Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

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Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!

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Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter a valid email address
Please enter a valid zip code

Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!

Please enter your first name
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Carolina Heroes of the Faith Image

Carolina Heroes of the Faith

The Salvation Army has witnessed and served in North and South Carolina for over a century. Thousands of officers and soldiers have been faithful servants and disciples of God’s Word, mirrored His earthly acts of compassion, and have shared love for their fellow men, women, and children across these two states.

The Carolina Heroes of the Faith will serve as a reminder, inspiration, and a cloud of witnesses to those in ministry or service. These Heroes will serve as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and goodness across generations.

Background

For more than a century, The Salvation Army has witnessed and served in North and South Carolina.  Thousands and thousands of officers and soldiers have been faithful servants and disciples of God’s Word, mirrored His earthly acts of compassion, and have shared love for their fellow men, women, and children across these two states.

The gallery of the Carolina Heroes of the Faith will serve as a reminder, inspiration, and a literal cloud of witnesses to those currently in ministry or service within the NSC Division.  The collection of these Heros will serve as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and goodness across generations, corps, and ministries.

Criteria for Inclusion

Inductees into the gallery of the Heroes of Faith will be those individuals or couples who have exhibited a lifetime journey of Christian faith and practice, an undisputable record of influence at a specific corps or across the NSC Division, and the unanimous endorsement of the Carolina Heroes of the Faith selection committee.  Selection can include those that remain active, retired, or Promoted to Glory.

Following the initial class of five members, two members will be selected each year for recognition and inclusion in the gallery during a gathering of the Carolina Division family.

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee will consist of six individuals:  the current Divisional leaders, the Divisional Sergeant Major, one retired officer, one active corps officer, and one soldier (alternating between each state every year).  This Committee will receive nominations during the spring of each year with the final selection and announcement in August.

Suitable and consistent images/biographical information will be displayed within the Chapel/Worship Center at Camp Walter Johnson.

 

Class of 2024

Brigadier James P. Henry

Best known as “the Shepherd of the Hills” Brigadier James P. Henry was indeed a mountain man.  Born in 1919 in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he came into contact with The Salvation Army in Richmond as a teenager and was wonderfully saved.  Henry was commissioned as a member of the Crusaders Session in 1941.

Immediately upon his commissioning, he was appointed to a five-man territorial evangelist brigade that traveled the USA Southern Territory conducting corps revivals and spiritual retreats.  Following marriage to Ruth Ward (daughter of Bandmaster and Mrs. Alfred Ward) in 1943, they were appointed to the North and South Carolina Division serving in Concord, Kinston, and Asheville.  In each appointment, God blessed their ministry; during their time, Concord had the largest Sunday School program in the Division.

Together, they were appointed to the Mountain Mission District in 1956, following the legendary Major Cecil Brown.  They loved the mountain people and Major Henry’s fervent sermons and deep concern for his people produced hundreds of converts and new Salvationists in western North Carolina.

In 1962, Jim was appointed as the Territorial Evangelist. Hundreds of corps revivals, Men’s Camp meetings, and retreats followed.  Later appointed Territorial Evangelist in both the Central and Western Territories, this Mountain Man preached in all fifty states and nineteen other countries around the world. His powerful voice, mannerisms, and deep understanding of God’s Word brought people to their knees in every venue he preached and taught in.

Henry also had a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of men.  Alongside another Carolinian, Major Fred Boyette, together, they were the founding fathers of the Army’s Men’s Clubs ministry, first in the North and South Carolina Division and then across the South.  

In 1981, the Henrys retired back to Little Creek, North Carolina, deep in the heart of western North Carolina.  The Army Mountain Mission District had fallen on hard times since their departure some twenty years pass.  With encouragement and assistance from the Divisional Commander, they reopened the work across this region, gaining souls, funding, and recognition for the Kingdom. 

As a son of the mountains and a proclaimed “Mountain Man,”  Brigadier James P. Henry had a huge, vast influence for good, on The Salvation Army, and for his God throughout his active and retired officership.  Brigadier Henry saw himself as a simple old-fashioned preacher trying to lead people to the Lord he loved.  “I offered Jesus, repentance, and the chance to be born again.”

Corps Secretary Bobby and Young People’s Sergeant Major Mary Sue Baker

Corps Secretary Bobby and Young People’s Sergeant Major Mary Sue Baker epitomized what good and faithful local officers say, do, and reflect.  For more than fifty years, their ministry to the Sumter Corps and the North and South Carolina Division produced results for the Kingdom . . . Faithful, Gentle Souls.

