Whether joining the congregation online this Sunday (see link below), or in London, Salvationists and supporters are encouraged to share prayers and words of encouragement for the new world leaders of The Salvation Army – General Lyndon Buckingham and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham, World President of Women's Ministries. You can send your personal prayer or words of encouragement to the leaders via the online form here or on social media using #PrayForTheGeneralAndWPWM ‘Praying for leaders’ resources are also available to view or download here and include a prayer guide and encouragement cards. The prayer guide focuses on 14 aspects of leadership and can be used for personal, collective and public prayer over 14 days or weeks. Available in 10 languages, the guide includes: · written prayer · recorded video prayer · Scripture · questions for reflection · ideas for personal action. The prayer cards are for personal or small-group use. Each card features: · one aspect of leadership · Scripture · a question for reflection Topics included in the prayer resources include wisdom, courage, health, fresh energy and creativity, and peace. Salvationists and friends from around the world will join together this Sunday 3 September for the official welcome to the new international leaders. The event, taking place at Regent Hall in London, will be streamed live on The Salvation Army’s international website at 3.30pm GMT (1.30am Monday 4 September AEST). The event will also be available to watch on The Salvation Army's international YouTube channel here . General Lyndon Buckingham and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham are set to pay a visit to the Australia Territory in 2024. The world leaders’ visit – from Thursday 29 August to Monday 2 September 2024 –​ will be an opportunity for Salvos to come together in person and be encouraged as we hear first-hand from the General and Commissioner Buckingham about how God is at work globally across our movement. ​ As part of the Buckinghams’ visit, all active and retired officers will be invited to attend an event in Sydney on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 August 2024, and a Salvationist rally will be held in Melbourne on Monday 2 September 2024. ​ Further details will be announced at a later date.

1. What is your current appointment and what do you find most satisfying about it? I am the Coursework Coordinator at Eva Burrows College. I love learning and wrestling with how to live out my faith in a rapidly changing world. Being able to support students on their learning journey is a real privilege. 2. Away from the appointment (if that’s possible!) what do you do to relax or unwind? I love reading, movie nights with my family, baking, and exploring new places on holidays. 3. What’s a favourite Christian song and why do you like it? Your Grace Still Amazes Me by Phillips, Craig and Dean. The words of this song capture the awe I feel when I reflect upon the grace of God. I truly am amazed by God’s grace. 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 would love to spend some time chatting with Amos. I am fascinated by the Old Testament prophets and the gutsy ways they proclaimed God’s justice and grace despite the opposition they faced. I would want to talk to Amos, particularly about chapter five of his book in the Bible and the connection that is made between justice and worship. 5. If you were talking to a group of Salvationists and they asked if you recommended officership or not, what would you say? Officership, like any other vocation, certainly has its ups and downs. When I consider my officership journey to date I am grateful for the people I have met along the way. It is a sacred privilege to meet people where they are and to become a part of their journey. I am also grateful for the many opportunities I have had to serve in a variety of roles in corps and at the college. Interview by Major Mal Davies

