God gave Soseh a dream – but was Ballina ready to respond?

Northern Rivers Ballina volunteers (from left) Peter, Glenn, Jade, Auxiliary-Lieutenant Soseh Cowham, Ann, Joel, Christina and Margie.

Soseh’s dream

“I had a dream one night. I was at the corps and opened the church cupboard – and there was dough in there, but it was old and mouldy. God told me to start fresh.

“I believe the dream was about God’s work here at Ballina. This is his ministry. These are his people. Any problems are his problems. It’s a blessing and honour to be the Salvation Army leader with God at the helm.

For a baker to make dough, it is a process. You have to wait. And that’s what has been happening here. So many people, myself included, praying and waiting in obedience for God to reveal where he wants us to act.”

BY LAUREN MARTIN

In early 2024, freshly commissioned Auxiliary-Lieutenant Soseh Cowham joined the NSW Northern Rivers Salvos team. Her assignment was an open book: to seek God’s vision for a reimagined Salvation Army presence in Ballina and Byron Bay.

The Northern Rivers Salvos Ballina Campus building, located in the heart of the coastal community, had been in recess for a number of years. Sunday worship had moved to nearby Lismore, which became the central location for the newly named Northern Rivers Corps, serving communities from Evans Head in the south to Byron Bay in the north and Lismore and Casino to the west.

At the beginning of her appointment, Soseh was continuing her Eva Burrows College studies, as well as being trained by Northern Rivers Team Leaders Captains Donna and Philip Sutcliffe.

So, she deliberately took her time settling into Ballina, praying, seeking God’s direction and getting to know the area. She began to meet people who were excited to hear that The Salvation Army would be reopening its doors in Ballina.

God revealed to her, little by little, his heart for the community and stirred within her a desire to connect with those who feel ‘forgotten’ or ‘overlooked’ – the people that Salvation Army founder William Booth called “the lost and the least”.

(Left) Northern Rivers Ballina volunteers Glenn (right) and Peter cook the Wednesday barbeque. (Right) Northern Rivers Ballina volunteers Glenn, Joel, and Jade assist at barbeque.

During her preparation time, Soseh discovered that Wednesdays were the only weekdays on which people in need could not access a free meal. So, in September 2024, the Salvos rolled a barbeque out the front of their building, opened their doors, set up café tables and chairs and fired up the coffee machine. No advertising was needed – the smell of sausages and onions wafted down the street and soon drew a crowd!

“The Salvos building in Ballina is in a great location,” Soseh said. “It’s just opposite the main bus stop and just down from a food-relief charity that’s open every day.”

Auxiliary-Lieutenant Soseh Cowham (front left) with volunteers Carolyn (back left), Vicki (back right) and Dianna, cooking meals to deliver to people experiencing homelessness

Northern Rivers Salvos Ballina Campus – now re-opened as a Community of Hope – became a complementary service, providing a meal and a place for people to experience a loving community. At the same time as she began the Wednesday missional outreach, Soseh also started a fortnightly small-group church on Sunday evening, centred around a meal.

Relying on Jesus

Soseh started with a small team, and it soon became apparent that more would be needed to support the number of people God was bringing through the doors on Wednesdays.

So, Soseh began to pray.

She approached numerous local churches, visiting and speaking during their announcement times. She shared the vision for Northern Rivers Salvos Ballina and encouraged people of different denominations to work together to build the Kingdom of God within their city. Few signed up.

Months passed with Soseh on her knees amid busy Wednesdays alongside her small team.

In November, with her team expanded only slightly, Soseh began to yearn to connect more deeply with the community members who came to the centre for the free cuppa and sausage sizzle.

Auxiliary-Lieutenant Soseh Cowham and Northern Rivers Ballina volunteer Joel at the ‘word of the day’ whiteboard.

At every opportunity, she took opportunities to pray with those who were open, and she considered setting up a prayer room and various other ways to point people to Jesus. After chatting with a colleague, she started a simple ‘Word of the Day’ initiative, writing a keyword on the centre’s whiteboard accompanied by related Bible verses.

The first ‘Word of the Day’ was ‘gratitude’. At the morning volunteer meeting before the doors were opened, Soseh explained the initiative and encouraged all volunteers to start conversations with community members around the word of the day, giving them conversation starters like, “What are you grateful for today?” or “Even in hard times, we can find something to be thankful for – is there something you’re grateful for today?”

The Word of the Day was a simple way to start intentional conversations in the busy Northern Rivers Salvos Ballina community space. It created ‘Kingdom moments’, with the conversation starters prompting deeper interactions. The team members were able to share their own viewpoints on life and faith and listen respectfully to the community members’ viewpoints.

“We love our Word of the Day,” Soseh said. “Rather than wait until we had enough volunteers to implement something more missional, I really felt God calling us to go deeper spiritually with our people, so that’s what we did.”

Blessings overflow

After five months of prayer and patience, God opened the floodgates in January this year, and Christians from various denominations began attending Northern Rivers Salvos Ballina on Wednesdays, expressing their desire to volunteer and invest in the community.

“It’s been amazing,” said Soseh. “I feel like last year we were just laying the foundations, and this year God is building on that!”

By February, volunteer numbers had doubled.

A Northern Rivers Ballina Salvos volunteer speaking with a member of the community during Wednesday’s Community of Hope.

“My prayer has always been the uniting of the churches, and we now have members of five different churches that come on Wednesdays,” she said. People within the community started asking to come to Sunday church. “One lady said, ‘I have been praying for years for Ballina Salvos to be reopened. You are my answer to prayer.”

Finally, Soseh had a big team of passionate Christians around her, and Sunday small-group church had now become weekly instead of fortnightly. It felt like the ministry had settled into a beautiful rhythm. But God shook things up.

An obedient church

Soseh and a few team members began to feel a growing sense of discontent that on Sundays, the large number of people in Ballina experiencing homelessness could not access a meal. They felt like God was calling on them to provide one.

But there was a barrier to this. Sunday evening was when the Northern Rivers Salvos Ballina small-group church met. And church comes before mission, right?

Northern Rivers Ballina volunteer Peter drives the bus to deliver meals to people experiencing homelessness on Sunday nights.

Prayerfully, Soseh shared her heart with the church. What if we met on Saturday nights for church instead of Sunday, and on Sunday afternoons and evenings, we started a meal service for people in our community sleeping rough?

Now, most church-going Christians would be aware that changing anything related to Sunday meetings and worship can lead to discontent, differences of opinion, and – in the most serious of cases – a church split.

But the Holy Spirit must have gone before Soseh because the small group unanimously agreed about the change, with many signing up to help with the Sunday meal ministry.