|
Sage Wisdom - Vale (Australia)
by Major Adele
Vale (Retired)
This document has been put
together by Major Adele Vale (Retired).
I am a 6th generation Salvationist and was in a family
of four generations of Officers.
My vision/mission statement.
(Try to find common ground with everyone,
I’m not a moral policeman.)
“It’s my job to LOVE people, its God’s
job the CHANGE them.
I need to INVEST in people’s lives, SOW
the seed and RESPECT their views.
HARVEST will come in Gods time”
JAC: How has your life
changed post-retirement age from a few decades ago?
(spiritual, priorities, schedule, etc.)
What habits and rhythm have you adapted to optimize
this season of your life?
Prior to retirement I tried to live out
these words.
“I don't go out to the people before I
have been in the Sanctury with God”.
The Change
Me and Jesus
One of my walks (not literally)
I picture walking, running down a hill. There is a wide stream
at the bottom and large poplar trees on both sides with their
long branches hanging down. A bridge expands over the water.
Jesus is just sitting near the water on a log and we
chat. One day when sitting with Him He said ‘One day in My
time I will take your hand and together we will walk across
that bridge and you will see your mum and dad again. (They
died in an aircraft accident the week of both my mums and my
49th birthday.)
I also talk to Him about Johns health
which is not good. He has a CSF Leak in the brain. Has not had
a day in 7 years without a bad headache. With many procedures,
operations, tablets, blood patches it has made life very hard
for him. Leaders of our church many years ago came with
powerful prayers but healing didn’t happen. I’ve pleaded with
God to even lessen the headaches! ‘God’s answer to me ‘only
when he is with me in Heaven’
I think this was a very unfair answer.
It seems if I continue to pray my prayer I will lose
him. Yes, our lives have changed, but we still try to
represent Jesus well.
Going to bed I personally use LECTIO or
Truth for Life, or ALISTAIR BEGG which I find helpful.
I used to journal but don’t anymore. I
ask myself why? I don’t know.
In our first number of years in
retirement we loved looking after Corps and Divisions when we
were needed. We felt we were still useful and had something
left to give.
Life has changed so we read and pray
together every morning.
We meet weekly with a couple at a
coffee shop and discuss questions from a passage of Scripture
which John prepares each month. It’s called a+1 group (set up
a number of years ago by our CO. (Us + Jesus) which we have
continued. In retirement you need to do things differently and
work out what suits you and your situation. Important to still
have Jesus centered.
I have a personal ministry of
Encouragement (I’ve made it up!!) It includes young
people, my Christian and non-Christian friends, (send out a
verse every month to over a 100 people) I pray over these
words hoping that they will see Jesus and be challenged.
For example, one of my school friends
told me not to send them. She has ministers within her
immediate family. I told her she doesn’t have a choice but I’m
sending it anyway. We still have fun talking about life and
I’m sure she reads them. It’s my job to plant the seeds but
God’s job to make them grow.
Priorities
Freedom! It’s great not being
responsible for the ‘running of a Corps’ or other
appointments.
Don’t get me wrong we loved our Corps
appointments with its challenges and loved being DC’s in
Tasmania. John enjoyed being Programme Secretary and SBA. I
did not like Woman’s Ministries but enjoyed the freedom of
being THQ Chaplain as it gave me opportunities to chat!
By the way, I was asked to be Territorial Secretary for
Women’s Ministries. The Chief’s Wife wanted to go into
Personnel so I received a higher position in Woman’s
Ministries. Who got the last laugh! NOT ME.
I did start ‘Christianity Explained’ at
THQ having to get permission for those attending so they could
have an extended lunch break. I fought and won!
John and I have always enjoyed being in
partnership and have ‘done life together’. This made the
transition from active to retired a lot easier. I did find it
easier than he did.
I have mentored and coached a beautiful
young officer since her first appointment. It’s convenient as
its near where I live. She must think I’m OK as I suggest to
her at the beginning of each year that she needs to find a
younger person but she won’t change. We meet up most months of
the year. I love doing this.
I’m also available at any time to meet
up with other young people on their faith journey who need
encouragement which I do regularly. (Do support older
people as well)
Now I’m retired God uses me in different circumstances
because I have time. Each of us must make ourselves available
so we can encourage the next generation of young people.
We also catch up with our friends
during the week so we stay connected which is very important.
This is not only because we have retired, but health
reasons bring with it challenges. Freedom to choose is a gift.
We are involved as much or as little as
we want to in our new community. In our Retirement Village
John conducts the Anzac service and I play the piano plus we
have a bandsman who plays the Last Post.
We try to be involved with an outing they have each
month which keeps us connected.
