Come all ye bold Canadians and gird your trusty might

Another chapter from;

Return to Battle in Russia and Beyond 

Volume Two

Come all you brave Canadians

I'd have you join our band

While humming our simple ditty

We’d ask you to lend a hand

Concerning an engagement

We’ve begun at Moscow town

Come Alison, Ross and Sherrilynn,

Danielle, Wally, and Vangie too. 

So come ye bold Canadians

and gird your trusty might.

We'll teach the Ruskies our simple tune,

Come join our Army, 

we'll fight for God and right.

Canadian Reflections

Salvationist - Daughter of the Regiment, Sherrilyn Hall, Toronto

         

With the fondest of memories I write recollections of my time in the pioneering re-founding of the Salvation Army in Russia with Sven and Kathie Ljungholm. 

After a long flight from my home of Toronto, Ontario Canada I arrived in the city of Moscow. I was one of only two Canadians to support Sven and Kathie in the reestablishment of the Salvation Army’s work in the capital. (Lts. Geoff and Sandra Ryan, Canadian SA officers were serving in St. Petersburg)   

         Upon arrival, I was joined by other team members from the USA and  ferried in white minivans to our basic but comfortable hotel.  

The day after our arrival we were treated to a night out at the Russian circus which was to my memory an incredible acrobatic and musical experience. The trumpets were awesome!  

The team was then shown how to make our way around using the Moscow Metro (subway).

A typical Metro station Platform

We were also treated that night to what was to become an important social hub for the team, the local Pizza Hut. 

         
The people are what stand out in my mind. What I learned from Capt. Sven Ljungholm  I utilize in my ministry to this day  He had a wonderful way of placing the team members in a way that best utilized their strengths and talents. 

One role I had was that of a bit of an administrative assistant role to Sven in the office. It was a government Ministry building where the day-to-day business of the Army took place and it was not devoid of the politics of government.                                                                                 I will never forget how Capt. Ljungholm had to handle daily, government officials who were angling for a bribe. Capt. Ljungholm always stood his ground, he had an unyielding strength we all admired and came to rely upon. 

         The Salvation Army Moscow Central Corps conducted their meetings in the large auditorium in the Soviet Union Foreign Ministry complex. 

I led the newly formed Singing Company, and we ministered in music on the extensive platform of the hall every Sunday morning.  The Ljungholm’s made sure the children were decked out in Junior Soldier uniforms and were an absolute spectacle to behold. The children were beautiful and it was my honour to lead them in exhuberant singing.  Sven made sure he utilized my strength in children’s leadership in asking me to lead the corps Singing Company but also by involving me in the camps he arranged in an old communist training camp on the outskirts of Moscow.    

        

 The team set up house in the newly acquired camp and Kathie was in charge of the meals, assisted by several mothers of the campers, which were to my memory always tasty.  

         This was a place where Salvation Army style camping took place. And even though Sven arranged music and games, food and recreation for the several camps that were conducted there, he also made sure the visiting team had a balanced experience. The camp was on wide Moscow large River and one time Sven arranged for the team to have a special overnight river cruise on a beautiful boat.  It could never be said of Sven that he was all work!  He certainly knew how to show a group of young people a great time. 

         The children who attended the camps had a meaningful, fun time. 

Because of the fantastic experience they had at the camp many were attracted to the Salvation Army and more importantly to Jesus and many asked Him to be Lord of their lives while I was there.   

         So much was being done by Sven and Kathie for the Salvation Army in Russia, the camp was just one facet of it. The team would travel around Moscow and participate in great gatherings where literally thousands of people attended. This is one of the mysterious things about the work that was being carried out in Moscow, the great crowds and reception the Army received. 

         I remember these meetings so clearly as Sven always utilized the team and had us perform or speak. I remember Cadet Lisa Brodin (USA West) singing and accompanying herself on the electric keyboard singing “Sanctify Us” so beautifully, in the massive SU Park of Achievements. Also Danielle Strickland, the other Canadian ioneer, giving her amazing testimony of what the Lord can do in a person’s life. I clearly remember standing on stages, having being asked to sing a variety of gospel and worship songs, seeing the huge crowds that were coming to The Salvation Army meetings. It was truly amazing. We played and sang in a variety of venues. Both old Soviet style grand auditoriums, in parks and other open air venues.  

