Meet the officer – Major Claire Watson
1. What is your current appointment, and what do you find most satisfying about it?
I recently took up a new appointment as Corps Officer in Alice Springs with my husband Tim. Before this, I had two concurrent appointments: Corps Officer at Port Adelaide/Semaphore Salvos and Chaplain at Bramwell House, a residential centre for women and children who have left family violence.
Port Adelaide/Semaphore Salvos is a corps re-plant. I lived and worked there for three years and was not successful in re-planting the corps. Yet it was satisfying to have been involved in establishing two groups that will continue: a house church led by a Christian couple and an English-as-a-second-language conversation group at a café (now led by a community member).
I completed my Diploma of Chaplaincy online while gaining practical experience at Bramwell House. The most satisfying aspect of this appointment was witnessing God at work within the families and children and seeing specific prayers answered. The highlight of this year was meeting with a non-Christian resident after she had left Bramwell and hearing how she and her son have connected with a local church and are exploring faith together.
2. Away from the appointment – if that’s possible! – what do you do to relax or unwind?
Corps planting is so much fun because a vital part of a corps planter’s work is to build relationships within the community. The main way we did that was to join various sporting and recreational groups. Over the three years, I enjoyed making new friends while doing all my favourite things: tennis, art, poetry, storytelling, running and walking!
I also enjoyed spending time with my husband and my two grown sons in the best suburb in Adelaide: Semaphore. We went walking, running or riding along the beach, and had endless choices of coffee shops along the main street.
3. What’s a favourite Christian song, and why do you like it?
I am an author and I connect much more with words rather than music of any genre. So, my favourite Christian songs are the Psalms. They wonderfully express the full range of human emotions and the freedom we have in bringing all our sorrow, angst and disappointment to God as well as our joy and worship.
4. If you could have a good talk with a biblical character apart from Jesus, who would it be and what would you talk about?
When I was called to be an officer, I felt a great affinity with Moses. Like me, he struggled to see himself as a competent communicator and thought that God should send someone else. I would love to chat with Moses about his close relationship with God; he spent so much time in the tent of meeting, and it is written: “The Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend.”
5. If you were talking to a group of Salvationists and they asked if you recommended officership or not, what would you say?
I would share these words of Jesus with anyone who thinks that God is leading them towards officership: “Don’t be afraid” and “Surely I will be with you wherever you go”.
One of my biggest hurdles in saying yes to officership was that I was afraid to hand over control of my future to God; it’s a lifetime commitment. Yet God is the only safe person who can control our life; if we hold onto that control or entrust it to another human being, we end up being controlled. He loves us more than anyone, and he knows better than we do what is best for us, our children and His Kingdom. I have experienced the reality of that truth a thousand times over in the past 18 years, while serving as an officer in three states of Australia.
Officership is a life of freedom, flexibility and adventure. Yes, it’s a big risk, but the risk that Jesus took in leaving heaven to rescue us is so incomparably greater. If he said yes, how could I say no?
