Salvation Army majors bid farewell to SVG

AFTER BEING with the Vincentian public through the volcanic eruption and the Covid-19 pandemic, Majors Ernest and Germanie Gachelin are bidding farewell with over 500 food hampers.

The distribution of the bags at the Salvation Army headquarters in Kingstown took place after a short church meeting on June 29.

The final farewell is the brainchild of the married couple who have served at the helm of operations of the charitable organization and church since they arrived on island on July 11, 2019.

With 16 years of service to the organization, moving to God’s next port of call is something that the two are used to, having previously been posted in Jamaica and Guyana.

“I can say that it was a great blessing.You’re coming to an island, you don’t have any friends, any family, nobody to tell you about the people, what you’re going to meet,” Germanie explained at the headquarters on July 8, “… You prepare your mind for everything but St Vincent – Oh Lord!

We do not have words to express. We did not expect all the blessing, the way that people approach us.”

She said that it was overwhelming.

“I love Salvation Army, and being an officer for 16 years it’s a great experience from the time they move you, you know new people. Serving everywhere is different, as my husband said everywhere is different,” she said.

The Salvation Army has been continuously helping persons, especially throughout difficult times such as the eruption. The day after the explosions began they mobilized by visiting shelters and cooking food without stop for the month. However, the pandemic, while it has not stopped the delivery of packages to the institutions, has put a damper on prison visitation, open air meetings and hospital visits.

The church members with whom they have built a relationship over the last three years are solemn about the couple’s marching orders.

“…We do not take any glory for ourselves, we give all the Glory to God because it’s only him could have changed our hearts or to put within

us a heart of flesh and for people to love us and work along with us,” Ernest explained.

“We do not have words to say thanks to everybody, but I pray that they will see that we love them,” Germanie said.

“When we are sent to a country we are not sent only to the church or to our own people in the church, but we are sent to the community or to the country at large. So we can say that we received the love or the help that we were looking for from the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines. We really appreciate,” her husband explained.

Their successors,Wilkings and Rose-Marthe Bruissereth, are officers of 12 years who have worked in Belize and Guyana.

When asked what advice they would give to their successors, Ernest stated “We have many things we could tell them – love the people, cooperate with them, not quick to make decisions, listen to them. Because even though we are, Salvation Army put us- we are in charge but we are not the boss, we are servants.”

The next post, for which the Majors will be leaving on July 21, 2022, will be in Turks and Caicos. A farewell service took place on July 17, and was streamed on the YouTube page of Salvation Army St Vincent.