Happy National Volunteer Week! On this episode of the podcast, we're delighted to welcome two long-time Salvation Army volunteers, Bruce and Irene Finkel.
Volunteers are often called “the army behind the Army”—and with good reason. There’s no way The Salvation Army could achieve its mission without the thousands of people across Canada and Bermuda who give their time and talents in service.
Over many decades, Bruce and Irene, who hail from Wetaskiwin, Alberta, have volunteered in just about any way you can think of. They talk about some of their most meaningful experiences and the importance of mentorship in volunteering. And they share their thoughts on how the Army can make volunteering more accessible for people with disabilities, reflecting on Irene’s own experience with MS.
Happy National Volunteer Week! On this episode of the podcast, we're delighted to welcome two long-time Salvation Army volunteers, Bruce and Irene Finkel.
Volunteers are often called “the army behind the Army”—and with good reason. There’s no way The Salvation Army could achieve its mission without the thousands of people across Canada and Bermuda who give their time and talents in service.
Over many decades, Bruce and Irene, who hail from Wetaskiwin, Alberta, have volunteered in just about any way you can think of. They talk about some of their most meaningful experiences and the importance of mentorship in volunteering. And they share their thoughts on how the Army can make volunteering more accessible for people with disabilities, reflecting on Irene’s own experience with MS.
Kristin Ostensen
This is the Salvationist podcast. I’m Kristin Ostensen. Volunteers are often called “the army behind the Army”—and with good reason. There’s no way The Salvation Army could achieve its mission without the thousands of people across Canada and Bermuda who give their time and talents in service. And there’s no shortage of opportunities to serve! On this episode of the podcast, we sit down with Bruce and Irene Finkel, two Salvationists from Wetaskiwin, Alberta, who have volunteered in just about any way you can think of over many decades. They talk about some of their most meaningful experiences and the importance of mentorship in volunteering. And they share their thoughts on how the Army can make volunteering more accessible for people with disabilities, reflecting on Irene’s own experience with MS.
Hi, Bruce. Hi, Irene. Thank you for coming on the Salvationist podcast.
Bruce Finkel
Thanks so much for giving us the opportunity.
Irene Finkel
Thank you.
Kristin Ostensen
Yes. It’s lovely to have you. So, to start off, can you tell me a bit about yourselves?
Bruce Finkel
We've been married for 56 years, and we met as young people, many years ago. [laughs] Originally, we met in Winnipeg. Both of us are from Manitoba. We live in Wetaskiwin now.
Kristin Ostensen
Great! OK. So how did you two first get involved with The Salvation Army?
Bruce Finkel
I started doing volunteer work for The Salvation Army at the Sunset Lodge in Winnipeg, and got to know the two single women officers that were there and sort of watched them and how they worked. And then, in the olden days, there used to be lots of church advertisements in the Winnipeg Free Press—in fact, probably two full pages of church ads. In those days, the Army would send missionaries from different countries for Self-Denial effort, and they would tour the territory. And there was an officer from India that was coming to show slides on a Saturday night at The Salvation Army Winnipeg Citadel. So, I decided to go, and I liked it and then started attending the Sunday services and felt the call to accept Jesus as my Saviour, because I wasn't raised in a Christian home. And it was a bit of a switch for me. So, it was, that's how I came to the Army.
Kristin Ostensen
Now, do you remember sort of those early services? What was it that stuck out for you?
Bruce Finkel
Oh, well, it was the band, the songsters. I mean, it was it was the whole nine yards. It was a lively meeting. And I was thinking of this today, too, about making connections with people because after the very first Sunday meeting that I went to, on the way out, it was—now he's promoted to glory—Major Cal Ivany, and at that time he was the corps officer. And he asked me what my address was. And I used to live on 150 Semple, and he said, I will always remember that because of Psalm 150. And that stuck in my head all these years. It was like he was able to make a connection with people right off the bat. And that's what drew me back.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, the personal connection—so powerful.
Bruce Finkel
Really, the powerful piece is how personal connections were responsible to drive me back. It was the personal experiences of seeing Brigadier Fitch and Major Askew as they worked in Sunset Lodge, and watch how they ministered in women's social service at that time, and then to find a corps officer that could make a connection with a very young teenager at that time. It was pretty awesome.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, absolutely.
Bruce Finkel
Irene?
Irene Finkel
I got started in the Army. I took my nurse’s training at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg. And they told me they were having two new staff starting on Monday. So I thought, Oh, well, I’ll just check them out. They came and one was too old for me, one was too young, and I married the one that's too young. [Bruce laughs] And he was going to the Army. So, once I started going out with him, I went to church with him.
Kristin Ostensen
Right. So this week being Volunteer Week, we're looking at some of our amazing volunteers. And Bruce, you've been the corps treasurer at Wetaskiwin for over 40 years. So, can you take me back? How did you get into this position, and what has kept you going all these years?
