On The Mend
Joseph was 8 years old when his mother passed away. His father went into a serious depression shortly after his wife’s death and turned to drugs and alcohol to help cope with the loss. When Joseph was 10 years old, his grandmother came to town for a visit and was both frightened and appalled by the environment she found Joseph living in. She was met with no argument from Joseph’s father when she took her grandson to live with her. Joseph was in the middle of summer vacation from school and had spent the majority of it getting into trouble with a group of older boys, breaking windows and vandalizing places around town.
Once he was settled in with his grandparents several hours away and in a new school district, things started to slowly but surely turn around for Joseph. “My grandparents started taking me to church with them and encouraged me to make friends and play sports,” Joseph explained. |
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“I didn’t like church, but I liked the friends I made there and kept going without arguing because I loved my grandma,” he continued. “I didn’t believe that God really loved or cared about me because he’d taken my mother from me.”
It wasn’t until Joseph attended The Salvation Army’s Camp in Midlothian, Texas, that he turned a major corner towards healing. After 3 days at Hoblitzelle, having fun with his friends and being shown compassion and kindness from his counselors and other camp staff, the pain he’d successfully buried after losing his mother overflowed one night during vespers. All the kids and staff were gathered by the lake singing, when Joseph’s counselor noticed him sobbing silently at the end of the row. Joseph opened up about his mother, his father’s alcoholism and the sadness he felt most days. The camp staff and Salvation Army Officers opened their arms to him and told him about the love of Christ. “I learned that Jesus loved me unconditionally and that it wasn’t because of something I had or hadn’t done that my mom passed away. For the first time, I wanted to know about Jesus.”
“Joseph came home smiling from that one week at The Salvation Army’s Camp Hoblitzelle and my heart literally jumped for joy when I saw it,” Shirley recalled. “It was something we hadn’t seen in a very long time and it showed us that his heart had started mending, something we’d been praying for faithfully for some time. He’s continued to heal and can’t wait to go back to camp again. Thank you, Salvation Army!”
Shirley and her husband Don are on a fixed income and did not have the extra money to provide a camping experience for Joseph. Because of your generosity, hundreds of children, just like Joseph, are given scholarships to come to Hoblitzelle for a wonderful, life-changing week amidst God’s beautiful creation. Thank you!
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