In our court where we lived before we
moved 18mths ago, every year for Anzac Day, John organised a
service and we did a letter box drop around our area using
children in our court. We also involved the youth in our court
each year to read the scripture plus a bandsman to play The
Last Post. We had a returned service man from Vietnam living
in our court who wore his uniform plus each year someone
shared a story about family connected to the war. My uncle
Bill was massacred at Tol by the Japanese. He was a member of
the TSA 2/22nd band.
Anzac Day for us in our court was a
great community event. About 40-50 came. We started this at
the beginning of COVID and then kept it up. Our Village
management heard about this (it’s only up the road from the
court where we used to live) so asked John if he would be
willing to come to The Retirement Village to conduct their
service. So, this ministry began before we even moved.
For the first 9 years of retirement, we
looked after Corps and Divisions which we enjoyed. for a
period of 6-9 weeks at a time. This was an important time of
transition for us both.
We are short of Officers, so if any
Officer is retiring or about to retire my advice to you is,
offer to fill in where there is a need, not necessarily where
you think you want to go.
This will help your transition otherwise you will
suddenly stop and then think you are not needed anymore.
Remember Mission goes on until we are PTG.
We as a couple feel it’s so important
to plan holidays together. It gives us another focus. Great we
now don’t have to fit in with SA schedule. We now have a
different focus, grandchildren getting married, great
grandchildren due, and other celebrations we need to work
around!! This is what family is all about. Don’t ever have to
say to our beautiful children again ‘sorry we can’t make it’.
They are priority.
JAC: What did 'mission’ look
like for you a generation ago?
How does it look now?
I’m looking at 25-30years of our
ministry through my eyes.
One important thing to note is: When
you stop praying everything goes stagnant and it’s just
‘things as usual’ ‘easy’, ‘no challenges’, ‘no direction’,
etc. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
On a particular day after we received
farewell orders a soldier from that Corps asked to see us. She
told us our ministry would change and there would be a cost.
She was right. At
our first Sunday Meeting 3 people came out to pray at
different times during that meeting. I didn’t know any of
them. So, I went and prayed with them. They all had the same
message ‘your ministry will change and there will be a cost.’
!!
Exciting and Challenging times in
our Officership.
(The Commissioner of the day called us
in after our appointment was announced. He said that they were
sending us there to salvage the Corps otherwise it would be
shut down. A challenge in itself.)
Our first priority was to find out what
Jesus wanted us and our team to do and join Him. With Jesus on
board how could we fail?
If we wanted our ministry to succeed, we found Prayer
the key and I believe still is. We also realised that
when our prayer stopped things dried up.
Ministry Changed
We listened, we were obedient to God’s
Holy Spirit even though there were things we didn’t
understand. For example, healing ministry, deliverance
ministry (I didn’t like) But with God’s anointing how
could we fail. The DC sent us an officer who needed prayer.
She had ‘porn mags’ and black magic books sitting on the back
seat of her car!
Cost
So this was the Cost- both my parents
were killed in an aircraft accident. My dad was the pilot. My
mum, dad and 2 very close friends were killed when the plane
was caught in a downdraft. No goodbyes (My parents were very
much involved in TSA and the other couple were involved in the
Presbyterian church). All with Jesus now.
I gave up this particular ministry as I
wanted to protect John and our three kids and was not prepared
to take the risk as I was scared something else bad would
happen. I let Satan win this one.
Healing
Exciting time. I think God was saying
to us ‘I am the Lord that heals’ Trust me.
One Sunday night a bandsman leapt off the platform and
yelled ‘I am healed’.
When does this happen?
John, at the conclusion of one of his
messages (not his comfort zone to say this) - ‘The Holy
Spirit has just told me that there is someone here who has a
very bad infection in the right ear. If you would like to come
forward for prayer we will pray for you. He asked again. No
one. He thought he got the message wrong. Sunday afternoon the
phone rings. ‘Sorry Captain, but that was me you were talking
about in the meeting this morning’.
Another story (could tell you so
many) I woke up on the last morning at our Divisional
Officers Fellowship and God said to me very clearly, ‘When you
get home I want you to pray for healing for Zed (not real
name) as he is booked into hospital to have a back
operation.’ He was a bandsman and we had only been at Corps a
few weeks so who are we to pray for healing (not our gift).
Be obedient was the message. We asked Zed and his wife to come
and meet us. Plus, we asked another couple to come and pray as
we didn’t want people to think we had the Gift of Healing. Zed
could hardly walk as his back was very bad. The 6 of us
shared, prayed etc. Very early the next morning we received
this very exciting phone call. “I’m healed!
I’m healed!”
If this wasn’t a miracle, I don’t know what was.
No operation to this day. We are still very good
friends.
Interesting that this special ministry
was only for a season.
Prayer Ministry
Everything, all ministries were bathed
in prayer. That is why we saw God’s Kingdom grow.
We failed many times but kept going
which wasn’t easy.
