by Captain Matthew DeGonia
In the short seven years I’ve been an officer, I’ve had many opportunities to share the love of Jesus. There are many things I would have missed if I hadn’t answered God’s call on my life.
There have been happy times. I’ve watched children learn their worth in our gym when people were patient and kind when they made mistakes. I’ve listened to older corps saints share their wisdom with the younger generation.
There have been harder times as well. For instance, I prayed with one of our young adults who lost his baby to a miscarriage. I prayed with a homeless man who was dying as we waited for an ambulance to take him to the hospital. I’ve hugged people as they cried because their home was destroyed by a tornado.
Perhaps the experience I think of most often occurred in October 2022. As divisional youth secretary, I was on my way to work at Midland Divisional Headquarters when I heard on the news there was a shooter at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis. I felt compelled to help, and in God’s strength called our emergency disaster services (EDS) director to ask if I could go to the evacuation staging area where our canteen was stationed. With his permission, I went straight to a grocery store parking lot just two blocks from the school. I found people standing in shock, crying and making frantic phone calls. Our awesome EDS staff and volunteers were serving people as best they could, and I joined them.
As the parking lot emptied, I was asked to go to another school to be with the teachers and students who had been evacuated. In that school’s gym I realized as I spoke, hugged people and prayed with them that God was doing a work in their hearts. Teachers came and asked for prayer. Some shared how scared they were, while others just wanted someone with whom to cry.
God provided me with the strength and courage I needed that day and used The Salvation Army to send me to minister to people in this extraordinary circumstance. If I hadn’t answered God’s call to this ministry, I never would have had the opportunity to be used by Him then or at other times. I am so glad I said “yes” to my calling.
