When they went to have a photograph made recently, Alan and Cheryl Phillips simultaneously reached for the other’s hand, without any prompting.
They stood beaming by the Salvation Army sign in their matching officer uniforms, and after the picture was taken, their hands stayed clasped as they walked inside.
They are a team.
Alan — the official new director of Columbus’ Salvation Army — preaches on Sundays and handles the fundraising so Cheryl “can go out and do the programs she wants to do,” he said. “Cheryl works the operations side, organizing the ministries with the community.
They met in seminary school in Atlanta, “fell in love, got out during the summer and came back the next year as a married couple,” according to Cheryl. For the last 25 years they have served at 10 different Salvation Armies in five different states across the South. They came to Columbus from Greenville, in the Delta, where they served two years.
It’s typical for Salvation Army officers to be relocated every three to five years. Eric Roberts, the Phillips’ predecessor and a friend of Alan’s, served three years in Columbus before being recently transferred to Anniston, Alabama.
Alan said that while each community he serves is unique, physical and spiritual need is ubiquitous.
“Hunger and homelessness and drug abuse and mental issues — that’s everywhere,” Alan said. “You don’t have to go very far for the need to be there.”
Alan regularly walks through the neighborhood to meet people, introduce himself and invite them to church or to pray with them, if he feels called to.
“God leads me to people who are struggling,” he said.
And he understands struggling.
Alan wrestled with addiction and drug abuse for years. He “finally got it right” two and a half years ago, but he remembers the ups and downs. He tries to use his personal experience to help those in the community — his wife handles the other ministries, but the substance abuse program is led by him.
‘You have to deal with it’
Every day, Alan crosses train tracks before he can turn into the Salvation Army’s parking lot. Wednesday, he got stuck waiting for a train and was late for a meeting.
But he doesn’t mind. The trains are a daily reminder.
“The whole thing with recovery is living life on life’s terms,” he said. “You’re going to have trains. You get stuck.”
Both literally in the case of his Wednesday morning train and metaphorically in the case of his addiction, Alan tried to go around the problem. In both cases, he learned that some problems you cannot skirt around or escape. You have to face them.
“Life is going to throw you what it throws you every day and you have to deal with it,” he said.
Working at the Salvation Army is an embodiment of that attitude.
Officers work 60-70 hours a week, and the job description is anything but set. Alan said he may be a counselor one day, a janitor the next, a fundraiser the day after that. Right now the Army needs clothes and volunteers, so he and Cheryl are trying to collect those. And, of course, every Sunday he preaches.
Cheryl said the love of the Lord and a desire to make people’s lives better is what keeps her and her husband going. It’s a calling, she said, and it’s definitely a full-time ministry.
“But I wouldn’t do anything else in the world,” she said.
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