BY LAUREN MARTIN For the past eight years, community members needing emergency relief from The Salvation Army have called the phone assistance line for assessment and then collected vouchers at their nearest ‘Connect Centre’. Now, the Doorways team is trialling new face-to-face Financial Assessment Centres at several sites across the state. One of those sites is Port Macquarie on the NSW Mid-North Coast. Corps Officer Captain Peter Gott says it all came about because of a strong desire by corps members to create relationships around the Emergency Relief (ER) space. “A lot of our volunteers that were working or volunteering in our welfare space (before Doorways) had transitioned to become Doorways volunteers. “When we arrived as corps officers, we got to know the team, and there was a real heart for wanting to create a space to meet the real needs of loneliness and isolation that are quite high in our community, especially as a result of the COVID lockdown years.” Last year, the corps built relationships with Coles Secondbite and OzHarvest and started a Wednesday drop-in at the corps building with groceries and free fresh fruit and vegetables. Doorways case managers and ER operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and there are always volunteers at the corps on those days, providing community members with cups of tea and coffee and someone to chat with if they are waiting for an appointment. It was the perfect place for Doorways to trial face-to-face financial assessment for emergency relief. Now, if people come to the corps for the drop-in centre and to get food relief, they can take advantage of having an immediate face-to-face emergency relief assessment if a need is identified. “I remember a single mum had come into our drop-in centre ... it wasn’t her first time grabbing some food,” says Peter. “She was chatting and said to one of the other community members that, at the moment, things are so tight for her that she is either buying food or her medication. She couldn’t afford both. “I was able to say, ‘Well, our team has some chemist warehouse vouchers that could be there to help you.’ So, on that same day, she was able to see one of the Doorways team and get that support.” ‘Beautiful’ partnering Chris New is the coordinator of the Mid-North Coast Doorways Program and works with the Doorways team at Port Macquarie Salvos. He says the face-to-face trial is working incredibly well because of the beautiful partnering between the corps and Doorways teams. “The moment a community member comes through the doors, they meet our lovely volunteers who are extremely warm and welcoming. They are sat down and offered a cup of tea or coffee, and they will undergo a financial assessment with our ER assessor, like one of the phone assessors, but in person. “When you walk through the doors of a Salvos corps, you get covered in love, you really do. That’s what community members feel when they come through the door. They will exhale, they will speak to corps members, and you can see the weight get lifted off their shoulders ... some of them will burst into tears. They almost feel that they have ‘come home’ to a support network that they have not had in their lives.” After the initial ER assessment, many community members are offered the chance to journey with a Doorways case manager to assist them in navigating more complex life issues. This journey also involves corps-member volunteers, who get to know the community members as they come back for appointments and often spend time at the Wednesday drop-in space, getting groceries and having a cuppa and a chat. Peter says there are plenty of opportunities to develop partnerships with other community organisations in the corps building space, which has a large commercial kitchen and lots of space. “I think there is also opportunity for life-skills programs,” he says. “The ER space is really about the crisis moment, and then the case worker is trying to pull them out of that space, but we want to focus on how we can give people the tools to build good skills in life. “But we are building community and relationship here first, and we will see where God leads.”

General Lyndon Buckingham and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham are set to pay a visit to the Australia Territory in 2024. ​The world leaders’ visit – from Thursday 29 August to Monday 2 September 2024 –​ will be an opportunity for Salvos to come together in person and be encouraged as we hear first-hand from the General and Commissioner Buckingham about how God is at work globally across our movement. ​ As part of the Buckinghams’ visit, all active and retired officers will be invited to attend an event in Sydney on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 August 2024, and a Salvationist rally will be held in Melbourne on Monday 2 September 2024. ​ ​ Further details will be announced at a later date.

George says he had forgotten about God until he reached a point in his life when he couldn’t stop drinking. Having a strong desire to change, he attended an Alpha course at Tweed Salvos with his wife and encountered a God who could change lives. George has a genuine joy and connection to people today. He reflects that God has a plan for him and has always had a plan for him.

