Dispatches: Pondering our legacy – Capt. Rodney Bungay
Dispatches connects visitors to the Maritime Division’s website to first-person perspectives from Salvation Army officers and staff around the region. This edition is penned by Captain Rodney Bungay. Growing up as the son of Salvation Army officers, Capt. Bungay states that due to the many transfers of his parents he has no home town per se, but lists Gander, N.L. as the spot where he’s stayed the longest. He has served in the Salvation Army for 10 years and is currently posted with his wife, Captain Paulette Bungay, at the Centre of Hope in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Capt. Rodney Bungay
It would seem from the international calendar designation, that August is a month for people to reflect on their past and present naturing and nurturing through the valleys and mountains of their life journey and resolve to make changes that will leave a positive heritage for those who follow in our footsteps.
As I reflect, August 2007 was a key “legacy” month for me as I journeyed through the valley and rugged mountain range experiences of losing my best buddy who also just happened to be my Dad. As we laid his body to rest, the many who dearly loved him gathered around to laugh, to cry, to remember his lessons to us, and to reflect on the rich legacy and heritage we have been given as a family. August is clearly a yearly milestone in measuring my journey.
Sadly though, as I share with the beautiful men and women I am blessed to serve, it becomes increasingly obvious with every passing day that not every legacy that has been left behind is as nurturing and enabling as mine. Many I meet look to the legacy they have been given as a report card of personal failures from a heritage of abuse, overwhelming adversity and uncontrollable addiction. Nonetheless while some people strongly affirm that genetics and/or the way we are raised influences what people become, it never ceases to amaze me that there is another significant power and process at work in the broken lives around me.
In the Abyss between the perfect Word of God and the ruins of what we have done to the perfect world of God, stands the legacy of transformation. The once vast chasm whose shores seemed so far removed from those left lame from the legacy they have endured, have now been given a whole new opportunity. In spite of the naturing and nurturing processes of their past, we each have been given the glorious opportunity to be undergirded by the cross of Christ, the Father’s love, working in unity with the power and promise of His Holy Spirit. Through this new legacy every man, woman and child can find hope and healing as well as embrace a new opportunity to reach our highest potential for the glory of God.
Each time I journey through the New Testament it becomes clearer and more compelling that Jesus embodied this legacy of transformation to those who needed it the most. Yes, look back at the failings of Peter, the temper of James, the flaws of Thomas or the scorned woman at the well. As well as the wayward woman caught in the act of adultery, the poor, the blind, the lame, the beggars, the lepers, the outcast, the sick, the suffering, the despised, and the rejected. Regardless of their crippled human genetics, or whether or not they came from constructive Godly homes, they were each given a new legacy – they were transformed by spending time with Jesus and allowing His sweet aroma to permeate the deep recesses of their hearts .
As I look back over my life I too have been tremendously touched by the legacy I have been given through people transformed by Christ. My Parents and Grandparents, whose legacy lives on, still testify to the power of this Transformation. Great servants of God like Major Don Snook whom God used to rekindle the flame of my calling, uncontrollably radiate a message of loves transformation. I can look back to the Pritchett’s who challenged my mind and mentored my heart as a cadet, likewise our International, Territorial and Divisional leaders who have exemplified Godly wisdom and compassion. In my journey I see a long list of people like Lt. Col. Rice, Nancy, Stan, Gerald and Lou and so many other family, friends, fellow workers and fellow officers whose legacy like the sweet aroma of Christ still radiates wherever they have been and yet beautifully lingers in people’s hearts and minds wherever they go.
Well as the life of Christ and those Christian influences in my world have shown, the legacy we live today and leave behind tomorrow will have a profound impact on the people God has placed around us. Therefore as we venture into this “What Will Your Legacy Be Month” may we each look back to the legacy we have been given and by His promise and His power working with us, strive to live and leave a legacy of Christlike love that lingers, long after we have left the presence of those we meet.
Praying for a Christlike legacy that lingers,
Rod
