Major Armida and Captain Michael Harper are pastors of The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) in Portland, Maine.

Major Armida Harper

When my husband and I started ministering at the Cambridge Corps in Massachusetts, we had no idea how it would change our lives. Through the residential recovery program, we found a passion for working with individuals in active addiction. Little did we know that 10 years later, we would be asked to take an appointment at the Portland ARC. Though it is a challenging and complex job, there is deep fulfillment in the work we do.

Life is messy.  We know this because the Bible shares that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Despite this truth, we are also loved, cherished, and valued by our Heavenly Father. The men we serve have no trouble accepting that they are sinners, but they truly struggle with believing they have worth. My greatest blessing is when I witness a man accepting love — our love and the love of God.

Some of the people we work with lose their battle with addiction. It is heartbreaking, and I hope it always breaks my heart. However, the pain is balanced with the most beautiful gift of ministry — changed lives. The knowledge that God may have used me to play a part in that change is humbling.

My prayer for the ARC men and for all those we encounter is this: “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Ephesians 3:18–19, NLT).

Captain Michael Harper

What I love about ARC ministry is the absolute laser focus of the mission. It’s about one thing: saving lives, both physically and spiritually. It feels, to me, to be most like what I imagine William Booth did. We are plucking brands from the fire!

Recently, two men, one a program graduate, and the other, still in our program, were enrolled as senior soldiers at the local corps! Praise God for the corps officers and for letting my wife and I play roles in their spiritual journeys.

The Lord used Isaiah 50:4–5 to both call me to ministry and to sustain me to this day in all I do: “The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.”

Being a pastor has been the greatest joy of my life. It has been the most emotionally taxing, heart-rending, yet joy-filled, rewarding work I have ever had the privilege to do.

“Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.”

—1 Thessalonians 5:12–13

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and we’d like to thank our Salvation Army officers — pastors — for their faith, their dedication, and the hard work they do for their communities and the Lord.