Shortie hears God’s call
Craig ‘Shortie’ Sutton. (Photo by Shairon Paterson)
Assistant officer at the Salvation Army’s Waterloo Mission, Lieutenant Craig ‘Shortie’ Sutton, has a heart for those rejected by the mainstream.
“People need to heard, helped and listened to,” Shortie says. “They also need love and to know that someone does care for them and that they are not alone.”
At the Waterloo centre, Shortie and his team offer friendship, meals, care and referrals to the homeless, those with mental health and addiction issues, and those who live isolated and lonely lives in the stark public housing apartments nearby.
Shortie explains he understands the sense of rejection and hopelessness many feel.
He grew up in a stable, Christian family, but undiagnosed eye problems and dyslexia meant his difficulties at school started early.
Shortie started drinking at 13, and was soon addicted to alcohol, then gambling.
His involvement in crime escalated to drug running and robbery. Full of anger and small in stature, Shortie says he would regularly walk into pubs and “smash” anyone bigger than him, until he was caught for a series of major crimes.
“I thought if I keep on going like I am now, I might as well go and say to the judge, ‘lock me in jail and throw away the key, because I’m not going to be any good to society if you let me out’,” he says.
“It was then I am sure I heard God challenge me and say ‘Shortie, you know what I want from you in your life. Isn’t it time you did it?’”
After drug and alcohol rehabilitation and four years of jail, Shortie completed a Bachelor, and then Masters of Theology – which given his poor marks in English at high school, Shortie believes was miraculous.
Covered in tattoos, with a shaven head and biker’s moustache, Shortie laughs: ‘I’d still be more comfortable in me old bike-riding gear…but when I work, I go in full Salvation Army uniform.
“A lot of people look twice – they see the uniform, see the tats – and they shake their heads because it just doesn’t match. And that’s good because it gives me an open door to share what God’s done in my life!”
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