ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 14, 1996 TAG: 9611140041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
STEPHEN AND CONNIE LONG say their ministry is as rewarding as it is demanding.
Convicts dressed in orange and blue jump suits lined the hallway between their bunkhouses. Salvation Army Captains Stephen and Connie Long had journeyed to the state prison camp to hand out Christmas alms.
They'd brought their girls - Stephanie, 4, Christen, 3, and Cara, just a babe in arms - to give them a taste of Salvation Army work.
But Stephanie and Christen didn't want to just watch. They jumped into the spirit of things. They started handing out the gift boxes - packed with combs, candy, socks, etc. - and giving hugs to men as they shuffled forward.
Many walked away with tears in their eyes.
Stephen Long recalls that scene a few years back as one of many examples of how his kids - six of them all together - have never hesitated to jump in and help their parents' work. Stephanie's now 9 and Christen's 8, and they still go into jails, nursing homes, anywhere there are people who need aid and comfort.
They like ringing the bell at shopping malls and grocery stores to gather in donations for the Salvation Army's red kettles around the Roanoke Valley, or helping with the Angel Trees that provide toys and other gifts for needy children.
The gift-giving and the never-ending work is a way of life for the Longs. Stephen and Connie Long are co-commanders of the Roanoke Valley's Salvation Army post.
These are not 9-to-5 jobs. The Roanoke Valley corps is a 40-employee, $2.6-million-a-year operation with numerous programs - including the Turning Point shelter for abused women, a men's homeless shelter, four thrift stores, and church services on Sundays.
"This is not a vocation. This is not an occupation," Stephen Long says. "It's a calling."
The Salvation Army operates with a military-like discipline, he says, so it can respond quickly to whatever need arises. If headquarters calls and says to pack up in 30 days and move to a new posting, you pack up your kids and go.
The typical posting for officers is three to five years in one location. The Longs started out together in Prince William County, moved to Winchester and then Hampton, and came to Roanoke in June.
When you come to a new post, Connie Long says, there's no time to gradually get to know the operation. "You just jump in and are immersed in all that is going on."
The Longs like to get the whole family together for sit-down dinners four or five times a week, but that's been hard since they've taken over the new post. "I've never eaten so much fast food in my life," Connie Long says.
But they're not complaining. This is the life they have chosen. It's one, they say, that brings the whole family joy and purpose.
That's not to say they don't get tired, Stephen Long says. But there's a difference between getting tired and giving in to hopelessness.
"We really don't practice the whole ideology of burnout," he says. "Jesus said: `Let your light shine.' He's going to provide us the energy to keep it shining."
Stephen Long is a first generation Salvationist. Connie Long is fifth generation; her family's had Salvation Army soldiers or officers going back 100 years.
It was never a question of whether she'd join. It was just a question of when.
"Since I was about 4 years old, I knew that I was going to be a Salvation Army officer," she says. "The Lord spoke to my heart."
Her parents were both officers, and as a child she moved with them from place to place nine times.
She remembers, when she was 4 or 5, pulling her little red wagon and giving out copies of The War Cry, the Salvation Army's magazine. She started ringing the bell for kettle donations at age 12 and learned the clarinet so she could play in a Salvation Army quartet.
In 1984, she entered the Salvation Army's officer training school in Atlanta, Ga., a four-year training program crammed into two years. There she met Stephen Long, one of the instructors at the school. She graduated one day and was married the next.
Their adopted daughter, Catherine, 21, is now a cadet at training school.
Stephanie and Christen are the oldest children still at home. Cara is now 6 and the youngest girl, Sarai, is 5. The youngest child - and only boy - is 4-year-old Stephen, who likes monster trucks and toy police cars and is likely to launch into a verse of "Jesus Loves Me" at any time.
The kids are a bubbly, talkative bunch who show no signs of stress from their family's busy schedule.
Stephen Long is up at 6 a.m. most mornings. He and Connie Long get the kids up at 7 a.m. They're down for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and all the kids are loaded into the van and out the driveway by a little after 8.
Stephen Long drives them to school and heads for the Salvation Army's Red Shield lodge for homeless men. There he starts his work day with a pep talk and Bible study.
Connie Long takes care of laundry and other chores and then follows her husband to the Salvation Army corps center at Dale Avenue Southeast about 9 or 9:30 a.m. She picks up the kids at school at 3 p.m. and then brings them back to the corps headquarters for the rest of the afternoon.
Stephen Long goes into the office on Saturdays, too, but it's a short day: He tries to be home by 3 p.m., although he can't always make it. On Sundays the whole family is up early for church, where Stephen Long gives the sermon and Connie Long leads the music.
They designate one night a week - Friday or Saturday - as "Stay-Home Night." On that night they play a game called "Tickle Monsters," the family's special version of Hide-and-Seek.
Every evening there's a Bible lesson. One recent weeknight all the children gathered around the dinner table after apple pie, and Connie Long read a lesson about how friends should take care of each other - just as, she explained to the children, Jesus takes care of them. Then she went around the table asking each child a question based on the reading.
"No matter what we do," she said, directing her question to 6-year-old Cara, "Jesus will always ''
"Love and care for us at all times," Cara answered.
Stephen and Connie Long hope that some of their children will follow them into being a Salvation Army soldier or officer. Connie Long guesses that at least half of them will.
"I would say that most families that bring their children up in the Salvation Army have at least one child who follows in their footsteps," she says.
It's a hard life, they say, but one full of rewards.
In their life's work, they deal with people in incredible pain: victims of domestic violence, people dying from cancer, homeless men addicted to drugs or liquor. Always, there's a growing demand for help - with the promise of a new influx of needy families further impoverished by recent federal welfare cuts.
"If we didn't have the answer of hope and faith in us, how could we handle all that?" Stephan Long says. "The real payoff is seeing the miracles of God at work in hopeless situations. There's a lot of peace and freedom in being at the center of God's will."
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. CINDY PINKSTON\Staff. Connie and Stephen Long are theby CNBnew captains of the Salvation Army post in Roanoke. They are shown
with their five young children (left to right) Stephanie, Sarai,
Stephen II, Cara and Christen. color. 2. photo by staff. Graphic:
Chart by staff: Red kettle campaign. KEYWORDS: MGR