A Golden Dollar Brought a Family to Church

The Salvation Army has impacted my life through so many seasons; every single one of my stories would encourage you. Looking past all the hard work, busyness, and effort we expend as officers, oftentimes it’s the smallest ministry moment that can make a difference in someone’s life.

Allow me to share the very first season and one of my first encounters with The Salvation Army — the one that brought my family to Church.

In 2007, one of my kids brought home a flyer from school that was from The Salvation Army down the road. The boys were so excited to show it to me because it highlighted sports activities, and they were at that age where sports were all they wanted to do.

At the time, I was working the graveyard shift at the hospital because we couldn’t afford any type of daycare or an afterschool program for four kids. I was honestly afraid of going and checking out their program because it had been so discouraging not to be able to afford regular activities for my kids after school and on the weekends. But, as I said, the boys were so excited about the sports, so I went to check it out.

I found that not only was it quite affordable, but we could also apply for scholarships to cover the registration and weekly fees. So, I applied, and we were honored with scholarships for three of our four children.

Every day after school my kids had a snack, homework time, tutoring help, and then plenty of fun and great fellowship.

After a few months of attending, we received an offer for the church bus to pick the kids up for Sunday programs. The boys were excited for this additional opportunity because they had become friends with Dalton Murphy, the corps officer’s son, who had also personally invited them. Our youngest, Brittany, was excited about going as well because they had a little girl her age. And so, I allowed them to go.

They soon became very involved in church activities and even stayed late on Wednesday evenings for youth group and music lessons. The music leader, Andy Barrington, couldn’t wait to put instruments in my boys’ hands. Not only that, but they put little Brittany in the Singing Company.

It wasn’t long before we, as parents, received an invitation to come and see our children “perform” on a Sunday morning.

But that wasn’t our first Sunday to attend a worship service. At the beginning of 2008, they had a New Year’s Sunday school “back to church” campaign that they got the children involved in. For a period of several weeks, if you brought a friend to Sunday school, you would earn a prize. That prize was a golden dollar coin.

When the kids came home after church that New Year’s Sunday, the boys went on and on about who they were going to invite and how many dollars they could get. But one of our kids was not so happy; Brittany came home crying because all her friends were already going to church.

With those big crying eyes looking up at her daddy, my husband, Michael, couldn’t help but say, “I’ll be your friend for church next week so you can earn your prize.”

The next Sunday, the church didn’t come pick up our kids; we got in the car and went to church as a family.

I sat in the pew that first Sunday morning and felt like Corps Officer Captain Vance Murphy knew everything about me. He knew all my faults and failures, knew all my worries and concerns, knew things about me that no one else had ever known. But it wasn’t him speaking to me that morning; it was the Holy Spirit. God used that first Sunday morning to grab hold of me, and He has never let me go since.