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As we celebrate National Salvation Army Week, we also salute our Empire Division Commander, Major Donald Hostetler, who will be retiring next month with his wife, Major Arvilla Hostetler, after over 40 years as Salvation Army officers and ministers.
As my wife and I approach the end of our active Officership, it is only natural occasionally to reflect upon God’s call to ministry and the provisions of His grace at every turn. I can honestly say that I cannot envision a more exciting life journey than what the Lord provided.
I was born into a Salvation Army family. My earliest recollections involve my parents (who were Salvation Army officers at the time) ministering – first to men in recovery in what were called Harbor Light centers, and then to Corps congregations. I heard my father preach and imitated him as a young child. I heard my mother’s peerless musical ministry at the piano keyboard and longed to make beautiful music like she did. Even before hearing God’s call to ministry, a desire to do what my parents were doing was inculcated.
Although I would list “social worker” as my career choice when asked, my heart’s desire was to be a Salvation Army officer. I just had not heard “the call.” It was at Salvation Army Music Camp that God made His will clear to me, through one of the officers on the Music Camp staff who exuded the joy of serving Christ. There was no momentous happening; just the Lord’s gentle assurance that I had moved into the center of the circle of His will.
God’s calling was further confirmed when he sent a beautiful young lady to give me her love and capture mine … a young lady who shared my calling to Salvation Army Officership. We played in a Salvation Army band together, worked at the Army’s Camp Swoneky in Ohio, and had no doubt that God had something special in store for us.
Dr. Seuss wrote a book titled “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.” Our service as Salvation Army officers has taken us places that poor kids from Ohio should never expect to visit. My wife and I have served in appointments in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Maine, California and Oregon. Each place has its own charms, its own special culture – and wonderful people we were blessed to work with and be loved by. Just the fact of having lived on the coast of Maine in Old Orchard Beach and the Pacific Coast in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, is a blessing we would never have dreamt of.
But it is not only the “ordinary blessings” of daily ministry that have enriched us. We have seen the Army at work in other places: a home for orphaned children with AIDS in Johannesburg, South Africa; children’s homes and rural medical clinics in Papua New Guinea; vibrant worship in Hamilton, Bermuda; visiting the Army’s historic roots in London, England.
These are rewards we would never have asked for. But the greatest reward is realizing the impact that the faithful proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has on those who hear and respond. To have a newly commissioned officer thank us for bringing him to the Corps where he found Jesus and was enrolled as a Junior Soldier many years earlier, or to see the troubled teen to whom we ministered (often amid our exasperation with her) now wearing uniform in her Corps and introducing her children to us with pride, these are priceless gifts to us.
I cannot imagine a more exciting, fulfilling, rewarding life than that of a Salvation Army officer. I am grateful to God for His calling and for the grace to serve.
Tags: Faces of The Army