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As a session, we all heard about the Prayer Warriors summer assignment last year, and what an enriching, affirming and challenging experience it was for them.  We were assured the same would be true for the Ambassadors of Holiness this year.  Then, of course, there was the added excitement that starting building in April when many of us found out we would be on ‘The Rock’, the great Province of Newfoundland Labrador, for 9 weeks following Congress/Commissioning.  It isn’t that I didn’t believe everyone’s claims, but I am one of those people who has to experience things for myself.  And in the short time that I have been here, experience it I have…  Already, it has been made clear to me that all of the assertions about summer, this place, and the people are true.  I have certainly felt God’s presence, seen His grace, and witnessed the love of Jesus in many situations.  And, I’m also having fun:).

What has struck me during the first couple of weeks here can be summed up in the lyrics of the song, “People need the Lord.”

We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right.
What could be too great a cost
For sharing Life with one who’s lost?

Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear.
They must hear the Words of Life
Only we can share.

People need the Lord, people need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams, He’s the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize that we must give our lives,
For people need the Lord.

And regardless of location, irrespective of people’s ages or backgrounds I realize – life is tough.  As I have journeyed with my officers on a number of visits to hospitals and into people’s homes, I have been touched by the way people continue to lean on the Lord through their struggles and their difficulties.  Psalm 62:2 says, “He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”  God is our rock and our fortress, He is our strong tower.  And those who live on the Rock seem to have a keen sense of understanding of how to lean on the only Rock who is never shaken and who can sustain us.

As the lyrics of that song suggests, our responsibility as believers is to lead people to the open door, to keenly feel the grief in our hearts along with those who are encountering it first-hand - but also to encourage others to trust God and to carry those burdens and broken dreams to the foot of the cross and to leave them there with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  We are each called to be salt and light, and I see that light shining brightly around me every day – not only from those in leadership within Gander’s expression of The Salvation Army, but also from those who they are ministering to.

I look forward to and continue to feel the responsibility of sharing Words of Life during my time here.

Cadet Joyce Wilson is appointed to the Gander Corps and Family Services in the Newfoundland and Labrador Division for her Summer Assignment.  Joyce entered training out of the Sunshine Coast Corps in Goderich, Ontario Great Lakes Division.