Salvation Army to see leadership change

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The local Salvation Army organization will be seeing some changes, but, for Lt. Josh Morales and his wife, Christine, the change is a little bittersweet.

Morales, who has been in Van Wert for nearly 2½ years, will be moving to the Salvation Army’s Territorial Headquarters at West Nyack, New York, about 20 minutes from New York City, while his wife, Christine, will be attending the Salvation Army College for Officers in nearby Suffern, New York, to become an ordained minister and commissioned Salvation Army officer.

The couple, who married while Morales was here in Van Wert, will live in a townhouse on the college campus, and Morales will prepare for his new position as territorial director of Christian education.

“You know the Salvation Army, how they work,” Lt. Morales said. “They place you based on where you’re needed and they prayerfully consider the timeframe, and they came to the conclusion that it was time for me to move on.”

Morales called the move “bittersweet”, noting that Van Wert is the only community he and his wife have known as a married couple, and adding that the ministry team here, which includes Lt. Josh “JB” Brookman, who came to Van Wert a few months after Morales and handles the local Salvation Army feeding program, ministry duties, and Bible studies, “works very, very well.” In addition, Morales’ wife, Christine, has augmented that team by taking over the local youth ministry work.

Lt. Brookman will take over as commanding officer of the local operation, with Morales saying he and Brookman are “90 percent sure” the new commander will receive an assistant to help him.

“We certainly hope so, since it’s a pretty big operation,” Morales added.

Morales said that, while he is excited by his new opportunity in New York, both he and his wife are also sad to leave a community they have grown to love.

“We love this city, we loved getting to know the community,” Morales said, adding that oftentimes Salvation Army officers are stationed in bigger cities that are much more impersonal and where getting to know people is more difficult.

That was the case in Lexington, Kentucky, where Morales was stationed before coming to Van Wert. Morales said he was living across town from the other officers he worked with and really didn’t get a chance to know them or other community members very well outside work.

That situation is hard for Morales, who admits he is a “very social person”. He added that Van Wert suits his style much better than a bigger city.

While Morales is spending his remaining time here trying to tie up loose ends for Lt. Brookman, he said he is proud of all the things they have accomplished over the past 2½ years — especially the project to renovate the local headquarters building on North Cherry Street.

Noting that the building project had started to bog down before he got here, Morales said the local board was committed to finishing the project.

“I was told we had to raise $300,000 in about three months, and we did it somehow, although I have no idea how,” Morales said with a laugh, noting that local supporters such as Donna Grimm and Lois Gehres were instrumental in moving the project forward. “These warriors dragged me by the ears to, like, everywhere, and got me involved in a lot of things.”

He also cited the local bell-ringing Christmas campaign as another big success, noting that the campaign, which raised $37,000 for the local Salvation Army three years ago, raised nearly $67,000 last year.
“That’s a jump nobody sees nowadays,” Morales said, noting that most bell-ringing campaigns fail to meet their goals, rather than see such a big increase.

He said he feels the reason for the increase is that more and more community members see the positives the Salvation Army brings to Van Wert County, and the fact that nearly all of the money raised stays right here in the community.

Lt. Brookman said that, while he is looking forward to the challenges of his new position, he is also a “little nervous” about doing a good job for the community. Fortunately, unlike many such transitions, where a new person completely unfamiliar with the community is brought in, Lt. Brookman’s time here over the past two years will help him with the transition.

After Lt. Morales and his wife move out on June 24, Lt. Brookman will take over the house they were staying in on South Avenue, while the new assistant, if there is one and it is a male, will share the house with him.

Morales said Brookman has already shouldered most of the responsibilities as commander, while he is acting more as a consultant at this point.

“Hopefully, it will be a flawless transition,” Lt. Morales said, who said he is very familiar with the Suffern college campus, since he has been stationed there three other times, added that one positive in the move is the great choices in food in New York.