BY CLIFF WORTHING Bringing solutions to local issues is driving growth and awareness for The Salvation Army in the Solomon Islands, according to Major Robert Evans, Solomon Islands District Officer. Even though 94 per cent of the population identifies as Christian, there is a growing desire to engage with The Salvation Army’s ethos and way of doing things. Robert and his wife, Major Vanessa Evans, are Australian officers who have led The Salvation Army’s work in the Solomon Islands for the past five years. The Solomons are part of the Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Territory. “We are showing that Christianity is more than singing nice songs on Sunday,” Robert said. “People have seen how a church can improve their quality of life, which is what is so attractive to them!” The Army is active in 11 villages, and 19 other villages have asked them to establish a presence in their communities. Robert said the Army was not competing or duplicating what other churches do but looking for the gaps to fill, individuals in the “too hard basket” or groups not affiliated with other churches. “They are our people,” Robert said. One of the most significant areas of mission and closing a gap is a literacy program run by Vanessa. She has set up four learning centres targeted mainly at children not in school and women who have missed out on educational opportunities. “The program is helping our women gain the skills and confidence to contribute to society and gain greater equality,” Vanessa said. She mentioned how satisfying it was to see females write their names for the first time or come out of the background to make a difference. The learning spaces are places where children and women in the communities can gain confidence not only in their reading, writing and speaking but also increase their self-esteem, as well as reduce their vulnerability to sexual violence and human trafficking, according to Vanessa. “One of the highlights of this program is seeing some of our women who were my first students now become teachers,” Vanessa said. “The flow-on effect of just one activity is producing great results.” To see one of our women stand up in public and read from the Scriptures is amazing, and watching other women come up to her and tell her that they want to be like her is so heartwarming,” Vanessa said. “Learning spaces is one way that The Salvation Army Solomon Islands is changing lives.” Each week, an average of 161 women and children attend the learning spaces. Everywhere the Army establishes a presence, it creates social enterprises to build a self-sustaining component for the church group. Fishing, coconut oil production, low-cost fuel, and an aluminium foundry are just some money-making enterprises. Making it Happen project Another priority in the Solomon Islands is developing Indigenous leaders. The Evanses have identified four couples as candidates for officership. Once they become officers, they can be appointed to one of the church groups. To prepare for those appointments, quarters need to be built in each location. The Australia Territory is supporting the cost of building one of the officer quarters through this year’s Making it Happen project. Three priority locations in Malaita Province have been proposed because they have the greatest mission development potential. The estimated cost is $A120,000 to build and furnish the officers’ quarters. Robert’s background in architectural design contributed to the drawing up of plans. The Evanses have consulted widely with village leadership to ensure the quarters suit village life. The quarters will have a private upstairs living section and a downstairs living area, traditionally accessible for community meetings, prayer meetings and Bible studies. “The village pastor’s house is the gathering place, is open to foot traffic and is integral to village life,” Robert said. “We are trying to cast a vision of what quarters in this part of the world can look like.” The plans will be submitted to Territorial Headquarters soon for approval. The Evanses are discussing a partnership with Rural Training Centres to help build the quarters. The students would gain valuable real-life experience in building a project as part of their studies, making gaining employment easier once they graduate. The training centres save money because the builds will be in rural areas, which is cheaper for them than sending students to the capital, Honiara. The Salvation Army receives free labour while providing experienced builders as supervisors. The local corps will support the workers with accommodation and food during the building process. “We are really excited by this partnership because everyone contributes and gains from it,” Robert said. “In trying to do good, we don’t want to take away the resilience of the people by just throwing money at the locals.” Fundraising ideas, promotional materials, and resources for a Making it Happen Sunday are available at www.my.salvos.org.au/making-it-happen

BY LAUREN MARTIN It’s Wednesday afternoon in the heart of Sydney. At 4pm, a group of men and women – some experiencing homelessness, some struggling with addiction, one man still in his prison greens – head into Sydney City Salvos and gather in a small room on the fourth floor. Midweek Chapel gets underway without music or fanfare but with the Holy Spirit visibly moving amongst those present. “I appreciate having the opportunity to speak and share my life,” says Matthew Payne, who has been connected with Sydney Streetlevel Mission for decades. Matthew was one of many who lamented the loss of the Streetlevel Friday Night Chapel service, which stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t restart due to the bringing together of all Sydney Salvation Army faith expressions under one banner – Sydney City Salvos. “It wasn’t as though Friday nights weren’t working or not important – it was actually what our community held most dear,” said Sydney City Salvos Mission Team Leader Mitchell Evans. “But, in the journey towards Sydney City Salvos, the Streetlevel leadership team had our own Abraham/Isaac moment. We felt God calling us to give up our ‘most dear’ as an offering of how much we want to see his ‘new’ (Sydney City Salvos) come to pass. “We prayed and wrestled with this and ultimately followed this prompting. This was a significant moment in our journey towards Sydney City Salvos. It wasn’t without pain and is something that we mourn – but it’s what was required.” So, the Streetlevel team joined with the Sydney City Salvos Hope Dinner, held at the Sydney Congress Hall location. But, over time, more and more community members approached Mitch to request the restarting of a faith expression that differed from a more traditional Sunday church worship service. “They wanted a place where they could ask questions in the middle of the service so they could better understand Jesus and a place where it’s ok to not be ok,” he said. A few weeks ago, without much fanfare, Midweek Chapel got underway at 4pm, an hour before Hope Dinner on a Wednesday night. The three ingredients to the gathering are prayer, open sharing and listening, and a short faith message. Encouragement and prayer “Last week, I shared that I had a sex addiction for 38 years, and I was celebrating the fact that I was free of that addiction for six months,” said Matthew. “It really busted open [the group] – a few people who were sharing after me said that they have addictions to gambling, and they’re finding it hard to give up.” Encouragement and prayer often follow this type of vulnerable sharing within the group. On this particular night, Sydney City Chaplain Major Irene Pleffer was there to share words of knowledge and speak Jesus into their situations. There is no set ‘run-sheet’ or timed segments during Midweek Chapel. The values of the gathering are those of the Kingdom of God – unconditional love, acceptance and the continual inviting of Jesus to minister and nurture those present. For Matthew, who lives alone and goes out just three other days during the week for coffee with an NDIS carer, Midweek Chapel is a lifeline. “At most churches, people put on their ‘church face’,” he said. “You can be at a church talking to a guy and asking him how his life is, and he’d be saying everything’s ok, and the next week you find out he’s separated from his wife! “What he was saying was that everything was fine when it was far from fine. But he was wearing his ‘church face’ wasn’t he?” For Mitchell Evans, Midweek Chapel is a beautiful space where people can be welcomed “no matter what they’ve got going on.” “It’s messy, but that’s fine with me!”

