Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps Burden Bearer

 Every day except Saturday, every week of the year, except for the occasional four day weekend, Bonna is the sounding board for women who need someone to talk to. When Bonna and I returned to the Seattle Temple Corps of the Salvation Army from Texas, there were women in the building who were crying for joy. They were actually so happy to see Bonna, they cried. The reason is, that Bonna is the best shoulder to cry on I have ever seen. When Bonna was still in her tweties and I first brought her from Texas to Seattle, women of all ages found her to be a wonderful sounding board. Even at that age, women of all ages recognized what a wonderful counselor Bonna is. These women knew absolutely nothing about Bonna's life or her family in New Jersey, but they told her everything about there own families. Literally every family in the Seattle Temple Corps had at least one member pour their heart out to Bonna and confide all of their pain and anguish in her.

I was surprised the first day that we attended the Salvation Army after moving back to Seattle from Texas. These ladies were going around saying, "Dan and Bonna are back. Things are really going to happen now." People were actually giddy. We got out our photo albums of the Young People's Band and Singing Company and Bonna would talk to a mother of some of the kids in the group and they would go through the pictures. Bonna was told the complete history of each child and family that was involved with our music groups.

One of the ladies told Bonna about a trip she had taken to New York City. She went to The Salvation Army National Headquarters to visit some officer friends who were stationed there. These friends were Colonels in The Salvation Army. During their visit, one of them asked her, "After all that you've been through, why are you still in the Salvation Army?"

Our friend told them about some of the things that had happened to her. She said, "One day the band was going on a trip to Aberdeen. My husband was having a dispute with the bandmaster and the corps officer and wouldn't go on the trip. I went to the corps to talk to them, but they wouldn't budge. Dan and Bonna came into the parking lot and found me crying in my car. They came to me and talked to me. After they heard what I had to say, Dan went into the building. Pretty soon, he came back. The problem had disappeared. My husband showed up 15 minutes later and the band went to Aberdeen."

She went on, "On the worst day of my life, I was at home alone. I was absolutely devastated. There was nobody I could turn to. I had been so abused and I hurt all over. I was all alone. My heart was broken and it just ached. Then someone knocked on my door. It was Bonna Ross. She came in and spent the whole day with me. She did my hair and I did her hair. She listened to me for hours. It's because of Bonna Ross that I'm still in the Salvation Army."

Sometimes I couldn't understand how Bonna could listen to all of these people and maintain her sanity and love for God and the church. It was the same Bonna that I had met and talked to in Texas when I was single and just back from Vietnam.

As we got busy in the corps, it started all over again. People came to Bonna with all of their problems, all of their heartache and despair. She took it all and we visited people in the hospitals, in their homes and prayed them through their problems. What a life! What a wife!

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