Patrik & Hanna Olterman are our new Youth Leaders here in Latvia and they have not had a very good time of it over the first few weeks of their life in Latvia. Car break ins, bad housing, record low temperatures and sickness have been the order of the day. Today they moved into the flat that will be their home while they are here only to find some of their furniture has been damaged during the time it has been in storage.
We all know this is a time of spiritual attack as their self proclaimed, God-given goal is to make the name of Jesus famous here in Latvia.
If anyone does read this blog I’d just ask for you to pray for them over the coming weeks as they settle into their new life. They have a wonderful daughter, Angelina (almost 2), and another baby due in May.
Yesterday’s posts reminded me of some thoughts about TSA that I had a few weeks ago. I can’t remember now what set my thought process off, but I suspect that it was a letter in the Salvationist as that’s often the case. Whatever it was I seem to put across a pretty narrow view of what TSA is.
Any I recall thinking that the view put across didn’t describe any army in the world, so why should it describe ours. This led me to think about the way a military army is made up. It is full of various different types of regiment: Infantry, Artillery, Cavalry, Logistics etc. However, for many years our version of TSA, at least in the UK, was full dominated by only one type of unit (and that might not have even been a fighting unit!)
In actual fact there should be room in our Army for a variety of different units, all fighting in different ways, but all fighting for the same cause and all fighting as the best trained soldiers in the Army of God.
Instead we in the West have for decades been dominated by a mentality which to many extents was more of a spiritual Mess Hall than a true unit of an Army. Instead of taking the battle out to the frontline or into enemy territory we have sat safely in our camps enjoying an apparent peacetime, whilst allowing our Army to diminish. Many good soldiers have ‘retired’ and the young squaddies coming through have not been very well trained.
In many places there is dissatisfaction with this status quo and I praise the Lord that this is so. Lets start recruiting new recruits for all our different types of units and push on with the battle!
Later in the year we should be starting a Mission Team in Latvia from amongst the youth. The leader of the project has asked me to teach Salvation Army history to them during the first few weeks when they will undergo intense training.
In preparation I’ve started re-reading various books and yesterday I picked up Phil Wall’s ‘I’ll fight…’. I found the following that really made me sit up and think:
“In military terms they [Booth and the early Salvationists] did not see themselves as defenders of some religious enclave from which they occasionally fired artillery and launched ‘hit and run’ commando raids only to return to their ’safe haven’ citadels. No, this was an all-out offensive into enemy territory where the majority of lost people were to be found.”
Being totally honest, there is no doubt in my mind that the majority of corps that I grew up in, and there were a lot of them, were far more of the former type of military unit, than the latter. That ’safe haven’ mentality coloured my view of this Army for far to many years. I pray that I don’t perpetuate that understanding of The Salvation Army in my daughter’s life, or indeed in the type of Army I show through my history lessons to the young people of Latvia!
As a regular reader of the Journal of Aggressive Christianity I was delighted to see the latest article from Danielle Strickland relating to the lack of married women as nominees for General. As the husband of a wife, I can understand why this is concerning to many people, and the fact that no married woman has yet reached a senior position in The Salvation Army is a problem that I hope will be addressed in future.
However, for me there was an even bigger issue. Of the 7 nominations for General there were 2 Canadians (interestingly both the women nominees), 2 Americans, 1 Brit, a Dane and a Swede! Not one of the nominees came from a part of the world where TSA is seeing its strongest growth! To me this is a far bigger issue than that of no married women, as at least there were some women nominated.
According to the information that I have, no recent General has ever been elected on their first nomination for the post. This means it is unlikely that we will see a change next time round, although the General-elect is young enough that many of the current ‘front-runners’ will have retired by the next High Council.
I truly believe that the right person has been appointed as the new General as I look back at past Generals and see that they were the man or woman for the time. However, I am genuinely concerned that we are still looking to the traditional strongholds for our leadership.
I’ve been thinking about my own blog for sometime now and have finally decided to take the plunge.
Like many new bloggers I have no idea whatsoever about where this blog will take me, or how often I will be updating!
My main reason for starting a blog is that I’m not the best person at keeping a journal and the idea of sharing my ramblings with others through this medium quite interests me. I’m currently going through a process of trying to better understand both the Army I serve in and my place within it. Hopefully this blog will help me keep track and maybe even give me some form of accountability!
So whether anyone joins me along the way is yet to be seen, but welcome onboard to anyone who does!
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