Four and a half months after their move to El Dorado, Majors David and Joanna Robinson are settling in well.
"We got here June 21, the day after my wife's birthday," David Robinson said. "We're hoping to be here as long as we can."
The new Salvation Army corps officers have been a part of the organization for more than 20 years, and in that time, have served communities across the South, from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Port Arthur, Texas, to several cities in central and south Arkansas.
"Our first appointment was Charlottesville, Virginia; we were there one year. Then we moved to Port Arthur, Texas; there, four years. Then we moved to Conroe, Texas; there, five years. Then we moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas; there, for four years. Then Conway, Arkansas for four years; and Lawton, Oklahoma for four years," David said. "And then we came home; then we came here."
No two days are the same for Salvation Army corps officers, who can be reassigned to a new community at the drop of a dime and whose duties to the communities they serve range from providing daily meals and regular church services to counseling the bereaved or contributing to disaster relief efforts.
"It's never the same thing every day, and it's not just that one place that we've been. There's so many people that we've been fortunate to work with and to help and it's not just the mundane job that you go to every day; every day is different," Joanna Robinson said. "We can't even call it a job, because we love what we do."
A long history
Even over the phone, you can hear David Robinson blush when he tells the story of how he and Joanna met. She was working as a life guard for a local Salvation Army camp over the summer, and he was living in his hometown of Davenport. It was by chance that they met on June 30, 1984.
"You're going to laugh when I tell you this," David prefaced his story. "We met at a family reunion. Her sister was married to my cousin. ... I just kept seeing this real tan girl walking around, and I finally asked my cousin who she was. As they were driving off, I thought I'd never see her again. Thankfully, I did."
The couple was married by the end of the year, and they'll celebrate their 37th anniversary on Dec. 29.
"I didn't see her much for the whole month of July until she got out (of her lifeguard job) in August. When we started adding the days up that we actually saw each other before we got married, there weren't all that many," he laughed.
The Robinsons were married for about 15 years before they joined the Salvation Army as officers, and in that time, they worked a wide variety of jobs across their home state of Oklahoma.
"When I graduated high school, I worked in the oil fields, and then I went to work in Oklahoma City at Fred Jones Manufacturing, worked there for about eight years, then I went to work for Kwikset, making doorknobs, in Bristow, Oklahoma, then I became a Schwan's salesman, driving a truck selling ice cream," David said. "When we got married, (Joanna) worked for Wrangler Jeans ... for seven years. She ran a pizza parlor for a while. Then she went to work for Dollar General, became a manager at Dollar General, worked up through the ranks. That's where she was working when we went to the Army."
Both of the Robinsons, however, knew well before they finally joined the Salvation Army that they had a calling.
"My grandmother attended the Salvation Army in Ponca City, Oklahoma, so I grew up going to the church," Joanna said. "I had always known that I wanted to be a Salvation Army officer. ... At 14, I had it in my heart that that was what I was supposed to do."
David Robinson said he felt the call at 17.
"God put that calling on my life, and I brought it up to my minister at the Baptist church and he agreed that, yep, he knew that was where I was headed in life," he said. "Things didn't work out to move forward with that; and then we met and had a family, and when we moved to Sapulpa (Oklahoma) and started attending the Army, God's calling came on us more, and we mentioned to the people at the Salvation Army that we felt called to be officers and we started the paperwork, and a year later we were working in Bartlesville, Oklahoma as helpers."
Before they became full officers, the Robinsons attended one of the Salvation Army's four U.S. seminary schools; they went to the College for Officers in Atlanta, Georgia.
Living in bigger cities -- Sapulpa, Oklahoma, where the Robinsons first joined the Salvation Army, is right outside of Tulsa and is a good deal bigger than David Robinson's home town of Davenport, Oklahoma, which had a population of 1,000 when he was growing up; and in the mid-90's, Atlanta was well on its way to becoming the major city it is today -- was a bit of a culture shock for the couple.
"I lived in Davenport for over half my life, so having anything delivered was brand new," David Robinson said. "We ordered pizza and Chinese food a lot. That was a Friday or Saturday night specialty."
New in town
The Robinsons have big plans for El Dorado, and they're looking to the community for help to reach their goals.
First on the agenda is reopening the Salvation Army dining room in time for Thanksgiving.
"We're hoping we can get the volunteers -- people who have volunteered in the past, or people who have never volunteered or would like to --; we would like to get our dining room back open to the public. We may start by doing that just at the evening meal. We're going to rearrange the dining room to let people social distance, but we may let 25 to 30 people in at a time, or they'll have the opportunity for a to-go meal," David Robinson said. "We want to get that opened up as soon as possible, and then we're going to be asking for volunteers for our Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Day that we'll be serving here at the Salvation Army."
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, outside of its shelter services -- which have also had to shut down a couple times over the past year and a half -- the local Salvation Army has mostly stuck to mobile or to-go offerings, like takeout meals twice a day, drive-through food box pick-ups and livestreamed church services.
The Robinsons, however, have started to invite local residents back into the Salvation Army chapel for Sunday services, and are also adding new ministries.
On Mondays, Joanna leads a youth group. Lately they've been meeting at parks in town, she said. She also has a women's ministry open to women and girls 16 or older that tries to meet twice a month. On Wednesdays, the Robinsons invite people into their home for the weekly cottage Bible study.
