En los próximos días dicha entrevista será publica en la categoria “Ministerios Radiales” en Southern Spirit online!!

Libia Socorro, Editora de Espiritu del Sur

Libia Socorrro

Luciano Goicochea, de Maravillosas Palabras de Vida

Johnny Aranguren, de Ministerios Inteculturales

Source: http://www.wtkf107.com/

In modern times, those in trouble, those seeking strength and hope do have somewhere to turn.  In some commuities its called “The Center of Hope.”  In others its a Corps, Community Center, or Outpost.  Whatever the name, The Salvation Army is there to raise up the downtrodden and rebuild lives.  On Day Four of National Salvation Army Week we heard two such stories of hope restored.

he men of the adult rehabilitation centers often feel that they are men without voices. In their pain and isolation, they call out and believe that no one hears them. In overcoming their addictions and allowing God to be in their lives they find their voice. These nine men give voice on why they decided to have their voices heard in their new family as soldiers and adherents of the Salvation Army. All nine of these men were recently enrolled out of the St. Petersburg, Fla., ARC (Captain Gary and Liz Wilson) into the Clearwater, Fla., Corps (Captains Zach and Shelley Bell).

Charles Jackson:
I see a difference in who I am now, all due to Christ. Christ shines here at the ARC and the Clearwater Corps. Why not be at a place where he is at.

Sean McDonough:
It has allowed to me to find myself. After being so little, I am now somebody. After being alone, I am now part of something.

Timothy McDonald:
I want to give back; so much has been given to me. I am not done yet, I am a work in progress.

Mark Araujo:
The soldiership class taught me to have personal responsibility; it also got me into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Tony Giancola:
In my previous life, I destroyed through my addiction a successful career. God has completely restored me. I no longer have worldly desires. I now want to give back.

Chuck Opel:
I started my spiritual awarenessbefore coming to the ARC, but it gave to me greater spiritual direction. It helped me to give up a lot of things. I have a great desire to grow even more in Christ.

Brian Behling:
I had no hope. Captain Bell said to me, “We value you, we want you here.” It was a spark of hope to me. It was restoration. I am so grateful The Salvation Army gave me my life back.

Joseph Mercier:
I fought God in every possible way, but here at the ARC, I lost to the Army and God and accepted Christ. He brought me into the light; I now want to fight for God’s Army.

“Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in the market. We can habituate ourselves to our beggarly praying until it looks well to us, at least it keeps up a decent form and quiets conscience – the deadliest of opiates! (These are, indeed, serious accusations. If we pray, do we stop short of the real work of prayer?) We can slight our praying, and not realize the peril till the foundations are gone. Hurried devotions make weak faith, feeble convictions, questionable piety. To be little with God is to be little for God. To cut short the praying makes the whole religious character short, scrimp, and slovenly.” (I don’t think he is too off the mark for our modern-day petitioners as these assessments speak to our short attention spans, checklist mentalities and countless distractions.)

“To pray is the greatest thing we can do: and to do it well there must be calmness, time and deliberation; otherwise it is degraded into the littlest and meanest of things (trite and anemic). True praying has the largest results for good (if we are ‘doing the most good’). We must learn anew the school of prayer. There is nothing which takes more time to learn. And if we would learn its most wondrous art, we must not give a fragment here and there – ‘A little talk with Jesus makes it right,’ as the tiny saintlets sing (I like his word, “saintlets”) – but we must demand and hold with iron grasp the best hours of the day for God and prayer, or there will be no praying worth the Name.” (The Name – don’t waste the power of that high priestly endorsement with feeble petitions.)

“In these days of hurry, men will not take time to pray. Preachers ‘say prayers’ as part of their program but who stirs himself up to take hold upon God? (Isa. 64:7) There are plenty of preachers who will preach and deliver eloquent addresses on the need of revival and the spread of the Kingdom, but not many who will do that without which all preaching and organizing are worse than vain – pray. It is almost a lost art and the greatest benefactor this age could have is the one who will bring the preachers and the church back to prayer.”

Don’t relegate prayer to a few: Step up, you saintlets, forget excuses – God has chosen you to pray!

The General told the lieutenants: ‘The next flag you receive will be the Salvation Army flag’. The family will move to Greenland in time to begin work there on 1 August.

Also commissioned was Lieutenant Maria Larsen, who had been trained in London. In taking up her appointment as corps officer in Nyborg she became the youngest officer in the Denmark Territory – representing the growing influence of young people, as reflected in the congress and also in the territory’s recent past. The General encouraged the congregation to recognise the great work God is doing in Denmark and described the young people as a ‘revival generation’.

The General’s words were given greater meaning during the last meeting of the congress when she challenged the young people present who were willing to serve God unconditionally to move to the platform – and a large crowd responded.

The atmosphere at the congress, which celebrated 125 years of Salvation Army ministry in Denmark, was characterised by hopefulness and openness to the Word of God. The International Vision about being One Army with One Mission and One Message was shared in an accessible way by the General. There was a flow between the events, concerts and meetings with emphasis on fellowship and unity.

Mannssambandet, a Norwegian male voice choir, rounded off the Saturday evening meeting with contemporary songs of praise. It led the congregation in worship and praise at other times during the congress, along with a range of Danish groups.

Participation from the public and representatives from other churches – particularly at open-air meetings and a march through central Copenhagen – ensured that the historic milestone for The Salvation Army was not a private party.

Ole Birch, a pastor in the Methodist Church and member of the National Council of Churches in Denmark, brought greetings from the wider Body of Christ; Peter Skov-Jakobsen, bishop from the state church in Copenhagen, pronounced the benediction; and former Prime Minister of Denmark Poul Nyrup Rasmussen shared warm childhood memories of when he and his family attended The Salvation Army.