Bobby and Mary Sue encountered The Salvation Army during their early years on parallel paths—Bobby in Gadsden, Alabama, and Mary Sue in Sumter, South Carolina. In 1965, their lives intersected when the United States Air Force stationed Bobby, a young airman, at Shaw AFB. It was "love at first sight," leading to their engagement and marriage in 1967. They shared much in common, but their shared ministry in The Salvation Army brought a life rich with love, family, service, and church. Like the disciples in the New Testament, they dedicated themselves to meeting the spiritual and physical needs of others.

Bobby and Mary Sue centered their lives around ministry, seamlessly integrating it between their corps, home, and workplaces. Bobby served as the Corps Secretary and wore many hats—he focused on visitation, played the piano for the corps, taught Adult Sunday School, led the Men’s Club, and even filled in as a part-time janitor and van driver. He was truly the Corps’ "Mr. Everything." Mary Sue, equally indispensable to the Sumter Corps, served as the Young People’s Sergeant Major, taught Teen Sunday School, led the Songsters and Sunbeams, and participated in the Home League. Despite their full-time jobs—Bobby as a Firefighter and Mary Sue with the Parks and Recreation Department for Sumter County—they dedicated themselves fully to their ministry roles.

In addition to their numerous weekly ministry roles at the Sumter Corps, Bobby, and Mary Sue joined the Divisional Men’s Ministry Team in 2001. This volunteer team, consisting of five married couples, traveled throughout the division to lead Vacation Bible Schools, revivals, preaching seminars, and Men’s and Women’s rallies each quarter. Bobby was honored as the Carolina’s Man of the Year, and together, he and Mary Sue attended the Army’s International Congress as official delegates.

Faithful to their ministry call and God’s everyday direction, Bobby and Mary Sue Baker loved people and never missed an opportunity to invite someone to their church or home to hear about the love of Jesus. At the Sumter Fire Department, Bobby was known as “Preacher,” an example of living your faith life seven days a week. Mary Sue was frequently seen in Walmart, buying supplies for kids in her corps and in her work world.

Faithful, Gentle Souls . . . Bobby and Mary Sue Baker heard God’s call to share the Gospel with those around them.  Their fifty-plus year example of ministry, service, and witness has made a lasting impact in Sumter, the North and South Carolina Division, the Southern Territory, and literally across the world through their soldiership in The Salvation Army.
 

Major Cecil Brown

Major Cecil Brown is a perfect example of God using any talent, any person, any situation to bring honor and glory to His name.  Daisy Cecil Brown was born in 1906 at her father’s farm at Hurricane Creek, North Carolina, six miles from Maple Springs in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina.

She finished seventh grade in a one-teacher school but liked “learning” so much that she stayed in seventh grade for three years until she wore out her books. She spent two semesters at Clyde High School. That was all the formal schooling she had.

She was introduced to The Salvation Army in Asheville in 1923 while visiting her brother. She joined the ranks and was sent off to the big city of Atlanta to the Training College. After commissioning and a couple of Carolina appointments in Reidsville, Statesville, Goldsboro, and Salisbury, she volunteered for a special three-month assignment in the North Carolina mountains. She never left.

While her main job in The Salvation Army’s Mountain Mission was preaching the Gospel, teaching Sunday school, and visiting and caring for the sick, Cecil Brown became the hands and feet of Jesus for desperate people in need.

Heralded stories of her daily travels on foot, by horse, and even in her car indicated that Major Brown never punched a clock, turned off the radio, or took a day off. When there were human needs to be met, she was there.  

She held weekly open-air meetings in North Georgia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. She encouraged young people to become officers, taught Bible classes, and brought food, Christmas gifts, and comfort to those in need. 

Christmas time was special for the mountain communities around Waynesville. While each family celebrated on Christmas Day, they really waited for Major Brown to bring her carefully selected and wrapped gifts for every member of each family (sometimes more than 500 gifts each Christmas). Great care was taken that no person would get the same gift twice, the men, the women, and all the children.

At a territorial report meeting in 1948, it was noted that she had started nine missional preaching centers in the twelve years since she was appointed to the Mountain Mission; it was also mentioned that she had worn out five cars and three horses, and her current car had traveled 100,000 miles.