"Everybody's meeting together in the chapel and having church together," David Robinson said.
Joanna Robinson said she and the ladies who attend her women's ministry have had a fun time at it; they make crafts, hold Bible studies and even went to the Camden Barn Sale over the summer.
"Major David, he does preaching, and I do preaching," she said. "If I need to preach, I'll preach, or if I need to do social services, I'll sit up there and do what I need to do."
The couple has had trouble finding time to visit any of El Dorado's summer festivals and other outdoor events, but on Nov. 18, they'll make an appearance together at the downtown Holiday Lighting Ceremony to kick-off the Salvation Army's annual Red Kettle Campaign and Angel Tree program.
"My wife is going to talk about the Angel Tree and all that. She's doing Christmas sign-ups right now," David Robinson said earlier this month. "It's been very, very slow this week. We know there's people out there that need to sign up; they can call, or just come by and talk to my wife."
Nov. 18 will also be the first day Salvation Army volunteers will "ring the bells" for the Red Kettle Campaign. David Robinson said they hope to raise $70,000 this year, all to go toward local operations. He said he spoke to Camden Mayor Julian Lott and the Camden City Council recently about finding volunteers in Ouachita County to ring the bell. The local Salvation Army serves Union, Ouachita and Calhoun counties, he noted.
"We could find something for just about anybody to do. Some people get to come in and they get to spend an hour, some people get to come and stay the whole time. This is our first time (going through the holidays) here; we're still learning from the staff, kind of, the ins and outs," David said. "We really wanted to get the word out, because we have some volunteers who come yearly. ... We're very excited about getting volunteers back in the building and getting things going full speed again."
Looking ahead to 2022, David Robinson said the local Salvation Army hub will be celebrating 100 years serving south Arkansas.
"Capt. Charles Smith, who was here three or four years ago, he was such a history buff -- he researches stuff like crazy -- he left me a big file of the corps history, and I pulled it out and looked at it and it said 'established in 1922 on Main Street,'" David said. "I've talked to him since. I was like, 'Charles, can you narrow it down? Was it the first part of 1922 or the end?' It says someone was stationed here in February, but that it started in October. He was working with a historian in Atlanta but couldn't narrow it down ... We don't know the official day, so we're going to celebrate all year long."
None of next year's centennial celebrations are "chiseled in stone," David said, but the Robinsons are floating a few ideas -- perhaps holding a revival in the early part of the year, and then a Homecoming for everyone who's been involved with the Salvation Army in the fall.
"We've met people here who either went to the Salvation Army camp when they were teenagers or were married at the Salvation Army or who had some kind of contact, maybe worked here in the past. ... We're hoping to get as many people to come (as we can)," he said. "Our goal is let's gear up for another 100 years. We're laying the foundation for the next 100 years. The people before us did great; let's lay a firm foundation."
Long-term, David Robinson said he'd like to establish a disaster relief unit locally. He has served previously as a disaster relief commander and has responded to major catastrophes including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, Hurricane Harvey.
"I've been blessed to take a team of people into situations like Harvey; when we went to Corpus Christie, the storm hadn't even finished blowing yet and we had to stay in the same building with the Police Department and Fire Department... It was my team's job to find a warehouse to store supplies, get a kitchen set up. Within a day or two, we were feeding over 10,000 meals a day, and that grew to 20,000 meals," he said. "We're looking to find volunteers to go and serve for a couple weeks if needed, people who could drive a unit or help serve meals ... and make sure the public was being fed. We want to build a team here so that we could have a couple of teams that could go and respond to those types of disasters, or if anything happened locally, we could respond and be there to serve, in the case of a tornado or a huge fire, any kind of catastrophe."
He noted that one doesn't need to be a Salvationist or a member of the Salvation Army's church to volunteer for such an effort.
"Just a willingness to serve (is all one needs)," he said. "We would supply their training. It's not that hard; it just takes time. ... I know if anything happens around here, I want us to be ready."
For the time being, though, the Robinsons are just happy to call El Dorado home. They're near their family -- their son, Barry, lives in Hot Springs, so they've already had several opportunities to have their grandchildren, Layla and Major David, over for visits -- and earlier this month they were looking forward to last week's Airstreams on the Square event.
"We're camper people. We love to camp," David Robinson said.
The couple's daughter, Risa, is also based in Arkansas, at least for now. She followed in her parents' footsteps by becoming a Salvation Army officer herself, and she's currently working at the Fayetteville location.
"We are so proud. We knew that she was called when she was younger, but it's always God's timing when you get into the ministry, and he finally realized it was his timing," Joanna Robinson said. "Now she's up in Fayetteville, and it's just fabulous up there working for the Salvation Army."
The Robinsons said they're very happy to be in El Dorado. They're even hoping that they might get a long appointment here.
"We're praying for nine (years). ... That would get us into retirement," David Robinson said. "We're hoping to be here as long as we can."
The couple said they'd love to meet more local residents, who can come by the Salvation Army any time to meet them.
"We love being here. We want everyone to know, we're here to help serve in any way possible, so if somebody needs something, then look us up and we'll see what we can do," David said. "We love serving here."
The Salvation Army office is located at 419 S. Madison.
