Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Rampant alcohol abuse, homelessness and drug abuse may have some Yellowknife residents and businesses avoiding the city's downtown but not newcomers Ruth and Ian Gillingham.

New Salvation Army Yellowknife captains Ruth and Ian Gillingham talked about their first impressions of the city at the Salvation Army on Dec. 11. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo

It will take a lot to surprise the Gillinghams, who moved into their downtown home last August as the couple assumed their roles as co-captains of the Salvation Army of Yellowknife.

Married in Vancouver in 1988, the Gillinghams are both fourth-generation salvationists of this evangelical Christian church, and though they are taken aback by the large proportion of alcoholism in the community, their careers as Sally Ann lay employees and clergy, have taken them from the oxycodone and methadone-infested streets of London, Ont., to the open drug use and poverty of Vancouver's downtown eastside.

"We've seen far worse than Franklin (Avenue)," said Ruth, recalling the three years the couple lived two blocks from Vancouver's Main and Hastings streets - a corner frequented by drug dealers and users.

"It was fairly sad working with those people for a number of years," she said. "We were well-acquainted with the dark side, the seedy side of Vancouver."

The Gillinghams are now in their seventh year of work as officers of the Salvation Army, returning after an 11-year break from the clergy which started in 2001, during which time they worked for the organization as lay people, mostly in B.C. and Ontario.

They decided to return to the clergy as it became apparent there was a need for officers in the organization, around the time when past Yk Sally Ann captains Dale and Jo Sobool were completing a five-year term in the North, and moving to Penticton, B.C.

"We knew nothing about Yellowknife. Google was a friend," said husband Ian.

After praying and discussing the move from London with children Jeremiah, 7, Hannah, 11, Jacob, 13, Caitlyn, 16, and Derek, 19, the Gillinghams accepted the appointment earlier this year.

While they are not anticipating sweeping changes in the community over the next five or more years, through their calling, they have seen individual lives changed with the help of the Salvation Army.

"Not systemically because the problems are so deep. But we had a number of people who experienced this - what we call - salvation," Ruth said.

They have seen a young teenage girl in the sex trade, taken off the streets and off crack and heroin; another family who had lost children to a children's aid society because of addictions, getting their kids back.

"Story after story like that of people who had been in a place of real darkness, just had lives turned around."

"And those were our neighbours," added Ian.

There is nothing glamorous about their work, he admits, recalling another case in Vancouver where he would visit a young man at his apartment.

"Where this guy lived was right next to Blood Alley - it's called that for good reason. His dog would defecate in that room. He made meals in that room. Played video games in that room. That was his home.

"As awful as it was, it was good to go visit him on his turf because this was an individual who wouldn't think much about knifing somebody else that crossed him and yet when we left Vancouver, I remember him calling my name from way up the street and he was just filled with joy that he got to see me again, and he was clean.

"He had moved out of that dark slum hotel. He was making some positive choices by not hanging around with the same clientele. I think he was employed, and he was involved in Christian community so there were many stable factors in his life," Ian said.

"You don't go into those kind of dark situations unless you're called by God and you're not afraid. We didn't expect him to come to church, we came to him. And that was the difference we wanted to demonstrate - that the church isn't four walls and confined within. It goes to where people are."

While faith requirements are stringent for Salvation Army clergy and anyone who represents the organization, they do not push Christianity on anybody else, the Gillinghams said, and are open to help anybody no matter their beliefs.

The Sally Ann offers community services for those in need, including shower facilities, breakfast, lunch, dinner, health care, shelter, substance withdrawal management and other stabilization programs for adults. Solving the problems of the community will be a community effort, the Gillinghams said.

"Not one agency is the answer, we need each other," Ruth said. "It's a real community effort."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.