“When I do, I often find a real need for healing—and Christ has the power to heal. That’s the hope I carry with me every day when I go to work.”
Called to Serve
Golisky wasn’t raised in The Salvation Army or any church at all, for that matter. As a teen musician in her high-school band, a few of her Salvation Army friends invited her to some corps events.
As it happened, Golisky’s mother had just died, and the 18-year-old had a conversion experience where the presence of God came to her in a very powerful fashion.
“I experienced a sense of great hope and strength in a time of loss, and that life-in-death paradox was brand new to me,” Golisky recalls. “I knew at that moment that Christ was true and from that point on, things changed for me forever.”
Golisky needed to find a church that matched up with her beliefs.
“The call to serve almost came naturally, as did the belief that I needed to share hope in the darker places,” she says, “and so The Salvation Army was a perfect match to that call.”
While completing a master of divinity at St. Michael’s College in Toronto, Golisky interned at the Philip Aziz Centre, a home-hospice program in Toronto. “That was my first taste of chaplaincy, and I loved it!” She subsequently went on to chaplaincy training in various downtown Toronto hospitals.
Golisky naturally gravitated toward working with youth. As a member of The Salvation Army’s Corps 614 in Toronto’s Regent Park, where she continues to attend, she early realized that she enjoyed working with the young, and chaplaincy matched up with that passion.
“Working in the inner city made me realize how many kids get off to a rocky start,” says Golisky. “I want to help them see that Christ can be relevant in their lives.”
Planting a Seed
As a part of The Salvation Army’s correctional and justice services, Golisky has a full schedule. Three days a week, she divides her time between The Salvation Army’s Cuthbert House in Brampton, Ont., and The Salvation Army’s MacMillan Centre in Milton, Ont., two open-custody facilities for young men. There she facilitates Bible discussion groups and chapel services.
Two days a week, Golisky represents The Salvation Army at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre in Brampton, a secure-custody facility run by the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, that houses both male and female offenders. There, she leads a program for young women and connects with youth on an individual basis.
The average age of the youth she ministers to is 16-17, but those in her care could be as young as 12 and as old as 20. The crimes range from murder to assault and petty theft.
One young man she met with wanted nothing to do with God or the Bible. Golisky simply sat and talked to him. Eventually, she was able to ask him why he was so hostile about the subject and he finally admitted that he had never actually learned about God’s love.
By the end of the conversation, the young man requested a Bible and in the days before his court appearance, he prayed with Golisky for the first time in his life. “He felt God with him,” she says.
Golisky never found out what happened to the young man. “But I hope I planted a seed,” she says.
Breaking the Cycle
It’s through such informal encounters that Golisky has seen the important connection between the institutional work she does and community support.
“I share God’s Word and I do what I can while the youths are in the justice system,” she states, “but their communities need to embrace them upon their return. Often, we’re held back by fear of the masks that teenagers wear. We need to get past those fears and help give them a sense of worth and purpose, value and belonging. We all have a responsibility.”
Golisky also likes to quote a saying: “Hurt people hurt people.”
“It’s a vicious cycle,” she explains. “Without Christ’s healing—true and lasting healing—old wounds will fester. If a person is hurt, they’ll end up hurting others. My goal is to help break the cycle.”
Golisky hopes one day to continue her studies in theology, but for the moment she feels privileged to be doing the work that God has called her to do.
“I see what I do as one small part of God’s bigger picture,” she concludes, “taking care of young people and inspiring hope.”
