Where do we find our hope? As we approach the new year, Major Matt Reeve (Head of Mission Support) reflects on Lamentations 3 and the theme that God is not finished with us yet. “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23). This is the truth that Jeremiah calls to mind, the truth that flies in the face of his long list of grips and complaints, and the truth that he chooses to focus his energy and his attention on. Will we do the same? For more sermon resources click here: https://my.salvos.org.au/toolkit/resource/new-years-video-sermons-/2560/

1. What is your current appointment, and what do you find most satisfying about it? I’m the Mission Leader (corps officer) at Noosa/Coolum Corps. I love serving the incredible team and community we have in this patch of paradise. As a team, we are committed to building a web of hope across our community that is Jesus-centred, Spirit-led and seeing hope revealed. 2. Away from the appointment – if that’s possible! – what do you do to relax or unwind? A night session at the gym, coffee and a swim at the beach all work for me. 3. What’s a favourite Christian song, and why do you like it? I’d pick Dear God by Cory Asbury. Every time I reflect on the words, I am reminded that I have nothing to prove and nothing to lose. My identity is in Jesus; he is more than enough. 4. If you could have a good talk with a biblical character apart from Jesus, who would it be and what would you talk about? I’d like to talk to the boy who gave Jesus the loaves and fishes that fed the thousands. I love that he is an ordinary, unknown boy who simply surrendered the little he had to Jesus. I would ask him about how that one encounter shifted the trajectory of his life. 5. If you were talking to a group of Salvationists and they asked if you recommended officership or not, what would you say? I would recommend pursuing Jesus … wherever or whatever that may look like for you.

BY ANTHONY CASTLE The Salvation Army’s Research team was recently recognised as a runner-up in Excellence in Social Impact Measurement at the 9th Annual SIMNA Awards. Since December 2020, the team has been working with the Youth Streams to develop and implement the National Youth Services Outcomes Measurement Framework to assess and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of their interventions. Following a 12-month pilot phase and a comprehensive feedback process, the national rollout of the framework was completed in July 2023. “We wanted to know when and where there are impacts in young people’s lives,” explains Johana Susanto, Executive Manager of the Research team. “To what extent do we fulfil our Mission and Vision? How do we transform Australia, one life at a time, with the love of Jesus? It’s part of The Salvation Army’s Stronger Communities Outcomes Measurement project, where each key stream has their own outcomes framework that can be reported into The Salvation Army’s overarching framework to understand our organisation’s impact in Australia.” The outcome measurement tool is a validated assessment of clients at intake and exit, considering their holistic outcomes relevant to the stream’s model of care. It also gathers feedback about the services, such as client satisfaction, experiences, and any suggestions they might have. Various stakeholders collaborated to refine the framework’s structure and functionality, while the pilot phase served as a testing ground. “The assessment about the outcomes is holistic, with discussions about desirable outcomes at intake and exit,” says Johana. “For example, there is discussion about social capital and connection to culture, which weren’t normally discussed in some programs before outcomes measurement implementation. We also hear about some holistic outcomes of what the clients are hoping to achieve. It helps personalised support plans and referrals to help clients achieve their desired goals. It’s reducing a worker’s potential bias and driving self-assessment for the client.” The Salvation Army’s Youth Services offer an integrated suite of targeted programs that engage young people across Australia on their journey to independence. Service delivery responses include matters relating to alcohol and other drugs, chaplaincy, driver training, employment and training, education, and homelessness. The Youth Services Outcomes Measurement Framework is helping to make The Salvation Army’s support and referrals more targeted, according to the holistic needs of young people. “We are giving an opportunity for people accessing our services to have their say and reflect on their progress,” Johana explains. “Another aspect is that it helps us to understand our impact, areas where we could do better, and systemic barriers to achieving desirable outcomes that can inform our advocacy. The evidence of impact is no longer anecdotal, and the community members themselves help us to improve the process in a timely manner.” SIMNA, the knowledge-sharing network for social impact measurement, celebrated The Salvation Army's work at a virtual ceremony on 30 November 2023. Link to website: https://simna.com.au/simna-awards-2023/