         What was happening in Moscow in those days was both business and ministry. It was a dream come true for someone like myself who wanted to “get in on the action” of a new work, a new ministry for an organization I love deeply.  The work of the Army that was being carried out in Moscow was the way the Salvation Army was purposed to work.  It was an outreach, it was teaching people skills, feeding the poor, preaching the Word, offering a place of worship with vibrant music and stretching out a “hand up”, ministering to both young and old to the whole person.  The hunger for God was being met by teaching and presenting a practical type of Christianity. 

         This practical Christianity expressed itself in a variety of ways including visitations. The team always working in pairs or groups visited prisons and orphanages.  One particular visit to a prison for young men stands out in my mind because of the conditions were so poor. The team sang, read the bible, gave testimonies and chatted with the young guys. It was very moving to see how grateful these prisoners were to have us there. I believe they truly felt the love of God that day.      

         One visit to an orphanage in Moscow was particularly meaningful because the children seemed so happy to sing the songs and play the little games the team brought for them and also because of the way the staff were so touched by the love the team showed and the enthusiastic way we carried out our ministry by talking and playing with the children.  It was truly a highlight. 

         There were so many things that happened under the ministry of Sven and Kathie in Moscow.  With the unique ability to arrange and make things happen the team, and therefore I, were always busy.  But we were not busy doing “nothingness”. We were busy with the work of the Kingdom, in Salvation Army style.  Sven was a master of capitalizing on opportunities and getting things done.  He and Kathie worked tirelessly for the Salvation Army in Russia and it was an example to us all.  What he and Kathie were able to accomplish was nothing short of miracle after miracle.  

         And looking back, I know that it was God’s way of teaching and preparing me for the work He has appointed me to do to this very day.  The memories are wonderful but the lessons learned are where the real value is.  

         I thank the Lord for the opportunity of those precious months in Russia with the USA team and Capts. Sven and Kathie Ljungholm.   I feel I was a part of something important and great and it’s made all the difference in my life. Sherrilyn Hall, Toronto

more photos will be added

CHRIST MASS EVE IN MOSCOW 1991

 Excerpt 1 from: RETURN TO BATTLE IN RUSSIA AND 

Kathie and I were privileged to serve as part of a six-member Salvation Army pioneer officer team in Russia, immediately following Perestroika- they were busy, heady and often difficult times.

One of our favorite activities, once we’d moved on to re-found the SA in Moscow a month earlier, was participating in or leading the Sunday evening devotions at the USA Embassy, a gated community in the center of Moscow with high walls protecting it. A group of some 35-40 expats, mostly Americans living in, or visiting Moscow, would meet to worship each Sunday evening. The congregation included several familiar faces, including the Bowers, an American Baptist couple, both members of the Embassy staff and regular participants in our Salvation Army services. Mrs. Joan Bowers served as our pianist during our early start-up period and Ron as a Sunday school teacher.

         Visitors were always found in our small assembly and one Sunday in late December there were five others in our fellowship in uniform, USA military officers visiting our evening service. All five belonged to the Association of Christian Military Fellowship. They had been active for several weeks in the Soviet Union visiting and seeking to enlist Russian military officers into their association. They were given the opportunity to share the Gospel with large groups of military personnel on various bases, an unheard of witness opportunity in the history of the Soviet military.

        The spokesperson for the ACMF shared the association's history and make-up.... AMCF

     The AMCF traces its origins to 1851 when a British cavalry officer, while serving in India, brought together officers and soldiers for Bible study and prayer.

     From those gatherings, the British Officers’ Christian Union and the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association were formed. Military Christians in other European nations gradually began replicating those two groups as they saw the benefit of fellowship with their believing coworkers. By 1990 indigenous Christians in over 100 nations had formed MCFs.            

