As Doug Fynn, Wayne Tugwood and Captain David MacPherson sit in the downstairs activities room at the Salvation Army church in New Westminster, B.C., they can't help but laugh at how beautiful the room looks.

“It took our painters forever to get this room right,” says Wayne. “It must have about eight coats of paint in some spots, but we had to show them how to do the job properly.”

It wasn't just painting, but sanding, prepping and priming a room that was used for everything from floor hockey to meetings and buffet dinners.

The eight-person painting crew is called the Holy Rollers and the group was started last year when David wanted to combine the Army's needs with its mandate to help the people it serves.

“We deal with a lot of people looking for jobs or a chance to turn their lives around,” he says. “And we definitely needed a paint job.”

So David put two and two together and obtained Salvation Army approval to spend $60,000 on painting the church facilities.

Top-Notch Team
Instead of farming the work out, David asked Doug, the centre's community ministries co-ordinator, to put together a team of enthusiastic people who could be trained to not only paint the building but also acquire enough skills so that they could bid on other jobs in the community.

“The first thing I had to do was find a team leader,” says David. “I knew Wayne from when he worked in Burnaby, B.C., and I knew he was in Nanaimo, B.C., so I literally dragged him back here to help.”

“It wasn't that hard to get me back,” says Wayne, the Holy Rollers team leader, responsible for training the seven men and one woman how to paint professionally. “I like training and working with people, showing them skills they can use.”

Doug received more than 30 applications for the eight jobs that pay $10 per
hour to start and go up as the painters gain experience. “We could easily have put a team of 12 or 14 together,” he continues. “Of the eight we picked, we have a variety of ages and backgrounds.”

Trained and Prepped
Angie Webster may be the only female member of the Holy Rollers, but she is used to working with men. She worked as a carpenter and a roofer in the construction industry for a decade before being laid off.

“The recession happened,” she says. “I wanted to work, but there wasn't much out there. Plus, I wanted something a bit more spiritual.”

Angie grew tired of working with co-workers who swore incessantly, but she didn't have anywhere to turn after being laid off.

“I went to church, and that's where I heard about this program,” she says. “I hadn't painted professionally before, so it seemed like a good idea to learn something new.”

What Angie had going for her was a good work ethic and the desire to contribute to society, both physically and spiritually. She remembers how hard it was to finish that first room.

“It looks so nice now,” says David. “What took them a month-and-a-half at first, they can do in less than a week. Slowly, but surely, we've trained them to industry level.”

Confidence and Success
Proud as she is of the team's accomplishments, Angie knows the true test is upon them.

“We're trying to get contracts to paint places outside the church,” she explains. “I'm excited because that means we'll have the skills to paint anything. I know we can do this, and it's exciting to have a new trade that keeps me off welfare.”

Wayne says that next step is important, because now that the $60,000 has been spent, he has to earn enough money from outside contracts to pay his workers.

“If that means the church has to take a back seat while the team is out on other jobs, that's OK,” says David. “Wayne's got a lot of pressure on him. He has to generate enough work to keep the team employed. But we're confident that he and the Holy Rollers will succeed.”

---

With Faith and a Paintbrush

Pious Mangong's path to Canada was arduous, but he's learned to roll with the punches both at home and on the job

Pious Mangong loves cleaning. For the refugee who came from southern Sudan in 2005, having a clean workplace was almost as important as the work itself. Problem was, he was part of the Holy Rollers program at the New Westminster, B.C., Salvation Army, and he was being paid to paint.

“Pious loves cleaning so much that we had to constantly remind him his job was to paint,” said Holy Rollers team leader Wayne Tugwood. “Now, I think he realizes he's a painter first.”

Pious admits he took some time to focus on his new job, but you can never accuse him of not working hard.

“We first met Pious when he came to volunteer at the church,” says Captain David MacPherson, the pastor. “He helped out a lot, and when he applied for the program, we thought he might be a good fit.

“He doesn't talk much about what happened back in Sudan, but I imagine it must have been very tough for him to be a Christian there.”

For Pious, learning a trade is important, but he's survived so much more.

A Painter First
Since 1996, he had been trying to leave a homeland ravaged by civil war. He spent two years in Egypt, waiting for a visa to come to Canada.

By the time he got to New Westminster five years ago, all he could find were two manual-labour jobs, one in a wood factory and the second in a chicken-processing plant.

Pious hit a stretch of bad luck when he fell and tore some knee ligaments. After surgery, he soon found himself jobless but not hopeless.

“Because of my faith, I would wake up every morning thinking today was the day I would find work,” he says. “It was hard, but I had my faith.”

Pious didn't like collecting welfare, but he needed the money to survive. Now that he's earning a wage, he feels like he can contribute to his new country. And with a confidence born out of surviving everything thrown his way, he can even laugh at his initial painting struggles.

“This room we took six weeks to do. I think we can do it now in two days,” he states. “That's how far I've come, and that's how far everyone's come.”

“It might take longer than that,” cautions Wayne. “But it's great to see how confident Pious is.”

Pious knows that confidence is something he'll need now that the Holy Rollers are working on contracts outside the church.

“I'm excited, very excited,” he says. “Scared, no, never scared. I wasn't scared when I was waiting to come to Canada, and I wasn't scared when I got hurt. It took me a while, but I think of myself as a painter now.”