Training for wellness

WHO WE ARE | PROGRAMS

Alex Rodman, a health and wellness specialist at The Salvation Army College for Officer Training (CFOT) in Suffern, N.Y., talks about the importance of discipline in setting goals, choosing sobriety, and what God revealed to him while working at CFOT.

photo by LuLu Rivera

CFOT administration was looking for someone to help the cadets exercise more, eat healthier, and become physically fit to handle the duties of being pastors. It is an honor for me to be the first person to take on this role as health and wellness specialist. I grew up only half a mile away from CFOT. I saw the school bus stop there to pick up students, who I now realize were the cadets’ children. Back then, I didn’t even know what this campus was about, or that the cadets were learning to be church leaders.

I’ve had problems with addiction through most of my life. Even though I didn’t grow up in religion, part of me always felt that I was disappointing God when I used drugs and alcohol. He wasn’t going to let me live up to my potential until I stopped using. When I finally decided to be clean, it was amazing how everything that I had hoped for came into my life. My body felt better, and my mind became clearer. I found work at CFOT, moved out of my parents’ home, and became independent for the first time in my life. I did devotionals every morning and joined The Salvation Army in Spring Valley, N.Y. It was the next step in developing my relationship with God.

The first two months of my role exceeded all expectations. I did workouts, met grateful cadets, and conducted packed, enthusiastic fitness classes. But because of COVID–19, my job changed. For many months, I worked outside in the afternoon and taught smaller, socially distanced fitness classes. I also became the “gym watcher.” It was a New York mandate that someone had to always be in any open gymnasium to supervise anyone who wanted to work out there. Actually, it was mostly just me during COVID. But through that time, I was grateful to have a job. Though my responsibilities had changed, The Salvation Army still saw my role to keep the cadets healthy as essential work.

Since I joined my first gym at 15, I knew that helping people get in shape would always be a part of my life. I got my bachelor’s degree in nutrition and food science, and for years, I was a personal trainer. When I saw an ad to work for The Salvation Army, I felt as if God was saying to me, “Look! It’s not just nutrition, fitness, wellness or sports. It’s a combination of everything you know—mind, body, and spirit.” Now, I meet new people every year who want to serve God, and I’m part of their process. Over the course of my career, I want to impact so many lives that I’ll never see the full reach of the work I do.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well–balanced mind and discipline and self–control ( 2 Timothy 1:7 AMPC) That verse captures what I see as true wellness, externally and internally. Discipline and self–control are key to living a healthy lifestyle.

Interview by HUGO BRAVO