Please, if anyone reading this wants to
take any wisdom from an old retired Officer, listen to God,
find out His mission for that place, pray about it, get a team
around you, be on the move, don’t be stagnant.
Better to try
something and fail than not try anything at all. Some
ministries are for a season.
Ministries for our younger and school
aged youth were essential. They are our Army of today so they
need to be nurtured in their faith and encouraged in their
walk with Jesus.
Sunday School, Junior Soldiers, Corps Cadets, Singing Company,
Kids Club, Youth, Mainly Music etc. To achieve this you need
dedicated leaders, prayer warriors, team players and willing
workers who love Jesus to achieve the goals for this important
ministry.
One of the crazy things we did, was, we
took flyers regarding the opening of a Kids Club to the local
Primary School. We had over 120 kids (which included our
own Army kids) so we needed plenty of staff to record
their names and give out name tags, feed them tea, a leader
for worship and the story, someone for the games and it was my
job to get a team to pray with those who responded wanting
Jesus in their lives plus home visits to share this with their
parents.
Interesting that this special ministry
was only for a season.
Always remember God is full of
surprises so you must be ready to change direction and trust
His timing even though it might look different than what you
expected.
Looking back I think we were mad!! But
God gave us the responsibility to plant the seeds and I’m glad
to say it was God’s responsibility to make them grow.
If possible, to relieve the CO try to
have someone to conduct Senior Soldiership Classes for those
interested, including Adherency Classes. We need to make
soldiers if we want to stay as The Salvation Army.
Important: where possible to have
ministries for all ages not just for our young people- e.g.
Senior Band, Songster Practices, Youth Group, Home League,
Women’s and Men’s Fellowship, Outreach Van, Open Air Meetings.
Bible Studies, Prayer groups, etc.
Preaching Salvation as well as
Holiness.
I truly believe opportunities should be
given in all our Sunday worship services for people to come
forward for prayer. God’s Holy Spirit will be present if you
expect Him to come. We had decisions in most of our meetings,
we expected that. He hasn’t changed. You need to have the
right people to counsel, pray, and follow up those who make
decisions.
Each appointment was very different
Advice to anyone changing appointments,
wait for a number of months to see who is with you and who is
not. There are people who are not really who they are as some
people just want to be on ‘your side’. Be careful.
Yet others were very, very supportive
and want to see our Army flourish.
Our music changed which created
tension.
But I think we won as we mixed both old
and new. It took time and patience. Our night meeting was on
fire with the hall full of young people praising God. They
were with us 100%.
We needed to keep our worship balanced
as our songs are full of doctrine and biblical truth as well.
Somehow, we successfully found a way.
God’s Holy Spirit was truly at work in
these meetings as well. Quite different from our last
appointment. We still focused on prayer which was the key.
We had a battle with our own age group.
“When are we going to have a Salvation Army Meeting!”
These were our friends. To cut a long story short the
day we received farewell orders that group said to us, “We
wish you were here when our children were growing up as they
would still be worshipping here today”.
Sort of an apology, I
guess.
Alpha was started here. We were the
first in our Territory to do so. We had a fantastic person who
volunteered to take on this ministry and we supported him
100%. Interesting it is still going today after all these
years. Why has it lasted? Prayer and dedicated people, of
course.
JAC: What lessons have you
learned that have stood the test of time?
How are they still relevant in your life?
Trusting God and Prayer are the key.
This doesn’t change when you retire. We have proved this.
Example…
We needed to sell our Army Quarters
cost neutral so we could move into a very new Retirement
Village. We prayed about it. Our home went on the market on a
Saturday, and offer was put in Wednesday, building inspection
Friday, sold the following Saturday! Unheard of! But not when
God is involved.
Looking back, we can see God’s hands on
our lives.
When we went into college we lived in a
beautiful home on 5 acres of land. We left our jobs; John was
the Manager of a building Company and I was in charge of the
Aboriginal Medical Centre. The day we left a large rainbow
started and ended in our property. Through our tears the
message from God was ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’.
And so, ‘From
beginning to end my life’s in your hands; great, great is your
faithfulness.’
For me one of my regrets was we didn’t
prepare our 3 beautiful children for the big change. Had to
give up our gorgeous red setter dog, friends, lifestyle. From
5 acres of land to a structured building in Melbourne with all
its rules! I am still mortified when I think of how we could
do this to our children. I know they suffered through the two
years of college plus new schools, and the appointments we had
moving them away from their friends.
There was a reason we had to keep our
children in the dark. I resigned around the Christmas, but
John needed to keep his job for financial reasons, so we
needed to keep this to ourselves until the time was right for
everyone.
Please, everyone, when you think of
your ministry don’t forget who else it might affect and
include them and pray about it as a family. Looking back, I’m
mortified how we handled our transition to the Training
College.
