The Salvation Army Chatham

When they left Chatham for the William Booth College last year Cadets Steve and Mel Scoulding were asked to ‘drop us a line’ occasionally.

Steve and Mel

Now that the first year at college has been completed they have found the time to send us the following:

“Saturday 10th July saw the Commissioning and Ordination of the Prayer Warriors Session and all those weeks of rehearsal and preparation culminated in a very special (if extremely hot!) weekend for all of us at WBC, new Lieutenants , cadets and staff alike. Farewell Sunday celebrations, held at Dulwich College this year because of the building work at WBC, were both poignant and exciting as we formally said goodbye to those going to new appointments and ‘au revoir’ to our fellow Ambassadors of Holiness as we separated for our summer placements.

William Booth College

Looking back it amazes us that we have now completed our first year of study (we can now wear two bars on our epaulets!), but each week has brought its own challenges in a year punctuated by assignments and placements. We often hear people talking about the days when “training was training”, and we have to say that training still is so much more than just the academic challenge of study. We are in the process of reorientation, exchanging our old lives for a life of service and spiritual leadership, which can sometimes be painful but is always well worth the effort it requires. Over the past year we have met up with old friends, made new ones and met a wealth of truly amazing people in places close to home (Edward Alsop Court- formerly Majors David and Gill Tribble, currently Lieuts Alison and Keith Greer) and as far away as Doncaster (Lakeside Community Church – Capts Stuart and Ann Crane) and Belfast (Citadel – Capts Michael and Lorraine Kinnear). We have also learned a great deal, about theology, about The Salvation Army, about ourselves and about God and His faithfulness.

Steve and I took the opportunity of taking our furlough prior to taking up our Summer placement at Booth House, so we are writing to you from Melbourne, Australia! We came (with Steve’s Mum, Brenda), to see our son and daughter-in-law, Simon and Alice and to meet our eight-month old granddaughter Matilda for the first time! It was well worth the wait and the long journey! The trip is inevitably far too short, but for both Sundays we have visited a Corps well known to Murray and Verna, Camberwell Corps, Melbourne. We have been blown away by welcome we have received and the meetings we have attended. It’s truly incredible to come to the other side of the world and find so much that is familiar and so many links between people and places. That is one of the real strengths of the worldwide Salvation Army!

With a few days left of sightseeing, rest and babysitting(!), we are really looking forward to the challenges that the next year of training will bring – Summer placement, Sunday preaching placement and lots more assignments! Through it all, we know that God is good : “He does not faint nor grow weary, His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”( Isaiah 40:28-31)”

Steve & Mel Scoulding