BY SIMONE WORTHING The annual Jayne Wilson Memorial Arts Exhibition – the largest of its kind in the Australia Territory – will be open for its 10th anniversary event from 19-29 January 2024. The Salvation Army First Floor Program (FFP) team will host the exhibition at Wollongong Corps (NSW). The exhibition honours the legacy of Jayne Wilson who established the First Floor Program in the NSW city in 1996. This Jesus-centred program is a holistic and family-inclusive counselling and support service for those impacted by alcohol and drug misuse, mental health issues, trauma, grief and loss. The theme for the exhibition is ‘whole’. “We chose that theme, knowing that at this point in our community, people are trying to make sense of what it means to be whole – individually or as a family, community or nation,” explained Maris Depers, a psychologist with the First Floor program. “It’s a fitting theme to allow people to explore what that means to them including socially, individually or spiritually.” The featured artist this year is not an individual, as it has been in the past. “We are instead featuring the work of a Salvation Army partnership,” says Maris. “The local Carinya Cottage women’s accommodation has an active arts program and runs a community meal and culture program for local Indigenous families in conjunction with the Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation (a local Aboriginal organisation dedicated to raising the esteem, pride and dignity of young Aboriginal people in their Aboriginal culture and heritage). “The weekly kids’ meal and cultural program is run by The Salvation Army’s Carinya Cottage women’s accommodation service at the First Floor Program’s Foundery Family Centre in Port Kembla.” Jayne’s legacy After Jayne passed away on Christmas Day 2013, the First Floor program team were looking for a way to honour her passion for art, and her vision and approach to recovery and community. “She loved art and was a practising artist,” says Maris. “She also embedded artistic practices into the activities, programs and therapeutic groups of the First Floor program. So, the exhibition is an ideal way to honour her legacy and celebrate the power of creativity.” There is a drop-in art group each week, in Port Kembla, Wollongong, Sanctuary Point and Bateman’s Bay, as well as an online group. The FFP’s suicide bereavement support groups also use art in practice to honour the memories of their loved ones by died by suicide. “The exhibition is an activity that holds a very special place for our service,” Maris shares. “Each year, one of the really beautiful things is that there is a ‘co-mingling’ of different art expressions – feature works, art therapy group works, displays from craft groups, professional practising artists and people telling their own journey of recovery. We don’t make any distinctions, and I find that really beautiful.” Jayne’s extended family are also involved in the exhibition each year and chooses winners for the Wilson Family and the Jayne Spirit awards. Exhibition categories include child, youth and open, with prizes in each category. Any works of creative expression are accepted and can include but are not limited to painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, musical composition, written expression, fabric art and mosaic. Entry forms for the exhibition close on 5 January 2024. They can be downloaded from the website and returned via email: firstfloorprogram@salvationarmy.org.au Hard copies can be posted to: The Salvation Army First Floor Program, P.O. Box 1185, Wollongong 2500

From remote Romanian settlements, villages in Southeast Asia, concerts in European town halls, ministry in war-torn Ukraine and in corps, centres and communities throughout the 134 countries where it serves, The Salvation Army celebrated the birth of Jesus as King and Saviour this Christmas. Worship, praise, prayer and music were evident in meetings and services around the world, as were countless examples of ministering to the lonely, hungry, needy, traumatised and excluded.   The Christmas season may be coming to an end for another year, but the work of The Salvation Army in preaching the Good News of Jesus and serving humanity around the world continues.   To see some of the ways the Salvos celebrated Christmas in different countries, click on the slideshow below.

BY ANTHONY CASTLE Salvationist Chloe Spence has volunteered with Red Frogs Crew since 2019 after hearing about the opportunity at Salvation Army youth events. Red Frogs Australia is a youth charity that provides support at events attended by school leavers and university students. The volunteers, known as the Red Frogs Crew, participate in schoolies week and this year, a group of Salvos travelled to Bali to support young Australian school leavers overseas. “I’ve done Red Frogs three times before, but this was my first time in Bali,” explains Chloe. “It’s a different culture, a different environment. Schoolies is far more contained in a place like the Gold Coast, where it can be more spread out somewhere like Bali, more remote and removed from services.” The Red Frogs Crew were named after the confectionary that volunteers often hand out to young people, but Red Frogs Crew also walk school leavers home from events, offer food and water, and provide a caring presence for those at risk. “The services in Bali are also quite different, without all the healthcare and supports available in the ways you’d have back home,” Chloe says. “We saw one young guy who’d had an accident on a bike ... he’d scraped his face and arm and broken a wrist. He wasn’t going to get any help until he’d made it back to Australia.” Schoolies Week, a week-long holiday for students graduating high school, has become a rite of passage in Australian culture but is also often host to binge drinking and sexual assault. Schoolies events in Australia have seen arrests, hospitalisations, and even deaths. “The worst-case scenarios are the same in Bali,” Chloe says. “There’s alcohol poisoning, injury, assault, but without the usual supports. We saw one young woman who came out of a bar and was absolutely unable to move. She’d clearly had her drink spiked. There are places and people around that aren’t safe, just like in Australia. The dangers are real.” More than 1500 volunteers, including many Salvos, choose to support young people during Schoolies Week in Australia each year, walking out the vision to ‘safeguard a generation’. “We really just want to be that caring presence, to be there for people who are taking risks and are far from home,” Chloe says. “We made sure we could be at the bars and the beaches where they were, connecting with them and finding out what they need.” Any interested in participating in Red Frogs Crew can reach out online for more information here

Pakenham Salvos Hope Cafe was born out of a need in the community to connect with others. During COVID, isolation and anxiety were very prominent. The Hope Café was created to help people re-engage with the community and find new skills to function again. It is a pathway to meeting needs, a space where people are seen and heard.

