Salvation Army walk 3/29/24

As told by the Lt. Andre, who is in charge of the weekly outreach walks.

First original slogan: “do something” then it was “others” since in those days they had to rely on communication via telegram and it was expensive.

First general William Booth sent a telegram with one word because that’s all he could pay at the moment, so he sent the word “others” and to this day they still have tee shirts that say “others” when he was asked what are we supposed to do? He sent the instruction word to go help others.

Soon after beginning his ministerial career in England in 1852, William Booth abandoned the concept of the traditional church pulpit in favor of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ directly to the people. Walking the streets of London, he preached to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the destitute.

When he was 15 years old he worked with his family at a pawn shop, he started seeing people coming in pawning their family heirlooms in order to get just some bread.

Booth's family created “the Salvation Army” which was originally called “Christian Mission” When Booth read a printer's proof of the 1878 “Christian Mission” annual report, he noticed the statement "The Christian Mission is a volunteer army." Crossing out the words "volunteer army," he penned in "Salvation Army." From those words came the basis of the foundation deed of The Salvation Army.

East End of London in 1865, where many followers joined their fight for the souls of lost men and women. Within 10 years, their organization, operating under the name “The Christian Mission," had over 1,000 volunteers and evangelists.

Thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards were among their first converts to Christianity. And soon, those converts were also preaching and singing in the streets as living testimonies to the power of God. Singing outside of pubs they also created the brass band where they would play popular songs so people would come out the pub to see what the music was and they changed the lyrics to spiritual hymns using the popular song beats and people would get saved right out of the pub. Joining the Salvation Army, still to this day, we are still doing the same thing.

Between 1881 and 1885. Their message spread rapidly, gaining a foothold in America and soon after Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Iceland, and Germany.

Today, the Salvation Army is active in virtually every corner of the world and serves in over 130 countries, offering the message of God’s healing and hope to all those in need.

We met to assist the Salvation Army at their Hope Center and helped fix napkins, sauce packets and sandwiches with the other group of volunteers. They currently live here and are part of the recovery program. So it was a time of fellowship with all of them. Then we got our instructions from Lt. Andrea of the outreach that’s it’s time to go and we set out behind them to the tenderloin.

We, three Dao members, drove in Annmarie’s car behind Lt. Andrea in the Salvation Army Van. We then parked, and began to give out coffee, juice, water and sandwiches. We also provided some time to listen and to talk with whoever approached our van. After a few hours we went back to the Salvation Army, we were given lunch and we debriefed and asked Lt. Andre to tell us the story of the Salvation Army.

Gesner

Gesner is a pastor with The Homeless Church and has been serving dinner to unhoused people every night for a while. His heart is very heavy to help people when he sees less fortunate people living in the streets. He talked to a woman, A, who asked us to walk across the street, because there was a man who could not walk. “Both his ankles were broken, I tried to help him stand, I asked if I could pray for him, and he gladly said yes. Miss A saw that too and she noticed the change in my face when trying to help him stand on his two feet, it was heartbreaking.” - Gesner

Annmarie

It was the first time I prayed with someone at the Salvation Army outreach, I’ve done it in other walks we have done. It was very surprising for me that someone initiated the conversation and asked to pray for us. Hopefully he takes it seriously about his recovery, Mr. S told us about his situation, he was in rehab in Richmond, he stayed clean for 9 months, and he has his family in Concord. He faced some issues, he was asked to leave, so he went back to San Francisco. I could sense some hopelessness in him, because he wants to have a legitimate job and support his family, but it is easy for him to hustle here, since it's how he can get quick money. You could see he was torn, hopefully he tries the Salvation Army’s Hope Center.

Vinicio

The weather was a real challenge. It was raining heavily. Therefore the mood of people out there is tricky because they are in their tents not wanting to go out and get wet. Nonetheless, it was a good chance for the Salvation Army to come with hot coffee and sandwiches for them. It’s such a small thing to do, it doesn’t fix the situation, and it's sad, but it was something. The situation with Mr. S, especially. Sometimes you just don’t have a way to get out of the situation and you are just stuck, hopefully Mr. S can move forward.

There are different contracts that we can offer to people one right now is treatment on demand. In a way it just brings the people and we will figure out a way to help them, to see if this is right for them.

In case they need something medical this is not the best place for them. In this place you have to wake up early and there’s chores, and take classes. They have fitness hours too. Some people perhaps need a place more calm with less people so they can receive treatment.

Vinicio suggested we contact the company, Fruit of the Loom, for a sock donation. They have a strong presence in helping out communities with sponsorship and donations.