     Some are small, with only two or three Christians meeting together for encouragement; others have tens of thousands of members. All seek to live for Christ and have a positive effect on their nations as they live out their faith in Him while also serving their countries in the armed forces. 

     Over coffee at the Embassy canteen following the worship service they outlined their expansion plans. 

        The five USA military officers had learned that one of my SA related activities was lecturing weekly at the Russian Military Academy (Introduction to Social Services). They were eager to further their reach into the Russian military machine and thought I could be helpful in their gaining direct access to the Academy, the Russian equivalent of West Point in the US and the UK’s Sandhurst.  
        We arranged to have dinner that week, on December 24, at a typical Russian restaurant, a decade before any westernization and improvement in the decor or menu selections of Russkie Stolovayas (restaurants).

        

Kathie and I picked up our newfound friends at the embassy gates and drove across a very dark and snowy city center following the Embankment to Taganka. The build up of wind swept snow and ice prevented the massive front door from closing properly, and we heard the Muscovites' exuberance well before venturing inside.

         We entered the rowdy premises, smoke-filled enough to sting one’s eyes. The Russian people's staple libations, vodka, cognac, and champagne were flowing freely; the voices of the Russians boisterous as they sang and toasted each other. They’d begun celebrating the lead up to the new year, an important Russian event. And some, no doubt, were looking forward to celebrating Christmas Day which falls on January 7 in the Julian (Russian Orthodox) calendar, corresponding to December 25 in the Gregorian (western) calendar.

         As we entered, five dressed in heavy well decorated USA military officer overcoats and two of us in Salvation Army Model C overcoats with red epaulets, We must have been a very strange sight indeed; the cold war had not yet thawed completely! Did more than one slightly blotto, intoxicated mind think that the long-threatened invasion by the USA was under way?

         On entering, we stomped the snow off our boots, shook our hats and overcoats free of snow and presented them to a startled doorman. The celebrant's rowdiness became a hushed murmur and their glances apprehensive as they spied the dozens of service ribbons and medals.

         As we were escorted to our table greetings of 'Hello Yankees' and 'Nazdtrovia', the Russians' courage boosted by the contents of glasses that were lifted and 'clinked' in our direction!

         With menus distributed, drink orders taken, we bowed our heads in prayer…. it was our Christ-mass table, thousands of miles from our families, celebrating their Christmas Eve stateside.

         As we waited for our meals to be prepared, our thoughts and conversation turned quite naturally to “home and family”.

         Each military officer shared a brief overview of himself. As the conversation moved around the table, one officer shared that he was born and raised in Chicago, and went on to say that he became a Christian as a young boy. A ‘Salvation Army man’ had come to his home on Christmas Eve delivering a parcel of food and toys to him and his siblings. His father, he explained, "had abandoned the family and they were living on welfare. After passing out the Christmas gifts, the Salvation Army man asked my mother", he said, "if he might be allowed to read the Christmas story- we sat at our kitchen table as he read… and then he asked my sisters and me if we'd like to have Jesus living in our home and in our hearts- we knelt there in our tiny kitchen, and he prayed with us- and Jesus has been my Lord ever since".

         I shared enthusiastically that I too was from Chicago, the north Clark Street area where many hundreds of Swedish-American immigrants had settled. “In fact I attended Lake View High School, near Wrigley Field.                
"So did my sister," he exclaimed!

         I asked what year was the visit made to your home by the ‘Salvation Army man’, and he informed me that it was 1960. I asked him to describe the uniformed man who had visited his home and he shared, “He was tall, maybe in his late 30s, and he spoke English with an accent of some kind."  "Could it have been a Swedish accent," I asked? And, at that moment, all of us at that Christmas table realized concurrently, in a tearful moment, that the man who had brought the gift of Jesus to that young boy, 40 years earlier on a Christmas Eve was my father. I shared that my father had been promoted to glory 9 years ago.

         The re-gifting of the story of the birth of Jesus, the love of God, to that young boy was the catalyst that was now bringing the name of Jesus to thousands of Russian military men and women, former atheists, and agnostics. The Name above all other names was being re-gifted.