Major Cecil Brown was awarded the Order of the Founder in 1947 for her incredible work in the Mountain Mission.  She received her Long Service Award (25 years), retired in 1956, and was promoted to Glory eighteen months later.  Major Cecil Brown gave her five loaves of bread and two fishes to God, and he blessed them again and again and again.

Major John Frederick White

Major John Frederick White was born in Houston, Texas, as a fourth-generation Salvationist. Because his parents were officers at the time, they never stayed in one place long before another appointment. His two brothers and sisters, Eddie, Frank, and Kay, were born in Florence, South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. Before he was six months old, he had already been to Canada and Mexico. It seems that he was destined to travel.

Major White attended the Territorial Music Institute at Camp Grandview in Georgia as a young musician, where he was converted on August 28, 1958. A year later, at the Territorial Youth Institute, he responded to God's call to become an Officer in the Salvation Army.

Major White was commissioned as a Salvation Army officer in 1965 as “A Proclaimer of Faith,” and served in 23 appointments in seven Divisions across the USA Southern Territory. He also served overseas in five appointments at the Territorial Headquarters in Brazil, and the Command Headquarters in Portugal.

Major White played euphonium in the Territorial Band during many appointments for more than 25 years. He was appointed as the Divisional Youth Bandmaster and led Youth Bands in the Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama-Louisiana-Mississippi, and Texas Divisions. He led Corps Bands in Hialeah, Florida, Jackson, Mississippi, and Lisbon, Portugal.

The Carolina Youth Band was perhaps his greatest accomplishment and joy. From the early seventies, he led and nurtured this red-coated Divisional Youth Band, instilling musical competence, pride, holiness, and Salvationism in them. Many officers and soldiers around the Southern Territory count as their heritage membership in the Carolina Youth Band.

Major White has authored four seminars that The Salvation Army has published:

  • Holysport: A soul-winning seminar written because it is a priority in his life (now in its second printing, totaling 25,000 copies). It was also published in Spanish and translated into four other languages.

  • The Army on Time: Leadership and Personal Management Seminar also went to a second printing.

  • Prayer Warriors—Steps to Prayer: This seminar, published first in English and then in Spanish, discusses various effective methods of the Christian's Prayer life.

  • As Your Money Burns—The fourth publication is a seminar to assist Christians in their battle with credit card debt. It enables them to be debt-free and move toward being loyal givers, exceeding the tithe and never looking back.

Major White’s favorite Scripture verse is Colossians 1:18, the cornerstone of his ministry in every appointment.

Major Al Smith

Alvin L. Smith was born in Anderson, South Carolina, where he was very active in local sports and the Presbyterian Church. He met The Salvation Army as a senior in high school, when the Corps Officer’s teenage daughter invited him to attend the Corps.  Al knew very little about the Army’s work, only that the Corps purchased fuel, oil and coal for their clients from his father’s business.

Young Al was hesitant about going to the Army, but a few weeks of being asked repeatedly, he attended a Wednesday night prayer service at the Anderson Corps.  He was amazed by the spirit of the people, their friendliness, and especially by a young single Lieutenant named Bobbie Sue Lowery. After several months of attending the Army, Al was invited to attend Youth Councils in Charlotte where he was gloriously saved and where God called him to preach the Gospel and to serve others. Al and Bobbie Sue were married in October of 1964.  Al entered the School for Officers Training a year later and was ordained and commissioned as an Officer in The Salvation Army in June 1967.

Major Al Smith always said that one of the greatest days of his life was when he walked into The Salvation Army for the first time, for it was at the Army he was saved, called to ministry and began to understand what God had in store for him.

In addition to their two sons, Bradley and Scott, the Smiths mentored many young men in their home, their corps, and their ministry together.

For over forty-five years, Al served in the North and South Carolina Division, preaching the Gospel, caring for the lost, and ministering in the name of Jesus Christ. In every appointment, his zeal for the Word of God and his evangelical heart meant that men and women, boys and girls came into a soul-saving knowledge of the Son of God. His sermons were powerful, full of current and timely stories with a call to action to repent to the Savior.

As a featured evangelist and revivalist, Al preached around the Division, the USA Southern Territory and in places across the Army world.  In every instance, at least one, if not many, found Jesus as a result of Al’s Holy Spirit-guided messages.  To have Al pray with you felt like a close friend, a parent, a counselor or a mentor had put their arm around you and lifted your burdens to the Heavenly Father.  Only in Heaven will the final results of Major Al Smith’s earthly ministry be truly evident.

Al’s favorite Biblical passage is from Proverbs 3:5-6:  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.