Touched by an Army of kindness

Husband and wife cadets for the Salvation Army have witnessed its work, and were moved to join its ministry.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 29, 2002

CLEARWATER -- Rolando Casado was restless. Try as he might, he simply could not sleep one night in late February 1998.

So at 12:35 a.m., he got up to check the TV weather forecast one last time. The intense storms weren't supposed to affect Kissimmee, but his intuition told him something else.

While the rest of the family slept, Casado sat in the darkness, listening as the meteorologist said the ferocious storms were stalled over the area. The meteorologist did not issue any head-for-cover warnings for Kissimmee.

It wasn't even raining.

But it was deathly still outside.

Still nervous, Casado went to sleep.

A bolt of lightning lit the sky. Then silence.

Casado and his wife, Evelyn, got up to search for a flashlight. That's when they heard a "growling" and windows shattering.

The couple felt the world caving in.

They grabbed the rest of the family and crammed into the bathroom.

When the roaring stopped, Casado, who was in the Navy before becoming a public school teacher, hurried outside to find his subdivision almost destroyed. Although his house suffered roof and window damage, out of 125 houses in the subdivision, 100 were gone. People were wandering around in a daze asking if anyone needed help.

One woman's eye was pierced by glass. She had been watching the storm through a plate-glass window when the window broke from the pressure, shattering into shards.

A day later, amid the loss, the Salvation Army came to feed everyone. It set up a canteen and stayed for a month.

"It was incredible how tender and dear they were," said Evelyn Casado.

Partly because of that experience and partly because the Salvation Army lent them money after the disaster, the couple -- who were raised Baptist -- sold their house and joined the organization.

They are cadets now, and have completed a year of a 2-year stint at the Salvation Army College for Officer Training in Atlanta. In June, they started a nearly 3-month summer internship at the Salvation Army of Clearwater.

"We wanted to get serious about working for God," Evelyn Casado said.

"This was a moment in your life when you have to trust God, Rolando Casado said.

Evelyn Casado said the "great thing is we get to do it as a couple, as a family."

"We all have to go to school," she said, noting that Josiah, 9, and Kezia, 3, also attend religious training. "We all live on campus."

The Puerto Rican-born Casado and his wife, both 38, should be a big help to Clearwater's growing Spanish-speaking community. Both speak the language, and will be able to minister to clients in their native tongue, and visit them when they are sick in the hospital.

Maj. Roy C. Johnson, head of the Salvation Army of Clearwater, said there are now nearly 40 Hispanic people who regularly attend services at the facility at 1625 N Belcher Road.

Among its duties, the couple preaches at services, evangelizes and works at the Army's food pantry and camp for low income children.

Johnson said the couple is a welcome addition to the Salvation Army family, and he is impressed with the Casados.

"They bring a humble spirit with them," he said. "They are willing to try and learn."

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