With three brass bands in central Copenhagen, the anniversary celebrations attracted attention on a sunny Saturday morning. Many people were given a little bag with a leaflet headed ‘soup, soap, salvation’, a reminder of The Salvation Army’s principles over the past 125 years – and over the next 125!

Report by Major Levi Giversen

By Brooke Turbyfill
SOUTHERN SPIRIT STAFF
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.

Practice hospitality. (Romans 12:13)

When Cadet Sharon Autry was reading Romans 12 four years ago, verse 13 leapt off the page like never before. “Those words gave me a new definition of the ministry I grew up in within in The Salvation Army,” she said. As she studied the words “practice hospitality” in Greek, she realized the verse defined hospitality as more than the obligatory kind deed. “Hospitality is practicing the love of strangers. I realized that doing the most good was pursuing the love of strangers.” That pursuit led her to purchase a domain name for her current blog – practicehospitality.com. Although her vision for the blog began years ago, the reality of it only took hold a few months ago. She was encouraged by some other bloggers who, like herself, were mothers, but she still found she couldn’t relate entirely to their lifestyles.

“They were stay-at-home moms, and I work in full-time ministry. My kids are in daycare. I couldn’t really find a blog I could relate to.” So with the Lord’s prompting, she began blogging about everything from recipes and relationships to Salvation Army mission and ministry. Cadet Autry, soon to be commissioned with the Friends of Christ, sees the blog as a means of connecting women from all over The Salvation Army and those not involved with the Army. She recently got comments on one of her blog entries from two women whom she doesn’t know and who aren’t affiliated with The Salvation Army in any way. “It was shocking. I
thought this would be a different perspective of the Army to the outside world.”

Cadet Autry also wants others to share through making comments on her blog and the Facebook page. She also hopes to have guest bloggers. “I see it growing into a community, a place where we’re sharing our hearts with the idea of pursuing the love of strangers.” She hopes other women within The Salvation Army who write blogs will contact her to be linked on the blog’s resources page. She said she’s looking forward to her first appointment, and as recorded in a recent blog entry, has learned a great deal from her practicum at the Kroc center in Atlanta. One of the most touching times for her was befriending
a woman who had come out of the sex industry, a woman who once danced in the clubs where Captain Sandra Pawar, corps officer at the Atlanta Kroc center, and her team prayed for two years for the dancers to leave their livelihoods.

Cadet Autry helped put together Easter goodie bags for women working in local strip clubs, women such as Shanelle, who had given her heart to the Lord and decided to leave the leave the sex industry and
attend The Salvation Army. As they rode in the car together to deliver the bags during Holy Week, Sharon discovered she and Shanelle had some things in common.

Both were mothers; both were adopted; both were born-again believers trying to follow God’s will. The two have become friends, which is a blessing according to Captain Pawar. She’s been in many situations where, as the corps officer, she has befriended someone under her ministry, but has had to really encourage others to befriend that person. But in Cadet Autry’s situation, it’s different – the two share a
mutual friendship that’s very genuine. Shanelle tells her things that she doesn’t share with others, and Captain Pawar thinks it’s Shanelle’s friendship with Cadet Autry that has kept her out of the sex industry, despite people close to her trying to pull her back in.

Cadet Autry said the friendship goes two ways. She has learned a lot from the transparency with which Shanelle shares. “It’s very moving to me. Sometimes we see hospitality as almost plastic, with just nice things to do or say when real hospitality is transparency that’s earthy and real – it’s warm and inviting.” Cadet Autry also said her friendship with Captains Ashish and Sandra Pawar has been a tremendous blessing. “They’ve both helped me not be afraid of messy ministry, and that’s stirred up my reliance on prayer. When you’re dealing with people in some of the circumstances we find them in, there’s no
pat answer you can give them. Just to be reminded of my dependence on the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift I can be given as I get ready to leave and go into my first appointment.”

Mientras saboreábamos nuestras pizzas el Teniente Coronel Eddie Hobgood mostró la continuación del video de “Our People” (el mismo será presentado en segmentos de unos 15 minutos aproximadamente durante toda esta semana).

Seguidamente Roberta Simmons personificando  a Catherine Booth   realizó una dramatización  en la cual,  la Catherine de aquel  tiempo se indigno contra aquellos pastores que no dejaban predicar a las mujeres.

Luego como ha sido costumbre durante estos días, Eli Silva, Gerente Territorial de Proyectos del Departamento de Comunicaciones (Comunication Bureau) nos dio su testimonio. Él habló sobre un tiempo trascendental en su vida donde tuvo que tomar una importante decisión, abandonar su carrera como  piloto de la Fuerzas Armadas de Venezuela para honrar sus principios y tener que  proteger a su familia,  nos dijo cómo el Ejército de Salvación llego a su vida a través de su esposa y a partir de ese tiempo ha amado y honrado esta organización.

Megan Davis también nos compartió sobre su viaje a Rwanda, África y explicó lo qué se esta haciendo con las donaciones del Ejército en esa región.

¡Y  Llego la hora preferida por todos…las rifas!

4 fueron los ganadores de premios tales como, estuches de perfumes valorados en $200, certificado de compras en la tienda Lowe’s entre otros.

Todos los empleados esperamos con ansias las nuevas sorpresas que día a día nos tiene preparadas el Coronel Eddie Hobgood y todo el equipo que labora en la organización de esta semana tan especial.

¡No te lo pierdas, todavía hay más sorpresas!

 Si deseas ver esta celebración on-line te invito a que visites nuestro sitio web: Southern Spirit online. Todos estos días a las 12:30 pm.

 Por Libia Socorro