The Salvation Army’s Western Territory commissions a new batch of officers every spring in Cerritos, California.
For Centralia’s newest lieutenants, Alina and Kevin Santamaria, that commissioning ceremony holds a special meaning.
Commissioning is a sort of beginning for all Salvation Army officers. The couple, both 26, were commissioned into their new positions at the beginning of June.
They took over the Centralia post from beloved longtime Captains Gin and Steven Pack.
Three years before their own commissioning, sitting in the same room in Cerritos, the Santamarias looked at one another and knew that they would follow that path.
“There was a part of the event where they asked people, if God was stirring in your heart to be an officer, to come up to the stage and to make that commitment,” Lieutenant Alina Santamaria said.
The two came to the ceremony to support Alina’s father, who is also a Salvation Army officer and was being recognized for his achievements. Despite sharing a knowing look, the two decided against going on stage.
“We kind of looked at each other,” Alina said. “We knew, but we were like, ‘no, we're not gonna go up there,’ and so then we didn't.”
After the event, the two went to eat lunch before a long drive back to Flagstaff, Arizona, where they lived at the time. That’s where it all came out. Kevina Santamaria had been thinking about the idea of becoming a Salvation Army officer for quite some time and was finally ready to tell his wife. When he decided to do so, she beat him to the punch.
“I was like, ‘Alina, I have to tell you something,’” Kevin said. “And then she’s like, ‘wait, I have something to tell you,’ and that's when she told me.”
The two called up a Salvation Army officer they knew on the way home to tell them about the decision and started on their application right away. A little over a year later, they entered the Salvation Army’s College for Officer Training in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, where they would spend two years preparing for a career as Salvation Army officers.
Earlier this summer, Lieutenants Kevin and Alina arrived here in Centralia with their 18-month-old twins, Noah and Evelyn.
After two years of studying and service, the two received their commission in June and were thrilled to discover they were headed to Washington state.
“We were praying for Centralia for a while,” Kevin said. “We were gonna be OK with wherever we got sent, but just with doing research and stuff like that.”
Wanting to see more of the West Coast, the two took the two weeks of vacation they received between commissioning and when they had to arrive in Centralia, roadtripping up the coast, with their highest priority stop being the Redwoods National Park in northern California. The couple dreams of eventually visiting all of the national parks in the country.
It seems they may have been destined for a Salvation Army career.
For Alina, it's almost like the family business. She is the oldest child of two Salvation Army captains and, as such, spent her early years living all over the western half of the United States, including in Arizona, California, Colorado and Alaska.
She recalls thinking as a teenager she might become a Salvation Army officer, but moved on from that dream toward a career in teaching. She pursued that career with an elementary teaching degree from Northern Arizona University (NAU) — where she and Kevin met — and spent a couple school years as a teacher, but again she felt the call.
“It was something I felt like I wanted to do when I was a teenager, and then after going to college, I kind of wanted to do something else,” Alina said. “Then, after, I felt like God was telling me, ‘Oh no, remember like when you were a teenager? You wanted to do this,’ and so I think now's the time.”
Kevin wasn’t predisposed toward the Salvation Army in the same way.
He grew up as a middle child in a Catholic family that moved around Arizona. Kevin eventually attended NAU, studying forestry, and met Alina, who introduced him to the Salvation Army. The two started attending church together, and Kevin recalls feeling almost immediately at home.
In fact, after the first service he attended with Alina, he went to speak with the men’s minister about participating in the men's ministry.
He was welcomed with a paint brush.
“After church, they were doing men's ministries, and they were repainting the chapel,” Kevin said. “And he invited me to paint the chapel.”
“We always make the joke that they put him straight to work,” Alina added.
The two became active volunteers both at their home church, the Flagstaff Salvation Army Corps, and another corps located in Phoenix. Kevin began to consider ministry as a career and no longer felt the calling to his studies in forestry. He felt unsatisfied with his job at a farm supply store.
He recalls helping with the children at their home church, including assisting a shy little boy in adapting to the new environment, as the time when he felt the call to become an officer.
Now, the two find themselves here in Centralia prepared to take on the duties of the job. So far, they’ve said every day is a bit different, ranging from checking on the Lewis County night-by-night shelter, which the Salvation Army operates, to managing the food bank and preparing sermons.
They’re also particularly excited about revitalizing the urban farm on the Centralia Salvation Army property. Kevin suspects his own passion for agriculture might have helped lead them to be placed in Centralia, which is known for its farm. Not all Salvation Army locations have them.
Kevin is actively looking for volunteers and community partners to get to work on the farm.
While the two are very excited to maintain much of what the Packs have built in terms of social services, they said they're particularly excited about growing the church and reaching more people in the community, including through Sunday service and weekly men's and women’s ministry events every Wednesday at 6 p.m.
In an effort to meet the community, the two will also host an open house event at 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at the Centralia Salvation Army building.
For more information on the Centralia Salvation Army, visit https://centralia.salvationarmy.org/ or its Facebook page.
