My way...or God's
When Commissioner E. Sue Swanson, territorial president of women's ministries, interviewed first-year Cadet Rebecca Kean during September's Public Welcome of the Ambassadors of Holiness session, she revealed she had first met Rebecca about 11 years ago.
Even though Rebecca was in her teens at the time, there was something about the two women that clicked right from the start, and they stayed in touch over the years.
Rebecca is the youngest child of Majors James and Paulette Frye; her four older siblings are also Salvation Army officers.
As an "OK" (officers' kid), Rebecca was "given the opportunity" to attend church regularly. She distinctly remembers accepting Christ as her personal savior at the age of nine. A year or so later, at the farewell for an older sister who was leaving to attend The Salvation Army's College for Officer Training in Chicago, Ill., Rebecca just as distinctly remembers God calling her to be an officer. Perplexed, wondering if she should respond to the altar call, she nudged and asked her mother. She quietly told Rebecca, "If Christ is telling you, go!"
As Rebecca got older, she was determined to go her own way. But, even as she pursued an education and career in nursing, the old calling kept tugging on her heart. She finally decided to follow God's will for her life if He were to send her a man who wanted the same thing. At the very next territorial Mission and Purpose conference, she met the love of her life, Daniel Kean.
"He was so on fire for the Lord and officership," Rebecca recalled of that first meeting. They courted, married and began the application process. The Keans are entering training with their almost two-year-old son, Malachi.
At the end of the interview, Commissioner Sue presented Rebecca with a small plaque imbedded with a ragged piece of paper. It was a three-year-old prayer reminder that the commissioner had been carrying around in her purse dating to an event requesting committed prayer for specific candidates.
The two women, now linked on a new level-officership-both dissolved into tears.