Bruce Finkel
The how I got into it was a young lieutenant, Henri Regamey, asked me to do the books and taught me how to do the books in the good old days when everything was done with pen and paper. [laughs] And they had to be in every Monday; the cash sheets had to be in every Monday. How I got involved and what's kept me involved, I guess, along the way—and we've sort of had this discussion earlier—was Henri, I guess, took a risk and saw that there was a need in the corps and asked this young person at the time, fairly new to the Wetaskiwin corps—because we’d moved to Wetaskiwin in ’79 and he hadn't been there that long—and asked me to take the responsibility, and then showed me how. And that was, I guess, one of the one of the big pieces along the way, is that I was given a job, but I wasn't left to sink or swim. He mentored me along the way. And that, I think, was what's kept me involved for all of these years. I've had a wonderful opportunity of working with a variety of officers who have taken an interest in what I do and have worked along with me and mentored me along the way. And it's been fantastic. So that's what keeps me going.
Kristin Ostensen
Absolutely. And in a similar way, Irene, you've been the community care ministries secretary for 29 years.
Irene Finkel
Yes, it has been.
Kristin Ostensen
What makes that a rewarding ministry for you?
Irene Finkel
I really enjoy the volunteerism, working with seniors in different residences. I like having conversations with seniors. They have so much knowledge to share with you. And I used to try and encourage this with the residents that we visited.
Kristin Ostensen
I understand that you put together hundreds of sunshine bags every year, for example.
Irene Finkel
This year it was 781, I think.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah. Wow.
Irene Finkel
We go into 10 different homes.
Kristin Ostensen
Wow. And that must be such a huge feat for you and your team to organize.
Irene Finkel
Oh, yes.
Bruce Finkel
That's one of the things that Irene’s been, you know, involved in over the years, but certainly now it's a real co-ordination effort to get the volunteers together and to make sure that the gifts for the sunshine bags have been ordered and arrived. And so, it's very much a co-ordinating effort that she's involved in now.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, I mean, no person could do that alone, right?
Irene Finkel
No way.
Kristin Ostensen
And aside from your current positions as local officers, both of you have been involved in many different volunteer ministries over the years, even before you were in Wetaskiwin. So, looking back, what have been some of your most significant experiences
Bruce Finkel
In Thunder Bay we were involved in a large pub ministry. In those days, you used to take The War Cry into the taverns. And Friday and Saturday night, we would have a variety of taverns that we would take The War Cry into, and we met a tremendous number of interesting people. Again, it's relationships. But that afforded us an opportunity to go outside our church walls and meet people in the communities that we visited. So, it was an absolutely awesome time. The other opportunities we've had in all our corps is working with young people, be it Sunday school or a variety of other youth activities. We were much younger then, too, but even today we still are in touch with some people that I taught in primary when I first joined the Winnipeg Citadel as the 16-year-old. And Irene, some of your homecare workers that you see were in your Sunday school class as well. So it's, the opportunity to build relationships has just been fantastic over the years.
Kristin Ostensen
For sure. Anything you want to add, Irene, about your experiences?
Irene Finkel
Well, I am missing it now, with my MS. I can't do much walking. So, it's totally different. It's co-ordinating again.
Kristin Ostensen
And we've talked a little bit about mentorship before, earlier in the conversation, but I was wondering if you can talk about what you think is the key to developing volunteers and developing local leaders.
Bruce Finkel
I'd love to be able to say: 1,2, 3. Putting them, I guess, identifying what opportunities there are for volunteers in your settings. Taking a risk to give volunteers the chance to do some of those tasks. And then “c” is mentorship. It's not a matter of—whether it's local officership or volunteers in general, people can't just be given a task and left to sink or swim. So, it's so important, I think, to have individuals that are willing to walk with, journey with, mentor volunteers that are put into various roles. We've been fortunate. We've had tremendous support in all the corps that we've been in, with officers who have been willing to mentor us and support us, and we're grateful for that.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, absolutely. One thing we touched on just briefly, a little earlier, was that you, Irene, have a health condition, MS. And for listeners who might not know much about it, can you tell us a little bit about the condition and how it impacts your life?
Irene Finkel
Well, the short term for the condition is MS, multiple Sclerosis. And it affects me and it makes me weak. Makes my speech very hesitant. So, I'm always trying to fight that. But somehow it doesn't just escape, just go away.
Bruce Finkel
And it affects the muscles in your legs and your limbs, in your arms, too.
Irene Finkel
Yeah. So it's mostly weakness in my legs and I constantly have to adjust that. And I can't do as much when I'm having an effect of my MS. And it's not all the time. It comes in spurts. And then if I rest and take medication that solves that problem, usually.
