Paul Augenstein was working at a hospital, cleaning its chapel, when he heard God say, “What about yours?” “And I knew what it meant,” Paul said. “‘You clean this chapel. What about the chapel at your corps?’ I said from that moment on I would take that responsibility. My wife, daughter and I go to our corps one Saturday each month to clean the chapel. There is no question that the Lord led that responsibility to me and my family. I will keep doing it until the day I die.”
A soldier at the Madison, Wis., Corps, Paul is the divisional sergeant-major for the Wisconsin/Upper Michigan Division (WUM) and is part of the Territorial Soldiers’ Forum.
He retired from the workforce in July of 2022—just about the time he was asked to be part of the forum.
“The timing was just right,” he said. “I have time to dedicate to this new position. This was all the Lord’s doing.”
At his corps, Paul has held many positions. He currently plays the guitar in the praise band and teaches adult Sunday school. He also volunteers with the corps’ emergency disaster services team.
“I’m so happy to have been a member of The Salvation Army for almost 50 years,” Paul said. “My wife, my kids—we are all soldiers. It has been a wonderful experience.”
He came to know The Salvation Army through a corps-sponsored Boy Scout troop and gave his life to Christ at camp in 1971.
“I have been a soldier for all of these years. At times, I thought about becoming an officer, but I never heard that call [in my heart],” he said.
After high school, Paul went into the U.S. Air Force. He began working as a custodian at the Janesville, Wis., Corps after leaving the military.
While in Janesville, Paul delivered food to a local family in need. Little did he know that his future wife, Julie, was part of that family. The two met, fell in love and have now been married for almost 40 years. They have four children and seven grandchildren (with another grandchild expected in September, Paul said happily).
Paul spent 19 years working at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, spending much of that time working second-shift, from 3:00 p.m. to midnight.
He felt the Holy Spirit telling him to start studying God’s Word on his own.
Paul listened to recorded sermons and podcasts, watched TV broadcasts and read the Bible. He found his individual study to be so enriching, he encourages everyone to dig deeper into God’s Word.
As the forum representative, Paul plans to visit all of the corps in WUM in the next two and a half years to meet soldiers and encourage personal Bible study.
He concluded, “If you want to know the heart of God, it is in the Psalms.”
Click here to learn more about the Territorial Soldiers’ Forum or find your representative.