         My father spoke from time to time throughout the years about my grandfather, reflecting on the sad ending to the Army’s unsuccessful campaign in early 20th century Russia. The Salvationist pioneers had brought the Christmas message to Russia, but The Salvation Army's presence was short lived…. My grandparents were the last SA officers to exit Moscow when the SA was proscribed.  

         I believe my father often pondered whether those early efforts by his father would ever find resolve and be reconciled with the scripture's command found in Matthew 28:19 (NIV). “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”                                                

Here, in a noisy Moscow tavern, the resolution was celebrated on Christmas Eve – 1991.

         We transported the team back to the embassy compound. Then it was straight to our quarters to prepare for the first Salvation Army Christmas service in more than seven decades.

Kathie (Ljungholm) Bearcroft and 

Sven-Erik Ljungholm

CONCLUSION 2018-2019 Christmas Season series, “O Come Let Us Adore Him’.

Our journey together through the 2018-2019 Christmas season has concentrated on the challenge,  “O Come Let Us Adore Him.”We have stepped back in time to explore the various components of the of the first Christmas story, such as the prophecies regarding the Promised Messiah; the unexpected and laborious trip to Bethlehem for a mandated census and where Mary gave birth to the long-awaited Messiah; the angels’ birth announcement to shepherds tending their flocks in the outskirts of Bethlehem, the love that God demonstrated via the messages that He sent the angels to proclaim. Our use of the symbolic candles in the Advent wreath (hope, preparation, joy, and love) concluded with the final white Christ-candle. In this devotional we concentrated on the reason we celebrate the Christmas season, which is the birth of our Messiah-Saviour, Jesus Christ. It doesn’t mean that we avoid the hustle and bustle, our Christmas traditions, or celebrating with family and friends or colleagues. It does mean that we elevate our celebration in our hearts and homes as we bend our knees and will to Him and His purpose for our lives. In doing so, we lift Jesus up so that others may be drawn to Him, too.  Hallelujah!

Moreover, throughout the season we have considered the enduring truths gleaned from the narrative of the first Christmas and that still apply to our lives today—for example, worship, love, and adoration of our Creator and Saviour—because Jesus is the Living Word; and, in a nutshell, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God; and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice” (The Salvation Army, Doctrine #: 1-- This doctrine comes directly from 2 Timothy 3: 1§rt, and help at such times. As we experience this truth in our lives, it becomes more natural for us to turn to Him. Hallelujah!

The  Scriptures are filled with verses and passages about developing our relationship with Christ. We often ask or hear the question, “Where do I start?” One site provides 100 Bible verses about strengthening our relationship with Jesus, and I’m providing the website to give you a beginning point. I pray that we all will fall in love over and over again: O Come Let Us Adore Him! Hallelujah!! 

https://www.openbible.info/topics/strengthening_our_relationship_with_jesus

 Blessings & Peace

Elizabeth Hogan Hayduk

Former Salvation Army Officer (pastor)

Canada

EPIPHANY 2019

1) Set aside time without distractions, to make our plan for deepening our relationship with Christ.

2) Spend time praying and reflecting as we honestly assess where we are in the following areas of our lives, including spirituality, relationships, intellectual pursuits, emotional well-being, and physical fitness. As we consider the balance needed in our lives, ask God what changes we need to make to renew our love and passion for Him and for others. 

We also need to determine the areas in our lives where we need to grow to be more like Jesus, using the fruit of the Spirit as our guidelines (Galatians 5:22-23).

3) Write our plan down. Why? Because our multiple responsibilities and life’s distractions may cause us to forget our goals or our resolutions.

4) Keep our plan visible, because we don’t want to fall into the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ trap.

Wise people still seek Him; they still worship and adore Him. And that’s my plan, my resolution for 2019. I pray that it’s your plan, too!

O Come Let Us Adore Him! Hallelujah!

Blessings & Peace

Elizabeth Hogan Hayduk
Former Salvation Army Officer (pastor)

CanadaFormer Salvation Army Officer
Canada