The Bible has quite a bit to say about dreams, including God sometimes ‘speaking’ to people through their dreams. People such as Jacob (Genesis 28), Solomon (1 Kings 3), Daniel (Daniel 7) and Jesus’ father Joseph (Matthew 1) received divine messages in dreams, and in Numbers 12:6 God told Aaron and Miriam that he spoke to prophets in dreams. Does God still use dreams to get messages through to us? Some theologians would say no, but then how can we restrict God? If he wants to get a message to us in a dream, he will! The issue has more to do with discernment: was that God trying to tell me something, or was it just the questionable mozzarella I had on my pizza for dinner? I had a dream once that I thought may have been from God. I was gently floating down a river in a canoe and came to a long tunnel where I could just see the other end. As I entered the tunnel, I felt the canoe get faster, and I realised the water flow was really picking up speed. I started feeling a little giddy, saw strange colours, and thought I might pass out, but then I heard laughter. As I emerged from the tunnel, I looked at the banks of the river, and kookaburras were laughing at me from the trees. Then I saw at ground level there were kangaroos, wombats, and possums, and they also seemed to be laughing at me. And it got so loud that I laid back in the canoe for a moment, closed my eyes and floated. And that’s when I had my dream. As I drifted off to sleep in the rocking canoe, God said to me, “You’re just floating. Sit up and steer. Do you want to drown?” I took it as symbolic. He wasn’t talking about the canoe; he was instructing me to take more control of my life before I felt overcome with matters and ‘drowned’ in responsibilities. I had to stop saying ‘yes’ to everything and sit up and pay more attention to where my life was heading. So, again, was that God speaking to me or just some bad cheese? Or should I not have watched Titanic before going to bed? The hard bit with dreams, or rather, with God speaking to us through dreams, is knowing which ones are from God and which ones aren’t. For example, in the dream where I’m constantly being pursued by an unseen presence that I can sense but can’t see, clearly God is telling me something about guilt or that he is seeking me or that I am trying to avoid God. But what about the dream where the chair talks to me and then becomes a rabbit with a watermelon for a head, and he’s singing ‘How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?’ in the voice of a Japanese Elvis Presley impersonator? What is God saying to me there? Yes, I know, he’s saying I need counselling. – Major Mal Davies and his wife Major Tracey are the Corps Officers at Adelaide City Salvos