Bruce Finkel
But you are left with some residual deficits in walking and in your arm movements, right?
Irene Finkel
Right.
Bruce Finkel
So you walk with a walker now, as opposed to independently.
Irene Finkel
Yeah.
Kristin Ostensen
And has that been a lifelong condition for you or something more recent?
Irene Finkel
Oh, it's been life long, since we got married, and I don't blame it on that. [laughs] But that's about the time it hit me, was when we first got married.
Bruce Finkel
We were supposed to get married in the Grace Hospital chapel because Irene was graduate of their school of nursing. So, everything was arranged for our wedding to take place in the Grace Hospital chapel. But the day of our wedding, Irene ended up with an MS flare-up. So, she got admitted to the hospital. We got married on the fifth floor of the Grace Hospital, Winnipeg, and the officers and the witnesses were up in the room and we shooed everybody else off to the reception. And then I stayed in the hospital, and I went to the reception alone. [laughs] And then we brought the wedding cake back to the hospital afterwards. And Irene and I cut the wedding cake. And that was our wedding. And then for our first anniversary, we again, Irene was in the hospital, and we had our first anniversary in the room across the hall from where we got married the year before.
Kristin Ostensen
That has got to be the most unique wedding story I've heard, I think. [laughs]
Irene Finkel
They said my mother was at the table at the reception, crying her eyes out.
Kristin Ostensen
Oh no!
Irene Finkel
Everything turned out.
Bruce Finkel
It all turned out.
Kristin Ostensen
Doesn't that just speak to the amazing commitment you've had to each other from the very beginning?
Irene Finkel
Yes, I couldn't have made it through all of this without Bruce.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, absolutely. And of course, it hasn't stopped you from serving and volunteering, either. But can you talk a little bit about perhaps some adjustments or accommodations you've made along the way? Or perhaps even ways Bruce has supported you through your service all these years?
Irene Finkel
I do the co-ordination for the sunshine bags. And because I can't do the delivering anymore. So I find the volunteers and we make it into a pizza party. And we pack all the bags and get them ready for delivery. It takes a lot of work to do 781. And fortunately, we have lots of volunteers for helping to pack the bags.
Kristin Ostensen
No, that's good. Just given your own experience, both individually and as a couple, what do you think corps can do to make volunteering and serving more accessible for people who might have health challenges?
Bruce Finkel
I think for, again, accessibility to people with health challenges or whatever, I think the overarching principle is: identify what needs to be done, and then take the risk to give people an opportunity to try. And that's what we've been, you know, fortunate to experience in our relationship. As Irene's health challenges changed, there was still work to be done in community care ministries. There's still all of the behind the scenes and co-ordinating work that needs to be done. There was still the issue of training community care ministers. So when the job needs to change, if people are willing to change that job to accommodate people's health challenges, it's fulfilling for both. It's a win-win. You know, Irene can still maintain her local officer position by what she does in the corps, according to her capabilities, and the work of the corps gets done.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, absolutely. And of course, you're both longtime Salvationists. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how volunteering and serving is an expression of your faith, and what that means for you spiritually.
Bruce Finkel
Again, for me, I'm reminded of an old songster song out of the old Gems for Songsters book: true happiness is love expressed in service. For us, for me individually, my service is something more than just a volunteer job. I really believe that it is an opportunity to serve my God and serve the church that I've been called to be a part of, The Salvation Army. So for me, it truly is a sacred commitment, not just a matter of doing something to fill vacant time that I have. And both of us—and I'm speaking on behalf of both of us, because even back to the good old days, when we got married and, you know, our articles of marriage, our covenants that we signed when we got married, you know, we wanted to do all we could, together as a couple, in service for Jesus Christ, in and through The Salvation Army. And our volunteer positions have given us that option. Our local officership has given us that option to have the experience and the opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ and be a transforming influence wherever we're placed. It's been very, very meaningful for both of us. We're grateful for every risk that various officers have taken in allowing us to minister in a variety of ways—whether it was prison ministry in Thunder Bay, whether it was pub, tavern ministry in Thunder Bay, whether it was youth work, whether it's—whatever opportunities we've had, officers were willing to work with us and give us an opportunity to serve. And we're grateful for that.
Kristin Ostensen
That's wonderful. It's a wonderful that you've been able to be partners in ministry over the years, and as you said, that's been a part of your marriage covenant. And I think it's such a beautiful example for all of us.
Bruce Finkel
Thank you.
Kristin Ostensen
So, as we're wrapping up, I just want to say thank you so much for your time today. It's been wonderful to meet you and hear about your volunteering experience, and I just want to say God bless you and all that you do together.
Bruce Finkel
Thank you.
Irene Finkel
Thank you.
Kristin Ostensen
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Salvationist podcast. For more episodes, visit Salvationist.ca/podcast.