Love Grows in Garden City

The Salvation Army Corps Community Center in Garden City, Kansas is bustling on a sweltering summer morning. The newly renovated building, which was out of commission for nearly 2 years due to a flooding event, recently reopened and is buzzing with a low murmur of anticipation. 

(Watch the video below to get the full story on the new renovations)

Out here on the prairie so close to the Colorado border, Garden City is the farthest outpost for The Salvation Army Kansas and Western Missouri Division. With over 28-thousand residents in the city and where the primary economy is agriculture and the largest employer is the meatpacking industry, people in this community are from a hearty stock. There is a strong diversity of immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia that came here specifically to work these jobs. In the heart of America, Garden City is a minority majority community, with 57% of the residents speaking Spanish. 

At the corps, a hive of activity precedes the main event: distribution of food box aide to those who rely on these staples to make ends meet. One glimpse at the person orchestrating this giveaway with happy volunteers collecting, sorting and bagging the groceries and you begin to understand the love and respect that flows through these halls.

(Watch the video below to see the services offered at Garden City Corps)

For Captain Chelsea Barnes, this love has come naturally. A second-generation Salvationist from Milwaukee, Chelsea has grown up in The Salvation Army with her parents serving and worshipping in a corps. With soft brown hair pulled back from her face, warm eyes and speaking fluent Spanish, she puts everyone in the office at ease. She is quite comfortable in this space and faithfully witnesses God at work, stewarding limited resources to meet the needs of the community. Captain Barnes has been stationed in Garden City for six years and if it were up to her, she would be here indefinitely. She loves the people, the area, and is fulfilled in more ways than one.

In her last appointment in St. Louis, Chelsea demonstrated love with her particular easy connection with people, primarily teenagers. She still keeps in touch with many of them, who are no longer teenagers but thriving young adults continuing their sense of belonging and maintaining their family bonds first experienced at the corps. Today, more than 600 miles to the west in her homey office are many keepsakes, pictures and loving memories from a time when she gave hope by caring and being authentic; subsequently changing young lives for the better.

She fell in love in Garden City too, where the town motto is “the World Grows Here.” This time Captain Chelsea couldn’t have known the personal growth that was in store for her when she met a young lady in the corps congregation who happened to be in foster care. When that sensitive young child innocently started to call her “mom,” it just felt natural. “When praying about it I truly felt God saying to me yes, this is your daughter who you will adopt as your family,’ says Chelsea. “Honestly, it’s hard to even remember my life without her in it as she’s become a main part of my life and identity of who I am.”  Simply put, Dennisse would steal her heart, and that’s when her family and ministry would grow even larger in love.  

(Watch the video below to hear Captain Chelsea's story about her growing family)

Back at the corps, in the blink of an eye the weekly food box distribution is over. But the folks here leave with more than much needed staples. Captain Barnes has also given them a measure of hope and dignity. With a quick smile, a blessing and reassurance, she has demonstrated an authentic love that is feeding a growing flock here on the Kansas prairie.