BY CLIFF WORTHING Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville supplied the context for this year’s North Queensland Men’s Conference over the first weekend in August. “What better place to encounter the majesty and creative genius of our awesome creator than Magnetic Island, one of the most magnificent destinations that the Far North of Queensland has to offer,” said Major Ben Johnson, Cairns Corps Officer. Lieut-Colonel Gregory Morgan, Territorial Secretary for Mission, spoke on the ministry and mission of Jesus through the book of Luke. “The group was particularly thankful and receptive to Jesus’ mandate to proclaim the good news and live out the love of Jesus,” Gregory said. He explored four passages in the book of Luke, including Luke 4, the great commandment, and reframing Jesus’ focus on finding people rather than the traditional focus on ‘the lost’. “We had a really good mix of focused time of hearing from God, discovering more about our faith, and informal periods for relationship-building,” said Captain Perry Lithgow, Townsville Faithworks Corps Officer. “It was a great opportunity for connection between long-term Christians and those new to the faith.” The 27 participants were a mixture of Cairns, Atherton Tablelands and Townsville Riverway and Faithworks corps, and Salvo recovery services. “This is a really important event for the guys in the region to connect and encourage one another,” Perry said. “They don’t have many opportunities to connect regularly because of the long distances between corps.” In addition to the formal worship and teaching time, the men enjoyed spending time together at the local beaches and coffee shops, going on morning hikes, fishing off the jetty, and “watching a bit of footy” together. “There is a real energy and momentum stirring in the hearts of North Queensland men to better serve God, one another and the wider community,” said Ben.

Major Karen Elkington has been managing The Salvation Army’s Asylum Seeker and Refugee Service in Melbourne for the past 13 years. As a member of the Refugee Council of Australia delegation to a Parliamentary Friends of Refugees event at Parliament House in Canberra, she spoke during National Homelessness Week about the desperate plight of asylum seekers. BY MAJOR KAREN ELKINGTON The phone rings at The Salvation Army Asylum Seeker Centre. The person calling is a man seeking asylum who is in hospital and has no Status Resolution Support Service (SRSS) payment. Prior to being in hospital, he was sleeping under a bridge. A cyclist collided with him and injured his leg. The man is desperate – he has had surgery, is about to be released from hospital and can’t walk. “Can you get me a wheelchair?” he pleads, “And somewhere to live?” The most we can do is drop into the hospital with changes of clothing, some toiletries, a suitcase for him to pack a few belongings into and for our chaplain to spend time with him to provide pastoral support. After speaking with the Refugee Health Network, they advocate for the man to be transferred to rehab where he will remain until he can at least walk with the assistance of crutches. After he leaves rehab it’s anyone’s guess what will happen. Sadly, no one can house him because it’s impossible to support people with long-term housing when they have no income. Emergency relief is not enough We have another family who comes to us for assistance. They have no SRSS payment and the small church housing organisation that has been paying the family’s rent for the past year is no longer able to do so, as they simply do not have the funds. Enquiries are made to many housing providers and the advice is the same. It’s impossible to house people without an income. It’s impossible to ask faith-based and other community service organisations to keep on paying people’s rent, as there is simply not enough money for charities to pay rent for them indefinitely. The Salvos’ Asylum Seeker and Refugee Service in Melbourne speciality is assisting people seeking asylum with financial assistance in the form of vouchers and material aid. We help with food, clothing, toiletries, children’s toys and cleaning products. During the COVID years, we received additional emergency relief funding which was appreciated by us and the community. However, at the present time, our funding has returned to pre-pandemic levels. The Emergency Relief system is designed to help people through short-term emergencies. However, the people we see are living in dire poverty, and a food voucher from an Emergency Relief organisation is not enough for them to purchase food, medication, and to pay their utility bills or rent. People without incomes or lacking Medicare or work rights cannot survive on Emergency Relief food vouchers, and charities often rely on donated food to support those in need. Most Emergency Relief agencies have non-perishable pantry food items which we box up and give to people to tide them over for a couple of days. Our families are telling us they struggle to provide themselves and their children with enough fresh fruit and vegetables. The best we can do is pick up rescued food in partnership with Coles Second Bite. The food varies in quality. Sometimes there is a lot of it; other days it’s mostly bags of bread. Many of our families without income go from one food charity to another for support. Some are very unwell, suffering mental health conditions and physical health problems. Some have told us their children are being treated at the Royal Children’s Hospital for malnutrition. All of them rely on community support to survive. Homelessness dilemma More and more of them are at risk of being homeless as charities struggle to raise the funds to pay for people’s rents on an ongoing basis. The Salvation Army’s Homelessness Services are not set up to support people seeking asylum who have no income, and they do not have the resources to continuously house people seeking asylum. The Salvos can only support people with housing for a brief time, depending on funding. Put simply, a person on an SRSS payment, if they become homeless, has a greater chance of accessing mainstream homelessness support services. Whilst people remain without an SRSS payment they will continue to couch-surf, sleep in cars or sleep rough. To summarise, housing, feeding, providing medical care and assistance with utility bills is beyond any charity to provide long-term. Housing people without Centrelink or any asylum seeker SRSS payment is near to impossible. We in the charitable and community services sector call upon the Federal Government to change the system so people seeking asylum can at least survive and at best thrive.

