Page 9 - Grace Mail July 2021

Lunch would be served and then followed by
Open Air meetings from 12.30 till 1pm which
were held outside by town centres or shopping
centres. This was then followed by the
Salvation meeting from 1-4pm. Both junior
soldiers and senior soldiers got to participate
in this main meeting. Growing up as
Salvationist, I got to learn to play tambourines
at an early age and learnt the words to most of
the Shona (local language) hymns at early age as we sang along to the hymns while
playing the tambourine. As a youth this was the highlight of the Salvation meeting as I loved playing the tambourines with the other members of the youth. Maybe one day you may get to see me play the tambourine the African way if I manage to convince my African sisters to attend Scunthorpe Corps one day.
I am a member of the African Praise Fellowship which is where we members of the Salvation Army who relocated from Zimbabwe meet once in a while and fellowship in our language, sing, dance, play tambourines, support each other in terms of sickness, family bereavement, weddings etc and helps us to sort of stay connected with our African Salvationist, as some people may not have family in the UK, therefore being there for one another is very important in that respect.
While living in Manchester I started attending a different church that my Zimbabwean friends were attending, as they held their services in Shona and also sang Shona hymns. I was home sick. Attending these services brought comfort to me, therefore I briefly left the Salvation Army for a
few years.
I came back to the Salvation Army at this Corps and was re-enrolled by Major Gary as a Senior soldier in 2017. I felt very welcomed. Prior to Covid I used to volunteer on Thursdays at the coffee mornings and this made me connect with some of the members of the Salvation Army at Scunthorpe Corps which I would not have done before as I am a very shy young lady. I cannot wait for this Covid to be a thing of the past so we get back to normal, services, normal singing and normal fellowship including the coffee mornings.
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