Summer Assignment 2010

Yesterday was the announcement of annual moves in The Salvation Army in the Canada & Bermuda Territory. A number of officers received phone calls informing them that at the start of July they are expected to relocate and commence service in a new location or role.

It was also a very exciting day around the College for Officer Training in Winnipeg, where Second Year Cadets received their very first appointments as Salvation Army officers. After 22 months of training these individuals and families are being given responsibility for leading a Salvation Army unit. You can see a list of where the cadets are going on the College's website.

Also announced at CFOT were the summer assignments for the First Year Cadets - a group that I belong to. While the Second Years were given private visits in their apartments to break the news, we were summoned to the College for a light lunch and told in front of the entire College community where we would spend the summer. When my name was called it was announced that I was spending the summer in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland.

I am looking forward to the summer and the time I am going to spend in Bay Roberts. Summer assignments are an opportunity for cadets to gain experience in ministry under the supervision of a more experienced officer. Going to Newfoundland will also give me the opportunity to experience a different culture and expression of the Army from what I have grown up with. Of course I've been to Newfoundland a few times since Susan is from the island, but two months doing ministry within that context will be a new experience and fantastic opportunity.

You can check out the full list of summer assignments here.

I leave you with a picture of me and some friends taken in Bay Roberts when I was there in 2001 on a band trip.

Where are you from?

This is a question that I get asked quite a bit, especially when I'm meeting new people as a cadet. It's a pretty straight forward question that is asking for a pretty straight forward answer, but I never feel like the answer is quite as easy as it should be.

In the past, I've usually responded with whichever city I'm living in at the time, but now people generally are looking to find out where I'm originally from. They often know that I live in Winnipeg, but they also realize that I'm just here for school and that this isn't my hometown.

So, I search for another answer. I could go with Edmonton, the city that I last lived in before coming to Winnipeg, but it doesn't quite feel right. I lived there for a little over two years, but it never quite became 'home.'

Then there are the other places I've lived: Peace River, Lake Munmorah, Calgary, Ottawa, Hamilton, Mississauga and Listowel (working my ways from most recent to when I was born). All of these have been home for a time, but it's hard to pick one to 'be from.'

I probably make it more complicated than it is, but in a lot of ways where a person is from is part of their identity, so it isn't easy to let the question go.

Often I come back to the little town in Ontario where I was born: Listowel. I was only three and half years old when we left to move to Mississauga, but this community has become very important to me, especially I've grown into my twenties.

This semester I've been working on a research paper for one of my courses, History of The Salvation Army. I was given the opportunity to select the topic for my paper, so I decided to write about the history of the Army in Listowel. It wasn't an easy project, since I am a little removed from the location and don't have overly strong ties to the town. There is very little academic work about the town, and I couldn't find anything written about the corps there, so I was left to explore primary sources, such as newspaper articles (actually, almost entirely newspaper articles).

I contacted the local archives which, for a small fee, sent me quite a bit of information. By referencing more general materials about the Army in Canada and religion in Ontario I was able to build an eight page paper.

I had a great time reading about the history of Listowel, the Army and learning a bit about a piece of my heritage. When I finished the paper on Wednesday I was glad to have the paper (which is worth 40% of my course mark) done, but I was also a bit disappointed that my task was complete.

I think this is something that I might have to continue to pursue down the road as a personal interest...

Ambassadors of Holiness

...this is the name of the next session of cadets that will train at The Salvation Army's training facilities. Around the world cadets from this session have already begun their training in territories where the training program begins in January or February. In September the Canada and Bermuda Territory will welcome a group of cadets to the College for Officer Training in Winnipeg, Manitoba.


On his website, General Shaw Clifton explained that "this name brings into focus the holiness teaching which is such a key part of the Army's mission and identity. It reminds us of the need for every officer to understand, to teach and to exemplify the truths expressed in our 10th doctrine."


I am pleased to say that Susan and I will be moving to Winnipeg in late August as I join this session in preparation to enter into Salvation Army Officership. Susan will continue to remain involved with The Salvation Army as a lay person and soldier, but will not be entering the training program. This is a fairly new concept in the SA as we have historically operated under a model that required married couples to both enter in officership or for an officer to marry another officer. This is the second year in a row that our territory has accepted a single-spouse candidate for training.


This has been a fairly lengthy process for me. I have the letter that was issued after I first requested to begin the application process. It is dated December 14, 2005, but I really first started to consider officership a few years before that in 2001 while working as a camp counselor at Camp Selkirk in Ontario.


Keep watching for more news as we learn more about this exciting transition!