The Salvation Army, the City of Hobart and the Hobart Airport are working to provide free general practitioner appointments to Hobart’s most vulnerable. The Health With Dignity program provides free GP appointments to people who otherwise cannot afford to get the medical help they need. The Salvation Army will book an appointment that suits the individual and will even accompany that person to the GP to support them and ensure the visit is a success. “Health With Dignity assists the most vulnerable in our community, and there is no more worthy cause than that,” City of Hobart Housing and Homelessness Portfolio chair Councillor Mike Dutta said. “Access to medical help is something that many of us can take for granted, but to be denied such assistance in a time of need due to costs or other factors would be extremely detrimental, both physically and mentally.” Health With Dignity is for people in extreme need, aiming to support those exiting incarceration, living with homelessness, part of an existing support program or going through hardships or a domestic crisis. “It is a simple but effective way to support vulnerable people in the Hobart community to access essential medical care, which they would otherwise likely go without,” Salvation Army Homelessness and Housing state manager Ben Moroney said. “The Salvation Army extends its thanks to Hobart Airport and the City of Hobart for initiating this project and for their support, which enables us to manage the Health With Dignity project.” The City of Hobart and Hobart Airport have both contributed $15,000 to fund the program. This article first appeared in the Hobart Observer. Story and photo courtesy of the publication

BY LAUREN MARTIN It hasn’t been a great snow season in Australia. Lack of snowfall has led to less work being available for seasonal workers on the New South Wales ski fields. Add to that the cost-of-living pressures and high rent prices in the area, and the number of people needing support has skyrocketed. For decades, the local Jindabyne St Andrews Uniting Church has been running a weekly ‘Soul Food Community Kitchen’ on a Monday night during the ski season, offering a free meal and dessert to anyone in the community who needs support. Several years ago, they were looking to partner with another church, so they contacted The Salvation Army in nearby Cooma. Auxiliary-Lieutenants Anthony Barford and Sandra Mortimer had recently arrived as the new leaders at Cooma Salvos, and they jumped at the chance. “I have an interest and an ability in commercial hospitality, and they were looking for someone to help with the cooking,” said Anthony. This year, a member of Cooma Corps who is a professional cook has also volunteered to assist. “Us being there frees up two people from the St Andrews congregation to get out and about and spend time with the people who come in for dinner,” said Anthony. “That’s really the key – for them to be able to spend time ministering to people around the dinner table. Then we have a Bible study afterwards for the team or for people who might wish to join us.” Anthony said numbers had significantly increased this year, from serving up to 150 people last year to serving 250 people on the busiest night so far this year. “That’s a lot of soup!” he said. He said cost-of-living pressures have drawn in community members who haven’t had to access the service before, “many of them single-parent families.” And itinerant ski-field workers who pay up to $600 per week for dormitory or shared accommodation and sometimes get under 30 hours of work. The Soul Food Community Kitchen also has a pantry service and an op-shop. “It’s a place where people can come and know they will be welcomed and supported, and they can get one free or low-cost meal per week to help their budget,” he said. And although the impact on those attending may never be known, Anthony says the support has been life-changing for some who have attended. “Last year, we had a young woman come in, and she looked unwell, dazed,” said Anthony. “She wasn’t quite sure what she was doing. We asked, ‘Are you OK?’ and she said she had suffered a fall and had a concussion and was feeling really unwell. “The team at St Andrews arranged and paid for an appointment for her with a specialist in Canberra Hospital. They found that she had a brain bleed, and that appointment saved her life.” For Anthony, it’s a privilege to participate in a support role working in the kitchen, to allow the local parishioners the time and space needed to connect, support, and, at times, pray with those who attend. “We have other people come in with emotional problems, spiritual issues and physical problems from skiing on the poor, icy conditions, and there are personal supports available for people through the church which would not otherwise be provided. Monday nights is a real connection point.”