Blood and Fire

You may be wondering about the title of this post and thinking it’s something questionable. “Blood and Fire.” It doesn’t represent anything violent… it’s actually the Salvation Army motto. “Blood” refers to the blood Jesus shed on the cross to save all people, while “Fire” refers to the fire of the Holy Spirit that purifies believers. Since I moved to New Hampshire when I was eight the Salvation Army has been a constant in my life. My Nana has been a member of the S.A. for over forty years and worked there for thirty years, so when my family moved to the area we joined the Nashua Corp with her. For those of you who might be wondering, yes, the Salvation Army is in fact a real church. We do more than ring bells and provide food for those in need. I feel like I need to say this, especially after hearing a mother of a girl in our after-school program comment, “Oh yeah, it is like a real church,” when she peeked into the chapel one afternoon.

We have regular Sunday services, Bible studies, and youth groups. When my sister and I were younger we were in Sunbeams—basically the S.A. version of Girl Scouts. We learned life skills and knowledge while building a relationship with God and the members of our church. Over the last few years our congregation has become a lot smaller and there weren’t that many kids so programs like that stopped. When we started the after-school program and the summer camp that changed. Now a lot of the kids who started in the after-school program have joined our church and become Junior Soldiers. They are bringing their parents to church. It’s been really amazing watching them grow over the last six years and become active in the church.

Community service is the backbone of the Salvation Army. For the holiday seasons we not only collect money with the red kettles, but we have the Toy Shop/Angel Tree. The programs help bring presents to children whose parents cannot afford them. Last year I helped with sorting out the gifts for each child and family. How it worked last year was each child had a Christmas wish list and we tried our best to find something they would like out of the donated items—ideally what they had on the list, but it did not always work out perfectly (several children asked for bikes, but we only had about five). There were too many families signed up for the parents to go to the church and pick out the presents on their own, which is how it worked the year before. Another part of the program is the Angel Tree, where you pick an angel tag with the name of a child and their wish list. Buying presents for one child is more personal than simply donating presents (but donating presents is important just the same!). Along with toys and games we also gave each child a new pair of clothes and a new pair of shoes or winter gear (a jacket, gloves, and hat). It’s amazing seeing how much people will donate! I can’t wait for the Toy Shop to start again this year.

Check out the Salvation Army website!