{"id":7489,"date":"2021-09-22T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/?p=7489"},"modified":"2025-06-25T16:41:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T16:41:25","slug":"ministry-of-love-its-a-family-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/2021\/09\/22\/ministry-of-love-its-a-family-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry of Love &#8211; It&#8217;s a Family Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Gonzales, Louisiana &#8211; <\/strong>The Salvation Army officers and volunteers serving Hurricane Ida survivors in the Ascension Parish in Louisiana know her as Major LeighAnn Craddock. Lieutenant Johnathan Flowers, however, knows her as Mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Major LeighAnn Craddock is a corps officer for The Salvation Army in Columbia\/Midlands, South Carolina. Her son, Lieutenant Johnathan Flowers, is a Salvation Army officer in Springdale, Arkansas. Typically, they live 921 miles apart \u2013 a 13.5-hour drive &#8211; and talk by phone or Facetime. This week they are separated by only a few feet as they serve in ministry to help restore lives after Hurricane Ida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMom has such a capacity for loving people,\u201d said Lt. Flowers about Major Craddock. \u201cIt is wonderful to see her carry out her ministry as an emotional and spiritual care officer \u2013 she\u2019s really helping people who have lost so much from the hurricane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is Major Craddock\u2019s seventh disaster deployment, but her first time to work with one of her children on a large-scale disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are three things I have realized since being here in Gonzales.: 1) It is a blessing to be with family. The Salvation Army works together in ministry all the time, yet it\u2019s incredible to work in ministry together with family; 2) You raise your children to be a world-changer \u2013 at this moment in time I have the privilege to witness my son doing just that; and 3) To both have the calling to serve God and into Salvation Army officership is amazing. I know we play a part in bringing restoration to brokenness. When brokenness happens, The Salvation Army is ready and waiting to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the Craddock\/Flowers team are not the only parent and child duo working together to serve in Gonzales. Sgt. Michael Schlichting, corps officer in Altus, Oklahoma and his son, Kelsey Schlichting, who works at a Salvation Army Family Store are working together to serve meals, drinks, and emotional and spiritual care from a mobile feeding unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is one of the most gratifying and satisfying things in my life to see Kelsey doing what he was brought up to do,\u201d said Sgt. Schlichting. \u201cWe have really enjoyed working together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When speaking with Kelsey, he says, \u201cI\u2019m just glad I can do something for others. I never expected so much gratitude for something as simple as food and water, yet we receive so much, I\u2019ve become very encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These families are a small part of the hundreds of Salvation Army Officers, employees, and volunteers hare are serving or have served in response to Hurricane Ida.<\/p>\n<div class=\"credits-overlay\" data-target=\".wp-image-7490\">The Salvation Army<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gonzales, Louisiana &#8211; The Salvation Army officers and volunteers serving Hurricane Ida survivors in the Ascension Parish in Louisiana know her as Major LeighAnn Craddock. Lieutenant Johnathan Flowers, however, knows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7490,"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":"","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":"","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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[94,134,79,129],"class_list":["post-7489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-response","tag-hurricane","tag-ida","tag-louisiana","tag-spotlight"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/367cb79024549dab76f0f7202b249351.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489"}],"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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7491,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions\/7491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarmyeds.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}