In Behalf of the Salvation Army

Dear old Salvation Army!

Marching alone, quietly minding His business, reaching out to the homeless and desperate poor with seldom a word said in their favor, other than vague references to “good works.”

My colleagues and I were rather wistful to notice no mention was made of the work of the Salvation Army among the well-deserved tributes made to the several other agencies with the homeless in the San Fernando Valley; these other agencies receiving the benefits of the walk-a-thon recently organized by the Valley Board of Realtors.

But for some reason that’s quite usual. It’s an army that bangs its drums and blows its instruments to glorify God and not its work in His behalf.

However, for the encouragement of the tens of thousands of generous and loyal supporters of the army in the San Fernando Valley, this letter is just a word to remind them of certain facts.

Every night of the year a minimum of 140 men (who would otherwise be homeless, and who are homeless when they come to us) are sleeping in clean beds in the Salvation Army’s two Adult Rehabilitation Centers here in the Valley: 85 of them in the Van Nuys center and 55 in Canoga Park.

Every week over 300 men, women and children who are homeless are provided with emergency food at the army’s San Fernando Valley Corps Community Center on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys. While emergency shelter is very limited in the Valley for adult men and women, the army is committed before God never to turn away a homeless child. Of the center’s $500,000 budget for 1989-90, approximately $25,000 will be received from the United Way. We expect to spend every cent of that amount on motel rooms for homeless children and their parents for one, two or three nights.

An additional 300-plus individuals who are not homeless but almost equally desperate are also helped with food and clothing at the Victory Boulevard Center every week.

The “Good Samaritan van” driven by volunteers and stocked with 15 gallons of good nourishing homemade soup, 300-plus sandwiches, toilet articles and blankets (when we have them) goes out every Friday evening and visits the homeless in North Hollywood Park, Hansen Dam and the United Way building in Van Nuys. We’ve been going out for over four years now, and every week we serve a minimum of 100 men and women.

Every Sunday evening at least 100 homeless gather in the Victory Boulevard Center at 4 p.m. for a rousing Christian Worship service and a home-cooked dinner which is served at 5. That’s every Sunday. The army has a banner that proclaims, “At the Salvation Army it’s Christmas 365 Days Every Year!”

Finally, and most importantly, in the five years that I have had the pleasure of being associated with them, I have known of over 200 men, women and children who have knelt at the drumhead (which the army uses as an altar) and received Christ into their hearts.

So, not to embarrass the organizers of the walk-a-thon but to keep the record straight, let’s thank God for the Salvation Army. One of their slogans is “Heart to God, Hand to Man.” Without the loving support of countless thousands of people, many of them readers of your paper, that hand to man would be empty.

BEN YOUNG

Van Nuys

Young is chairman of the advisory board of the San Fernando Valley Corps Community Center.