Testify!

Keith Kennedy attends Linwood Corps in the Southern Division and has been a Salvationist for 62 years. He became a Christian after an encounter on a train in Australia.

I was born in Sydney, Australia, as one of eight children and the youngest boy. I left school aged 15 and got a job. One day I caught the train and the stop where I got on was very crowded. There were people almost touching, and this guy asked me, ‘Do you know Jesus?’

I had to say, ‘No, I don’t’. He told me all about him.

He was probably two or three years older than me, and I think it would have taken a lot of guts for him to speak out in a crowded train. And in some ways, I was a captive audience—I had nowhere to go. Being on that train was the beginning of my Christian journey (excuse the pun).

I continued to meet up with this guy every day on the train. Eventually he invited me to The Salvation Army, to a little southwestern corps called Belmore. I’ve been involved with The Salvation Army ever since. I was converted just before my sixteenth birthday, and became a soldier in 1960.

I was a soldier for 10 years before I married my wife. I came over to New Zealand in 1965 for the Youth Congress, which was in Wellington, and I saw this lovely young lady there. Then when I went to Auckland, amazingly in the corps where I was billeted, she was there. We got married in 1970.

We attended Waitakere Corps in West Auckland.

My wife and I were very well accepted; we found it a terrific place and it's now our spiritual home.

I retired in 2010. My wife kept working as an early childhood education teacher, so I decided to keep myself busy. I went down to the Waitakere Salvation Army and volunteered there. People would ring the corps and say, ‘I’m in need of food’ and then the call was transferred to me and I interviewed them. I had a chat to them to find out where they were and what was happening in their lives.

A couple of years ago, I was also a chaplain for a previous Army programme called Education & Employment. It was very worthwhile dealing with teenage kids who had fallen through the cracks of the education system. They would come to The Salvation Army to learn skills so they could go back into the community and get a job.

We decided to go to Christchurch because our son was living there with his wife and children and we wanted to be closer to them. We found the closest corps, which was Linwood. We got such a good reception just walking through the door. My wife and I were very well accepted; we found it a terrific place and it’s now our spiritual home.

I used to play in The Salvation Army band many years ago. I asked someone at Linwood, ‘Do you have a men’s fellowship?’ They said that the best men’s fellowship is the band, so I joined and have been there ever since. I thoroughly enjoy the fellowship I have there.

It’s been an up and down journey, but God’s been great; he’s been in everything we’ve done. I believe it was him who directed me to New Zealand, and it was him who directed us to Christchurch. Without God in my life, I don’t know where I’d be.