“There’s a common thread running through every member of The Salvation Army,” says Jeni Lipsett. “To serve the poor, to love the lost and to see God. I’ve searched for a place like that all of my life, and the Army is where my heart is.” 

A Desire to Serve 

Born in the United States and raised by a single mother, Jeni didn’t come from a faith background. 

“But I was always raised to be free to choose to believe whatever I wanted,” she says, “whatever I felt was right.” 

In high school, Jeni met some friends who were Christians, and after she graduated, she started to pursue God in earnest, “seeking, asking questions. I was even journaling and writing letters to God.” 

Then a good friend of Jeni’s invited her to an Easter Sunday service in the spring of 1998. The pastor gave the congregation a sermon about salvation. 

“I can’t remember his exact words,” she says now. “He used the allegory of being a lost child in the woods searching for his parents and wanting to be safe at home. That perfectly described how I felt, lost and looking for home.” 

When the pastor asked for those who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour to raise their hand, Jeni willingly did so. 

Surrounded by her good friends, she started attending church every week. 

“It was a wonderful time in my life.” 

From there, Jeni joined an interdenominational training organization that supported short-term missions around the world targeted toward young people. 

She served on mission and outreach trips to Indigenous peoples on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia’s Far East and the North Slope of Alaska. 

“It was a really cool experience,” Jeni says, “and an important part of my life.” 

From there, she went to school in Scotland and then returned to Alaska for a couple of years. 

“I was aware that God was calling me to full-time ministry, but I didn’t really know what that meant or what that looked like for me. I just knew that I had a strong desire to serve God in that way.” 

What God Wants 

Jeni was trying to figure out her next step when she attended a conference in Vancouver hosted by The Salvation Army’s 614 Corps (now Boundless Vancouver) and the War College, a discipleship training program that was in operation at that time. 

While she was vaguely aware that the Army was a church, her knowledge of the organization was basically limited to thrift stores and kettles. 

“Major Stephen Court and Danielle Strickland, and Majors Elaine and Ian Gillingham, were the hosts of this conference and they told us all about The Salvation Army,” says Jeni. “I felt really drawn to the Army’s brand of discipleship. This is what God wants me to do, I thought. 

“And so I did.” 

The Right Fit 

Jeni flourished at the War College, which she started attending in 2004. 

“That was a huge faith step for me,” she says. “While it was very transformational, figuring out who I was in Christ, for me, it was more about learning what The Salvation Army was and is and could be. 

“I also saw where God had been calling me to—for example, that God had given me a heart for people living on the street, and I really connected with that idea of living, ministering where you are, being incarnational. 

“I knew that God was aligning my heart to these things through The Salvation Army. 

“Until then, I just never felt like I fit and now I knew this was where God was calling me, telling me that I was home at last.” 

“Where We’re Needed” 

For Jeni, becoming a soldier signalled her lifelong commitment to the Army as her church family. 

“The night I became a soldier in 2006 was the night that my husband, Regan, proposed to me,” she smiles. “We started our Army journey at the same time.” 

After getting married in 2007, Jeni was a stay-at-home mom to their four children while Regan pursued employment in the film industry, and they became active in ministry at their corps, Cariboo Hill Temple in Burnaby, B.C. Now that her children are older, however, she has taken a position as the administrative assistant there. 

Jeni feels that while officership is in their future, for the moment, they are quite happy being at Cariboo Hill Temple. 

“This is where we’re needed.” 

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