“To me, The Salvation Army is special in that it reaches out and connects with the lowly, the marginalized and the underprivileged,” says Mary Milne. But for her, the reason is more personal and deeply felt. “They accepted and welcomed the outcast.”

Never Again

When Mary was 20, she and her brother decided to check out the local churches in the Sudbury, Ont., area.

“Our family believed in the Bible, but not in church,” she explains. “I’m not sure what inspired it, but I think we just decided to be naughty!” 

While Mary’s brother chose the Salvation Army church, she attended another denomination. But when she walked through their doors, she was taken aback.

“I was a farm girl,” she smiles, “and I dressed like a farm girl. I’m sandwiched in between six brothers, three younger, three older. My older sisters had already left, so I was dressed in boys’ clothes, hand-me-downs. And everyone at that church had fancy suits and ties and dresses and jewelry and makeup. I felt out of place—and the congregation made sure I knew that.”

Mary left and never wanted to set foot in a church again.

“Who I Was”

Mary’s brother had had a different experience at the Salvation Army church. 

“He’s a big, tough guy,” she says. “You don’t tell him what to do or where to go. But at the end of the service, he shook the pastor’s hand and said that he’d be back next week—and he was.”

Mary’s brother tried to persuade her to go with him to church. At first, she refused, but he persisted. 

So, on Easter Sunday 2017, Mary walked into The Salvation Army’s Sudbury Community Church—and she loved it. 

“There were people there in jeans and sweatpants. I felt at home, as if I was accepted for who I was.”

“Where I Belonged”

When Mary moved in with her brother that December, she began attending The Salvation Army regularly.

A little later, in May 2018, she became a Christian after some evangelists had explained the gospel message in a way she had never heard before. 

“It’s a love that is beyond my words to articulate,” she says. “God changed my life. There’s no other way to put it.”

“God has called me within the Army to be an officer.”
—Mary Milne

Mary sampled other churches but continued to attend The Salvation Army. 

“I’ve tried other denominations just to see what they were like,” she says, “but I really felt that God was calling me to The Salvation Army. I felt that’s where I belonged.”

Called to Officership

“I was scrolling through social media one day and came across an article by Major Terence Hale,” Mary says of the officer who currently serves at the Centre of Hope in Halifax. “I randomly friended him, and he accepted my friend request, even though he had absolutely no idea who I was. I felt God call me through that article.” 

That message encouraged her to seek out more information on Salvation Army history and doctrine, which, in turn, led her to a job as an intake worker two years later for The Salvation Army in Sudbury. In 2019, she became a soldier and, after serving with the Army’s camping ministry in Ontario, was enrolled in The Salvation Army’s ministry placement program.

“I am shadowing Captains Carolina and Johnny Valencia, the corps officers at Toronto’s Scarborough Citadel,” says Mary.

“They’re wonderful mentors. I’ve had the privilege of being able to have difficult conversations with them, and I’ve gotten practical experience in officership. It’s good knowledge and good education.”

Mary hopes to be accepted as a candidate for officership in the near future.

“I feel that God has done a tremendous amount through the Army for me, and I feel that God has called me within the Army to be an officer. I don’t know any better way to put it.”

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