Fortunately, our 3 children met their
spouses in our appointments on the way.
Please be considerate when planning
your Sunday Worship Meetings that it’s ‘safe’ and new people
will feel comfortable. Put yourselves in their shoes. It seems
today in our meetings there is a tendency in some Corps to get
into groups and pray for each other, or different topics are
given and asked to please get into groups and share your
thoughts. If I was a non-Christian and walked into that Church
I would never come back no matter how welcoming people were.
Please don’t do this. I know I’m old and probably out of touch
but it’s just my opinion for what it’s worth. There is a time
and place for people to get together, pray and share together.
JAC: How does mission look
like now?
Things, attitudes, the world,
expectations, attitudes, personnel, and ministry have changed
which I think makes it hard for mission these days. We just
have to find another way for ‘doing’ ministry. It’s hard to be
critical of something that is so different and I don’t know
all the pressures that are put on Officers these days.
Live streaming of our services was
great during covid. It was an important tool for those of us
who couldn’t worship for various reasons. It helped us stay
connected to our Church community. From what I see now, many
of our worshippers have not returned to Sunday worship as it’s
easier to watch online. On a positive note, it helps us when
we have a bad Sunday health wise that we are to be able to
stay connect to our church and not feel isolated.
Mission should be the same but will be
processed differently in each Corps depending on the area we
are responsible for. I still say prayer needs to be the focus,
Salvation needs to be preached and opportunities for people to
respond. In some
places it appears our social ministry has overtaken our Jesus
focus. In saying
this, our Corps has had in our retirement years very dedicated
Officers and leaders who wanted to grow our Army by extending
God’s Kingdom.
I feel we as a movement are concerned
that if we speak up and take our Christian stand on
controversial topics, we could lose some of our government
funding which will affect our social outreach and divide
Salvationists.
JAC: What did you wish you
knew back in the day that you know now? (about Jesus,
holiness, great commission, etc.)
JAC:
What would you have done differently back in the day if you
knew then what you know now?
Thank goodness we don’t stay stagnant
in our walk with Jesus. We are on a journey and need to grow
and develop on our faith journey. It is important to have
people who have walked the paths before us to give us wisdom
on our journey.
I wish I had thought about this more
seriously. I had people to talk to but not the people I
needed. ‘The Divine Mentor’ written by Wayne Cordeiro was a
book I found invaluable. Would recommend it to anyone. An
oldie but a goodie.
The great commission has not changed
but the methods have. My prayer is that the results for the
Kingdom will be more successful now than in our time. How good
would that be! We
did our best and will still try and represent Jesus well.
Please find a really good mentor who
understands where you are now spiritually and where you want
to be in 12 months’ time. Life is too short not to reach your
full potential and you will be retired before you realise it!
So do something now.
Looking back, one of the things I
should have done differently was to ‘speak up’ (e.g. fight
for our kids in college and in our appointments... Plus, other
areas). But, if we did, it would be taken as ‘opposing
leadership’ who thought they knew better! Plus, they were not
interested in listening.
We grew up in the generation where you
‘saluted and didn’t question’. This was at home, school, the
Army, then as Officers. Don't get me wrong, we spoke up if
something was really against what we believed.
We made many mistakes, but we always
wanted the best for God’s Kingdom.
I have always been independent and went
to boarding school at a very young age so to survive I needed
to stand up for my rights.
In our marriage and ministry we have
complimented each other as I am an extrovert and John is an
introvert who keeps me grounded.
When we retired and filled in for any
appointment our method of supporting people in ministry never
changed. Visitation, prayer, teaching/preaching, altar call,
etc. was all the same. What was important is that we didn’t
make the same mistakes twice. The difference was, we needed to
adapt to the structure which looked different depending on
where we were. This was Social as well as Corps.
Variety kept things interesting.
The technology has changed so much over
our ministry. Fortunately, for most of the part it was not a
stumbling block for us because when we filled in at Corps or
Division levels in retirement we had competent people in these
positions. We were responsible more for the support,
encouragement, help and leading the Meetings. We coped with
the Administration then, but we know it would be much more
difficult now and wouldn’t cope.
Staffing our weaknesses at the
beginning of our journey or in retirement is a key.
This is one key for
success. Please don’t be intimidated or be a stumbling block
which will restrict the mission.
Don’t be afraid to use people in areas
that are not your strengths. Pulling our resources together
makes us stronger and God’s Kingdom will be better for it.
“If all were easy, all were bright,
where would the Cross be, where the fight?”
We have a great Mission Statement in
Australia:
“Where there is hardship or injustice,
Salvos will live, love and fight alongside others, to
transform Australia one life at a time with the love of
Jesus.”
I would have loved our Mission
Statement to have started with “In the love of Jesus….”
Just my opinion.
Adele Vale
(Major – Retired)
|
