Powerful Sunday at Palmerston North Corps
On Sunday 6 November, Palmerston North Corps (church) enrolled five new soldiers and two new adherents. ‘It’s so exciting and inspiring to know that God’s not done with us yet! God is clearly still raising up people to join The Salvation Army, fight for souls and reach the world for Jesus,’ says Corps Officer Captain Sammy Millar.
Two of the new members, Zia Bethel and Kiahn Murray-Witana, came to the corps through the Just Brass programme about six years ago. ‘They were learning instruments and would have tutoring, and then they got involved in youth group and, in time, the corps band,’ explains Sammy. ‘They both made decisions to follow Jesus along the way, and now they are taking the next step in their discipleship journey by becoming committed members. It’s just so exciting!’ Kiahn also became a member of the New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa Territory Youth Band earlier this year.
Three of the new members, Zac Millar, Molly Sheridan and Maddie Fletcher, have all grown up in The Salvation Army. ‘They’ve each reached a point in their discipleship journey where they want to live in a countercultural way and they have chosen to do this through adherency and soldiership,’ says Sammy.
Coming to soldiership via a different route, Max and Rosie da Silva moved to Palmerston North from Queenstown earlier this year. Introduced to The Salvation Army through the Queenstown Corps, the couple moved to the Manawatu, believing in faith that there was a ministry waiting for them. ‘Max is an exceptional musician,’ says Sammy, ‘he connected quickly with some of the band members and is now heavily involved leading the Just Brass group.’
Sammy explains that preparation classes at Palmerston North Corps took place over three Sunday evenings and included sharing a meal together. Using the Mission Matters material provided by The Salvation Army, a group of 15 explorers watched the videos together and had plenty of discussion about the various topics presented.
‘Ultimately we encouraged people to really pray and seek God about what the next step might be for them,’ says Sammy. ‘We urged them to listen to God and not just do this because others are doing this. There were some who said “no”, but others are sitting with “not yet”, so we are anticipating more enrolments later in the year.’
Sammy believes that there is a hunger for the Spirit of God to move in Palmerston North these days. ‘There’s a real desire to see God’s kingdom advance. People don’t want to just sit in the pews and be part of a club, they want to be involved in making significant advancement of the kingdom. And so that’s so exciting. That hunger is so evident,’ she affirms.
Not only were there enrolments, but during the service there was also a time for soldiership covenant renewal. ‘It was a powerful Sunday and many people responded by renewing their covenant,’ says Sammy. ‘Seeing others take that step of becoming soldiers was a really good reminder to those of us who signed our covenant years ago of what we are about and why we signed up. It was invigorating! And to know that there are likely to be more from that Mission Matters group to sign up in the future is just so exciting.’