BY ANTHONY CASTLE Salvos across the country were asked to complete a 10-question survey about faith and connection last July. The Faith, People and Connection survey, formerly known as the Connecting People questionnaire, was developed to understand how people participating in The Salvation Army faith communities connected to and engaged in mission. Belinda Hendrickson is the Research Analyst for the Policy, Research and Social Justice department and project-managed the day-to-day process of information gathering. “This year, we not only focused on the flagship measures, but we also utilised the survey to capture the faith pathways of our faith community attendees,” Belinda explains. “We utilised the survey to really look at the connection points, faith pathways, and how Salvos were mobilising. The survey was initiated in 2021 by the Mission Support Team and developed with the help of the Research and Outcomes Measurement team. In 2023, leadership identified the need for capturing additional information around faith pathways and mobilising Salvos. The information was gathered from 740 participants from every state and territory. “The profile of many respondents could be considered as regular attendees of corps and faith communities, particularly when you start seeing the number of faith activities they were attending in a week,” Belinda says. “We also see this in the information that we received about whether they had attended another faith community prior to attending the Salvos faith community; a large proportion of people reported they had been attending their entire life.” The survey showed that 84 per cent of respondents attended five or more faith activities, and 86 per cent took part in weekly worship services or prayer. The data also revealed that 63 per cent have never attended another faith community before The Salvation Army, which includes 51 per cent who have come to The Salvation Army for most/all their life. While some of these corps’ members have been at the Salvos their whole lives, they are connecting with a diverse set of people in mission. “The survey gives us a profile of our corps members and the ways people connect and grow in faith.” “We noticed for some people who volunteered, it didn’t matter if they were agnostic, atheist, or had other spiritual alignment,” says Belinda. “They were attracted by the community engagement of The Salvation Army. There was a diverse group of people who were perhaps attracted to ideas like social justice where The Salvation Army’s values are a connection point.” The Faith, People, and Connection survey reveals that 75 per cent of respondents have shared their Christian faith with another person, not at a Salvos centre, and 54 per cent building relationships with community members at a church-based ministry. Salvos also engage in supporting those in need, with 39 per cent serving meals or handing out goods to community members at a Salvos centre. The Faith, People, and Connection captures how and why people are connecting into faith communities, how they are engaging with mission, and the reasons why. “We investigated the core aspects of our Salvos faith communities, examining their purpose and level of engagement in mission activities – considering both frequency and locations," Belinda says. “The survey gives us a profile of our corps members and the ways people connect and grow in faith.” For more information, consider the Faith, People and Connection Survey summary and the Flagship Measures 2023 Report. The next Faith, People, and Connection survey will likely occur in another two to three years.

The Boxing Day sales are here! That means Christmas is over ... or does it? Jo-anne Brown suggests that the spirit of Christmas can be celebrated all year round. BY JO-ANNE BROWN It’s Boxing Day, and some people are out and about, already purchasing gifts and packaging for next Christmas! Hot cross buns have started appearing on supermarket shelves, and will soon be followed by Easter eggs. And in July, some stores generously stock Christmas goodies for all those who long for a winter Christmas and choose to celebrate Christmas in July. Surprisingly quickly, it seems, it’s October and Christmas decorations are vying for attention amongst Halloween costumes. There are those who adamantly refuse to consume hot cross buns before Good Friday, and others who eagerly tuck in at any time. Just as there are those who cannot even start thinking about Christmas trees, gifts or decorations until December, while some people have been preparing all year. Are seasons such as Easter and Christmas as mixed up as our climatic seasons are? Or is there something in these spiritually inspired seasons that does indeed invite us to celebrate, or at least remember and rejoice, all year round? What is the underlying meaning of celebrations about Christmas? What is it about an event that happened over 2000 years ago that still calls us to celebrate in the myriad ways we do? Reflection of love When we look at Christmas in particular, there really are good reasons to celebrate all year round. The primary focus of Christmas is the reality of God’s love for us, shown in the physical birth of Jesus, who is God’s son. This birth, promised for millennia, was God’s way of showing his desire to be known, to be seen, and to be present in a very tangible way. Before Jesus was born as a human baby, it was difficult for people to really grasp who God was, and to understand what God says about love, justice and grace. It’s relatively easy to be cynical about the commercialism of Christmas (and other spiritually inspired celebrations), yet underneath everything, love draws together all our ways of celebrating it. “When we look at Christmas … there really are good reasons to celebrate all year round.” Whatever our sense of the spiritual or our faith experiences, a season that focuses on love, connection with others and giving seems to fulfil a deep need. Yes, it is sometimes idealised, which creates expectations and pressure, and may lead to disappointment when what we experience is not what is advertised in glossy department store catalogues. But the very heart of Christmas, however it is celebrated, is a reminder that God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. This truth doesn’t change whether it is snowing or storming, or whether Easter eggs or Christmas puddings are on the shelves. This truth doesn’t change, even when there is more conflict than a sense of loving connection in our families. Even when we feel alone and disconnected from people who care about us, the fundamental truth of Christmas is that we are loved, and God is with us. Loving connection Whether our celebrations are huge or minimal, in December or July, with lavish gifts or no gifts at all, our deepest need is to know we are loved. And God’s deepest desire has always been for each of us to know God is with us and loves us. “The fundamental truth of Christmas is that we are loved, and God is with us.” Perhaps the heart of the season (whenever it is) is not the ways we celebrate Christmas with tangible things, but how we celebrate love. How do we live our ordinary everyday lives with love? How do we seek connections and build relationships with others? How do we choose to be generous and giving, especially when we ourselves may be struggling with having enough? Choosing to celebrate Christmas throughout the year invites us to live lives of loving connection and giving – all year round!

Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright, Then the silence is shattered at last By the sound of a tenor horn blast, I jump out of my seat, There’s a brass band in my street! Silent night, holy night, Something sounds not quite right, Cornets shrieking like cats on a fence, Trombones try hard but fail to make sense, Baritones out of tune, Maybe we’ve got a full moon. Silent night, holy night, Drummers thump, what a sight! Eupho players who can’t find the note, B flat bass that sounds just like a boat, Is he playing a foghorn? No, he’s just stepped on a thorn. Silent night, holy night, Bandmaster, do what’s right. March them way down the end of the street, No, I don’t care about their sore feet, Lead them far from my home, I think one stepped on my gnome! Silent night, holy night, Peace at last, all seems right. While I love a good Army band, That lot sounded both tone deaf and bland, They made playing a chore, It’s a shame they’re from my corps. – Major Mal Davies and his wife Major Tracey are the Corps Officers at Adelaide City Salvos

1. What is your current appointment, and what do you find most satisfying about it? I’m the Area Officer for Victoria South-East. I enjoy moving around the area seeing where God is at work in a variety of different and creative ways. I appreciate how hard and committed our officers are. 2. Away from the appointment – if that’s possible! – what do you do to relax or unwind? I like finding a new bike path to explore in Melbourne. I love the way you can discover all sorts of great areas of the city, be it a train-line ride, a bush ride, or a city trail. We live in an amazing city with great coffee shops along these trails. 3. What’s a favourite Christian song, and why do you like it? This is hard to answer, but I often find myself reflecting on Indescribable by Chris Tomlin as it reminds me of God’s bigness, greatness, creatorness (I made that word up) and his over-all inchargeness (and that one). Our God is bigger than we give him credit for most of the time. 4. If you could have a good talk with a biblical character apart from Jesus, who would it be and what would you talk about? It would be Caleb. I loved the way that he saw potential when everyone else saw all the problems. I would love to tap into his optimistic nature. I also loved the way – at 80 years of age – that he talked about being still as strong and vigorous as when Moses first sent him out. I want to know how he did that and what I need to do so I can be like that when I’m 80! 5. If you were talking to a group of Salvationists and they asked if you recommended officership or not, what would you say? In my mind, soldiership is an expression of a Daniel fast. We give up certain things and choose to live in certain ways so that we can be a blessing in the world. Daniel gave up the choice meat, the better living areas, etc. He stayed faithful to his God and to his prayer life. Officership is another level of that. It’s a ministry of sacrifice in many ways. We give up more to serve the kingdom of God. Much like Daniel, we will be thrown to the lions, into fiery pits, people questioning us and testing us etc. But with the faithfulness of holding to the same values and commitment Daniel did, we, too, can survive. It won’t be easy at times, but in the long run, you see God has it in control at every turn.

Salvation Army officers who have concluded their service in 2023: Please keep in your thoughts and prayers the following colleagues who are concluding their service as follows: Major Jason Dannock (31 December 2023). Major Sharon Dannock (31 December 2023). Major Susanne Geracia (31 December 2023). Major Anne Jeffrey (9 November 2023). Captain Sarah Innes (31 December 2023). Territorial Envoy Angela Cairns (8 September 2023). Captain Melanie Cop (21 October 2023). Captain Vanessa Hunt (31 October 2023). Major Debbie Bust (31 July 2023). Major Naomi Shelton (31 July 2023). Captain Dit Chokeun (11 April 2023). Captain Wes Bust (27 May 2023). Lieutenant Renae Phillips (28 May 2023). Major Michael Johnson (18 April 2023). Captain Jacqueline Gluyas (22 February 2023).