New Officer Roundup: Majors Larry and Judy Goudie, Fredericton
Summer at The Salvation Army brings with it a number of new beginnings as officers around the country transfer to new appointments. Here at the Maritime Division we have nine new officers starting in five locations. Here is our final installment in a six-part series introducing you to them.
Majors Larry and Judy Goudie have been Salvation Army officers for nearly three decades, and yet there’s something quite unique about their latest posting: It’s not in Newfoundland. The Goudies, recently installed as Corps Officers in Fredericton, have served every previous posting of their career in their home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In their last stop in Corner Brook, Major Larry served as Social Services Coordinator, while Major Judy was the Community Chaplain and Pastoral Care Officer. Major Larry is from Glover’s Harbour, N.L., which has a claim to fame as the home of a life-sized replica of the Guinness Record giant squid that washed ashore in 1878 (and is now depicted in a stamp from Canada Post). Major Judy hails from Woodstock, N.L. A few of their previous postings include Gander, Seal Cove, Peterview and Weselyville. We caught up with Major Larry this week to see how life in the Maritimes is going:
Tell us about your most recent posting in Corner Brook.
Larry Goudie: We were only there three years. I was Social Services Coordinator, so I was overseeing everything that fell under the umbrella of social services. This included Restore, Community and Family Services, our food bank and soup kitchen, and I did a lot of the Emergency Disaster Services for western Newfoundland. I enjoyed the ministry immensely in Corner Brook and I made a lot of contacts through a lot of work in the city itself, working with a lot of different groups. My wife was the Community Chaplain, so she worked a lot at the hospital and senior homes, and she thoroughly enjoyed her work as well.
You’ve never been posted in the Maritimes. Do you have any personal experience with Fredericton?
LG: I was here in 2005. I was involved in Corrections when I was stationed in Gander, N.L., so I came here for a seminar on corrections.
What are your first impressions?
LG: The city itself is a beautiful city, and the Corps is beautiful as well – the building is tremendous. It seems to be a very friendly city. The services are a lot like what I’m used to back on the island, the worship is kind of free and easy. We have a lot of help, with some really good local officers and workers. Our previous work has helped us now and will help us in the future. I think the last eight years of work that we have done in the community and through social services has really prepared us to work beyond the four walls of the church. And we look forward to working with the community, making contacts and working in partnership with different groups.
Even in these early days, what goals or hopes do you have for this appointment?
LG: I think my goal is to really make our Corps a Community Church, and to make it really community minded – to think beyond the four walls of the church. That’s been my experience in the last eight years, and I’ve often said if I ever go back to Corps, I’ll go back with a completely different perspective on things. My perspective now is, sure it’s great to get together and worship and sing and enjoy the preaching and all that stuff, but there is world out there that’s really our mission field and that’s really where we need to do our work.
