At the end of a conversation that spanned three generations, Major Bev Franco, Lorianne Blackman and Mikayla Blackman were each asked to describe their family’s journey in one word.

They didn’t hesitate. And they all said the same thing: faithfulness.

Answering the Call

Not faith as a feeling. Faithfulness as a way of living—showing up, stepping out and serving others, whether it is comfortable or not. That is the thread that runs through this family. And it has been running for a very long time.

Major Bev Franco is a fifth-generation Salvationist and a retired Salvation Army pastor. When she traces her family’s history, she goes all the way back to her great-great-grandmother, a woman she never met but whose prayers she believes shaped the person she became.

“They were all godly women who prayed for me,” says Major Bev. “They were all part of The Salvation Army. So that’s where I ended up.”

For her, faith was never something reserved for Sunday mornings or moments in a Salvation Army uniform.

“You don’t just have to be a light when you’re at the church,” says Major Bev. “You should be a light wherever you go. And people will see that and ask you—what is it that makes you so joyful? And it’s Jesus every time.”

Major Bev answered a call to become a pastor alongside her husband, Major Philip Franco—a call that stretched her, shaped her and sent her into decades of service. She carried her faith not as something to protect, but as something to give away.

Service, Not Performance

Majors Bev and Philip’s daughter, Lorianne, grew up watching all of it. She saw her parents praying together daily. She watched her mother mentor others and give her time generously to anyone who needed it.

The moment that stayed with her came as a teenager, when she watched her mother respond to a call to pastorship.

“I remember recognizing that this would bring her out of her comfort zone,” says Lorianne, songster (choir) leader and music ministries co-ordinator at The Salvation Army’s Cariboo Hill Temple in Burnaby, B.C. “But I can remember her faithfulness in following God’s call. And seeing how God has really equipped her—I just wanted to be used by God in the same way.”

That desire became action. Today, Lorianne serves through music—leading the songsters, playing in the church’s brass band and participating in worship teams. For her, music is not performance. It is service.

“God can do incredible things that we can’t even imagine.” MIKAYLA BLACKMAN

“Just Keep Seeking”

Then there is Mikayla—Lorianne’s daughter, a seventh-generation member of The Salvation Army. Her faith became her own at 15, working at Camp Sunrise in Gibsons, B.C., for the first time. Something shifted that summer. She found herself not only attending but belonging—and wanting to give that same feeling to others.

It deepened further when she spent six months serving in Australia and Uganda, completely separated from everyone she had ever known. She went not knowing what to expect and came back changed.

What she found overseas was the same thing she had grown up seeing at home—people using their gifts, showing up and trusting God with the rest.

“Sometimes on the worship team, I look over and it’s my mom and my aunt and my uncle and my brother,” she says. “Everyone is doing what they can to be used by God in their gifts.”

To a young person still figuring out their faith, Mikayla points to the Bible verse her grandmother prayed over her before she was even born, 1 Timothy 4:12, which says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

“Don’t let anyone shut you down,” Mikayla says. “Just keep seeking the Lord with your whole heart. He can do incredible things that we can’t even imagine. And He’ll use you in ways that you didn’t think were possible.”

One word. Three women. Seven generations. And a faith that has never just sat still.