country of origin.

Newhall services expand

The Salvation Army Santa Clarita Service Extension opened its new location in Newhall, Calif., with local public officials and Salvation Army officers on hand to cut the ribbon. The new facility will increase the Army’s ability to provide social services in the area by 20 percent.

The Salvation Army has been in the Santa Clarita/Newhall area for over 18 years and last year alone provided more than 4,500 individuals with food, clothing, utility assistance and emergency lodging.

SOUTHWEST

Red Kettle Clubs continue to succeed in Arizona

The opening sign-up session for the Red Kettle Club at Corona Del Sol High School in Tempe, Ariz., was a success with nearly 100 students joining.

The club plans to work with other administrations in the school district to create new clubs in other local schools this year. Three other high schools in the state—one in Apache Junction and two in Chandler—have Red Kettle Clubs in the works.

WMI

September 2014 • New Frontier CHRONICLE—Page 23

WESTERN MUSIC INSTITUTE WYI—The 2014 Western Youth Institute at Camp Redwood Glen focused on the word “Refine.”

“Our hope was for delegates to realize that God is continually transforming all of us, regardless of age or how long we have been a Christian, into his image,” said Jim Sparks, director of youth leadership development in the West.

Author and speaker Anne Marie Miller issued a challenge to give others the gift of “going second” by confessing our sins first, followed by Grace Sheppard in the saynetwork lounge.

In various sessions, Territorial Commander Commissioner James Knaggs focused on Paul and the lives of several biblical characters who went through a refining process. Chief Secretary Colonel Dave Hudson preached on the life of Mary Magdalene, reminding delegates that our story is intended to point the world to Jesus. Program Secretary Colonel Dusty Hill examined Solomon’s life—his pursuits of every meaningless path to find a meaningful life—and our own pursuits versus pursuing God. Divisional groups contemplated Scripture on a mile-long trail at Henry Cowell Park in Santa Cruz. Elective options ranged from journaling to junk art, and fun included a cabin wars dance-off competition, human foosball, and a “throwback Thursday” transformation story time. |NFC

|Photos by John Docter

WMI—The 2014 Western Music Institute welcomed 180 students and 56 faculty members at Pine Summit Camp in Big Bear Lake, Calif., focused on “Love’s Call,” a song written by special guest Andrew Blyth. With wife, Sue, the Blyths provided musical and spiritual leadership.

Delegates select an area of study from praise and worship, brass band, ladies’ vocal, dance and drama, and learn in electives including GLEE MI, men’s chorus, songwriting, worship leading, cajon box drum and musical theater. Members of Theater for the Thirsty, based in St. Paul, Minn., instructed in drama and musical theater, and Sabina Valery, from Florida, led the dance major.

Commissioners James and Carolyn Knaggs, territorial leaders, joined the group, leading worship on Sunday and presenting awards at the final festival, which was live streamed by OnlineCorps.|NFC

W YI

WESTERN YOUTH INSTITUTE

CENTENNIAL CORPS • CENTENNIAL, CO

CORPS PROGRAM ASSISTANT Full Time, non-exempt.

EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE:

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN SEE YOUR CORPS OFFICER

Experience with teaching the Word of God along with supervising volunteers. At least two years of experience working with youth in a Corps/Church setting is required. High school graduate preferred or hold a GED with relevant work experience and be at least 21 years of age. Ability to follow all Salvation Army policies including Protecting the Mission. Must be, or become within three months of hire date, a Soldier of The Salvation Army and be able to wear The Salvation Army uniform while on duty. This individual will work within the vision and mission of The Salvation Army.

SCOPE OF POSITION/ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: This position will be responsible for the support, advancement, planning and coordination of the ministry to youth, young adults and adults, and promote children’s and adult outreach programs and activities at the Corps. Provide oversight and logistical support of Christmas programs as assigned by corps officer, i.e. kettles, angle tree and intake help.

SEND RESUME AND COVER LETTER TO: Mark.Thielenhaus@usw.SalvationArmy.org

VISIT US ONLINE:

newfrontierpublications.org

Page 24窶年ew Frontier CHRONICLE 窶｢ September 2014