New Year’s resolution helps Frances find her spiritual home
It was New Year’s Eve 1999 and I did something I’d never done before. I made a New Year’s resolution.
My resolution was to find Jesus. It wasn’t that Jesus was lost … I was.
My mum had raised me in the Catholic faith, so I knew about Jesus, but I had drifted away from church in my early 20s. I was doing my own thing, and I was falling apart after my first marriage ended due to my unfaithfulness.
On that New Year’s Eve I was desperate to change my life. I knew I needed to find the Lord. I said to myself: “Where would I find Jesus if he were alive today?”
I thought, “He’d be out there with the ordinary people, he’d be with the poor and the marginalised, he’d be with the sinners and the drunks, in the pubs - with the Salvos.”
So I knew I had to go to the Salvos, and there was one in the next suburb at Dulwich Hill. The sign (out the front of the building) said the service was at 10.30am.
I arrived on the first Sunday in January 2000 only to discover that the service had started and indeed only went for another 10 minutes. People greeted me warmly and informed me that in January the service started at 9.30am! But I wasn’t going to let that deter me, so back I came the next Sunday.
Well, the welcome was like the prodigal daughter coming home. I never looked back from that Sunday. As I kept attending, I felt that I had found my spiritual home. I came to know Jesus as my personal Saviour through the wonderful teaching and the love, warmth and acceptance I found from the people here.
That acceptance was important. I was living with someone at the time (I wasn’t married) and the people at Dulwich Hill Corps knew this. Never once did anyone judge me or criticise me. They just loved me and allowed the Holy Spirit to do his work. In time, I left that relationship, as it was not a good one.
No judgment, just love.
I was so excited when I was invited to join the songster brigade. I was an adherent by this stage and it meant a lot to me that I could join. As the Holy Spirit continued his promptings, I commenced soldiership classes and on 16 September 2001, was enrolled as a senior soldier.
I was encouraged in my growth and joined a Bible study. That’s what people at Dulwich Hill Corps do – they want to see you grow and be nurtured and be given opportunities.
There is so much love and support here [at Dulwich Hill]. People came alongside me at the mercy seat and I was able to find, and more importantly accept, Jesus’ forgiveness for my past failings.
A fellow soldier, Peter Hobbs, asked me to join pub ministry. I said “no” as I didn’t like all the cigarette smoke. I discovered that Peter doesn’t like no for an answer, so I decided to go one night just so I could prove to him how much I didn’t like the smoke and then he’d stop pestering me! Well, I loved it and I didn’t even smell the smoke. I’ve been doing pub ministry ever since.
I got involved with band carolling in the streets, meeting and greeting the community. There is a real heart for mission here at Dulwich Hill Corps which I love. In December 2002, I met my (now) husband Bruce (he had to wait two weeks before my carolling calendar was free before we could even go on a date!) Bruce and I were married at Dulwich Hill Corps in 2005 and many of our corps family shared our day with us.
It was a difficult year in 2012 for both Bruce and myself. Both of our mums have gone to be with our Lord in heaven. The people here at Dulwich Hill have supported us with gifts of food, much prayer, words of kindness and with phone calls and visits.
And to think for me, it all started with my question: “Where would I find Jesus if he were alive today?” Now I can say: “He’d be with the sinners and the drunks, in the pubs, with the Salvos at Dulwich Hill – and with me!”
By Frances Hayward
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