This year is the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which lead to the internment of Japanese Americans. The Salvation Army in Northern California moved Japanese orphans in their care to other facilities and worked to find relatives outside of California to take the children in, all in an effort to shield them from internment.

Two-hundred sixty-eight thousand pounds is A LOT of food. In fact, that’s enough to feed about 90,000 people for a day. It’s also the amount of food The Big Fresno Fair has collected in the last three years of its award-winning “Feed the Need” Community Food Drive.

Eight year-old Zachary Gordon has been a part of the after school program for the last two years. His mom says that enrolling him was a bit of a gamble because he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. Communication is a struggle for Zachary, particularly with kids his own age. Last Thursday, Zachary and the other kids visited Heritage House to present the seniors with hand-made Valentines.

Dolly, Ann, Mary and Pat Sully were planning a family reunion and dreamed of getting together with all their sisters. But June – the fifth Sully sister – had been estranged from the family for fourteen years because of a family disagreement. June had become lost to the Sully family. No one knew how to find her so Dolly called The Salvation Army Missing Persons Service to get help.

There will be chicken wings, chili, snack foods and soft drinks. And football of course. After all, it’s Super Bowl Sunday! This Sunday, February 5, The Salvation Army in Chattanooga, Tennessee will host a Super Bowl party for the homeless guests of its ReCreate Cafe.

Every week, our field units fill out an online ‘People Count’ report which summarizes their activities over the last seven days of ministry. I thought that the following two stories did a wonderful job of capturing the heart and the breadth of Salvation Army ministry across the Western US.

One look around at this morning’s grand re-opening of the Canoga Park, California Family Store is all anyone needs to see that today’s balance sheet will be very healthy. Tomorrow’s too, we hope, because every sale helps the Army provide opportunities for residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation

Here in the Western US, we have Salvation Army staff dedicated to combating the scourge of human trafficking in a number of communities. One such staffer is “Sharon,”* a social worker who has been the case manager for a young woman named “Ingrid.”*