Mysterious happenings at historic corps building in country NSW
- deansimpson7
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
BY LAUREN MARTIN
In its 101-year history, Temora Corps has never had a more eventful year. The brick citadel has been taken up by a tornado, covered in snow and had its roof blown off!
Well, not really.
The images of the corps in these crazy predicaments, photoshopped by Corps Officer Auxiliary-Lieutenant Caleb Smith, have become a talking point in the small south-western farming town.
“To amuse myself, I photoshopped a dinosaur into a picture of the main street and posted that, and put the caption, ‘This guy looks lost, does anyone know the owners?’ There were hundreds of likes and shares and comments.”
Caleb took note of the huge response, and it got him thinking. His regular monthly posts to advertise the corps community dinner, and his weekly posts inviting people to church on Sundays barely received any responses. He wondered if trying a more novel approach could change that.
So, in the lead-up to Christmas last year, he posted a photoshopped image of the Temora Citadel covered in snow, to invite people to one of the corps’ Christmas functions.
The next week, it was wrapped in wrapping paper, and the following week it was made of gingerbread. Instead of one or two ‘likes’ on Facebook, there was a huge response, with some people even sharing the post to their personal Facebook pages. “People were sharing ads for our community event!” Caleb said.
Early this year, Caleb tried a similar approach to invite local townsfolk to church on Sunday. He photoshopped a photo of the hall so that it looked like it had no roof.
The caption read:
“People always say to me, ‘I’d go to church but I’m pretty sure the roof would fall in if I entered the building, haha.’ That’s why, here at the Temora Salvation Army, we’ve undertaken some minor alterations to our building to ensure that everyone feels welcome. And our new heavy-duty lightning rods keep blasphemy-related smitings to an all-time low!”
That one went as ‘viral’ as you can get, for a town of about 5000 residents, with about 300 likes, plenty of comments and shares. And, to Caleb’s surprise, it generated conversations as people stopped him on the street to talk about it.
“People would say, ‘I saw your building carried away by the tornado!’ People initiated conversations with me about what the church was doing, which never happened before.”
Like the verse in 1 Peter, Caleb was now making sure he was ready to ‘give an answer’ to those who had questions about the church and its ministries.
“It means that people are happy to talk about what we do and … it means I have to be prepared for random people to ask questions about our ministries down the street, I have to keep a good story ready to go to tell people.”
Since then, the corps building has been photoshopped being taken up by a tornado and, on top of huge tractor tracks, as a ‘Mobile All-Terrain Salvation Deployment Vehicle’ in Facebook posts that promote the work of the local Salvos and invite people to join them.
But have the posts led to any increase in attendance at the corps’ monthly community lunch or Sunday meeting?
“We have some extra folks coming to the dinner and occasionally to Sunday as well,” said Caleb. “But it’s hard to tell if they are coming [as a result of the social media posts.]”
Regardless, the initiative has been a fun one, and Caleb has no shortage of ideas up his sleeve for future adventures of the mysterious 101-year-old Temora Salvation Army Citadel. Stay tuned!
