As Houstonians continue with the arduous task of putting their lives back together in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, The Salvation Army\u2019s Emotional and Spiritual Care (ESC) givers are on the front lines offering prayer, comfort and hope. Majors Jamie Pennington, and Sujung Na are among dozens of Salvation Army officers serving on the ESC team in Houston. They are dispatched to the hardest hit areas of the community where the streets are lined with piles of junk – \u2013 water-logged mattresses, floor boards, dry wall, appliances, furniture, clothing, and memories. Entire lives reduced to rubble. Such was the case when the Majors met The Black family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey had all of their earthly possessions scattered out to the curb,\u201d said Major Pennington, of New Albany, Indiana. \u201cThere were two vehicles there that were destroyed. They had no transportation. They couldn\u2019t get out of their neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family of five adults and a 10-month old baby had only one cot among them. The child was sleeping on the cot. The adults were on the floor. They had no pillows or clean bedding. Their single story brick home had been flooded with two feet of water during the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe gave them a food box to start,\u201d Pennington said. \u201cI knew back at the warehouse there was a crib and a playpen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They returned not only with a crib and a pack-and-play. They also brought diapers, cots, pillows and sleeping bags. The family was overwhelmed with joy. That\u2019s when the 75-year-old grandmother, Akiko, a native of Japan, opened up to Major Na, who is of Korean descent and speaks Japanese. Akiko was just two years old, living in Hiroshima, Japan, when the US dropped the atomic bomb. She survived unscathed and moved to the US at the age of 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said God is in control of your life and everybody\u2019s life. We all die one time, but God has spared your life,\u201d explained Major Na of The Salvation Army\u2019s Atlanta International Corps. \u201cI said \u2018Do you know Jesus?\u2019 and she said \u2018No. I have only been to church a few times when the children were having an event.\u2019 So I said, \u2018Do you want to receive Jesus?\u2019 and she said \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I prayed in Japanese and she repeated after me,\u201d Major Na said. \u201cThen I told her that Jesus is in her heart and she should find a church.\u201d
The family eagerly took down the information for the nearest Salvation Army Corps Community Center. Although the steps to recovery from the storm will be slow, they assured the officers that they will attend a worship service as soon as they are able.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were so happy and grateful for The Salvation Army,\u201d said Major Na. \u201cThen Akiko told me \u2018I know who I have in my heart now.\u2019 She was ready. God spoke to her heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Salvation Army <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Houstonians continue with the arduous task of putting their lives back together in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, The Salvation Army\u2019s Emotional and Spiritual Care (ESC) givers are on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":11922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,28],"tags":[393,94,129,49],"class_list":["post-11921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry","category-response","tag-harvey","tag-hurricane","tag-spotlight","tag-texas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salarmyeds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a5f0b081619efa03bfb834303f42411b.jpg?fit=770%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11923,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11921\/revisions\/11923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}