A page from the Los Angeles Herald newspaper announcing Capt. Nellie Truelove’s commission as a member of the LAPD On March 4, 1903 the Los Angeles Herald newspaper reported that Salvation Army Captain Nellie Truelove would be the first woman “to be given a right to wear the nickel star and swing the black club of police authority.”
This past Thanksgiving was our family’s fifth without my mother-in-law, nineth without two sisters and a brother, and sixteenth without my grandmother. We felt the ache, mourned the loss, and wished with all our hearts they were still with us.
The holidays are coming, and with it a slew of family gatherings. Unless you’ve been unusually fortunate, you’ll have an empty chair or two at your dining room table. It’s unrealistic to think you won’t miss your loved ones, but holidays are for celebrating, not for grieving. As you prepare for the holidays without your precious loved ones, here are a few ways you can honor them.
1. Do something your loved one would approve of. My grandmother loved to dig in the dirt and make things grow. Wherever she lived, she always planted dianthus. I remember visiting her shortly after she moved to an independent living facility. She no longer had a place to garden, but as I walked into her new building, I saw evidence of her green thumb. She’d tucked a ti..
When my son was 14 years old, he exhibited many outstanding qualities, except a yearning for hard work. That changed when he took a two-week mission trip to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. He spent much of his time digging trenches, laying cinder blocks, and installing barbed wire fences. When he returned, I asked […]
In 1918, The Salvation Army was at the height of its international popularity. Its war work during the Great War (WWI) was exemplary and recognized by governments across the globe. National Commander Evangeline Booth received the Distinguished Service medal from General John J. Pershing for all of the work that the Army did in France. The combat was soon to shift to an unseen enemy. The Great War had prepared the Army for a new challenge.
The Spanish flu was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it is considered one of the deadliest epidemics in human history.
In New York, Lillian Wald, a pioneer nurse, called for help and the Army answered. Wald mobilized a multitude of nurses, organizations, church groups, municipal bureaucracies, civic entities and social agencies into a Nurses’ Emergency Council. The group assembled volunteer nurses and enlisted women who could support them by answering phones, accompanying nurses and doctors on home ..
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Like a battering ram dropped on a skyscraper, the coronavirus smashed through seemingly solid structures that supported our way of life and our self-understanding. The body politic struggled to grasp the nature of the problem and workable solutions. The world’s economic underpinnings became unmoored. What we took for granted—from stocked supermarkets to ready access to family, friends, community, work and entertainment—were held in the balance. Pain and loss became acute for those who contracted COVID-19. Frustration, anger and grief hit home for those trying valiantly to care for them and for those who saw loved ones, associates and neighbors die.
This shaking of the foundations ushered in questions about who we are and how we define ourselves. Questions about life’s unfairness lingered around us. Exposed to an unknown future, one that experts say will change the way we live, we came face-to-face with our own material and spiritual resources, with our need to persevere, with our nee..
I am one of four children. My mother is a recovering alcoholic and my father struggles with a heroin addiction. I know they both love me. However, their problems created what I can only describe as a destructive lifestyle. As a result, our family has been spiritually and emotionally devastated.
From as early as I can remember, we were evicted from apartment after apartment. At age 15, I started working to help pay the rent and other bills so our home could have some semblance of stability and security. Eventually, we moved into a house in Pittsburgh, Pa.
That house was the first time we were able to plant some roots, so all things considered, it was a happy time in my life. I had school friends and even a crush on Carly, a girl who lived a couple of houses down the road.
Evicted again But just like always, that stability and happy time was short lived. My father started to secretly keep our rent money to support his addiction; the same destructive cycle raised its ugly head again.
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Tiffany is a hard-working, independent mother who has been providing for herself and her family since her ex-husband left her and their two children while she was 4 months pregnant with their third child. “I found myself alone with no friends and family to help,” says Tiffany. “I was behind on my rent and facing […]
Tneeshia enrolled in The Salvation Army’s Pathway of Hope program just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Her goal was to find housing for herself and her two-year-old son and start her path toward earning her GED. “By early March, me and my son had moved into an apartment, and I was taking in-person GED classes,” […]
The COVID-19 crisis has hit vulnerable individuals especially hard. This includes people like Gary, who is homeless and relies heavily on The Salvation Army not only for shelter but for food and emotional and spiritual care as well. Gary has been to multiple shelters during his 17 years of struggling with homelessness, but he says […]
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The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.
