If you were to come to Broadview Village on a Friday morning at 9 a.m., you would find a small group of people gathered around a table, enjoying a cup of coffee. “Mmmm … you make good coffee, Major Christine!” Thomas often tells me. Thomas has lived at Broadview, a Salvation Army residential program for people with developmental disabilities in Toronto, for many years. As the chaplain, sitting and chatting with other staff and Thomas every Friday is one of the highlights of my week. I’ve come to cherish the gifts he offers—joy, friendship and kindness.

When I was 26, I felt stuck in a rut. I was unemployed, living in my parent’s basement and depressed. I needed a fresh start. I moved to a new city without a job or knowing anyone. But although I didn’t have a plan, God did.

God still calls The Salvation Army to be a prophetic voice in an increasingly lost and wayward world, with Scripture in one hand, obedience in the other—living and being the Army God intended.

Ninety delegates from across Canada and Bermuda gathered at the College for Officer Training (CFOT) in Winnipeg in October for the annual Officership Information Weekend.

The 2017 International Conference of Leaders concluded with a meeting in which Commissioner Silvia Cox invited everyone to rejoice following a week of meetings attended by Salvation Army leaders from around the world.

Kamal Dhillon endured more than 10 years of domestic abuse before she finally found refuge at The Salvation Army’s Kate Booth House.

Allow me to paraphrase an old folktale. Thousands of starfish have washed onto a beach, where many of them will die. A young boy gently tosses one back into the water, then another and another. An onlooker asks, “Why are you bothering? You can’t save them all. You’re wasting your time. How can this make any significant difference?” The boy looks at the starfish in his hand, smiles, and says, “It makes a difference to this one.”

We arrived in Niagara Falls, Ont., to begin our first year of ministry as a family 443 days ago. It’s hard to articulate how many emotions and discoveries that number represents. We had no idea what life was going to look like. As Salvation Army officers, we have the freedom to grow together in ministry—to invest in our marriage and our children. After all, God called us as a family, didn’t he?

While Remembrance Day ceremonies allow us to recall the horror and inhumanity of war, they also serve to remind us of the displays of human compassion that so often interposed themselves between the long periods of enmity.

After 20 years of ministry in Germany, Lt-Colonels Marsha-Jean and David Bowles return with fresh insights for the Army in Canada and Bermuda.