New Salvation Army officers come to Conway
New Salvation Army officers come to Conway
Capts. Trish and Michael Knott are proof that you can’t judge The Salvation Army officers by their uniforms.
Trish, 52, is a former controller in a casino; Michael, 54, worked as a funeral director and embalmer.
The new corps officers in Conway didn’t join The Salvation Army until 10 years ago. Trish said the couple went back and forth for three years trying to decide whether to apply to work for The Salvation Army.
“One would say, ‘I think this is something we should do,’ and the other would say, ‘No, I’m not feeling it,’” she said with a laugh as she sat behind her desk at The Salvation Army office in Conway.
Their first assignment was to Russellville, so they were familiar with Conway when they got word just weeks ago that they were being transferred from Stillwater, Oklahoma.
They pulled out of Oklahoma on June 19 as Majs. David and Joanna Robinson left Conway for their assignment in Lawton, Oklahoma.
“I like being in Arkansas just because of the scenery,” Michael said, recalling how he enjoyed Mount Nebo and Mount Magazine when the family lived in Russellville. The Knotts have been on vacation in Hot Springs before, too.
“Arkansas is really our second home,” he said. Although Michael was born in Wisconsin to a military family and lived in Germany as a young child, the couple both grew up in Oklahoma. They met in the marching band at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. She played flute; he played trumpet. Michael said his roommate tipped him off that Trish had a crush on him.
“I was normally the girl’s best friend,” he said, laughing. Trish majored in accounting and became a certified
We don’t have victories every day, but when we do, they’re incredible.” Capt. Trish Knott THE SALVATION ARMY CONWAY CORPS
public accountant. She worked in public accounting for almost 15 years, then became a controller for the Oklahoma City Art Museum after the first of the couple’s three children was born.
After being a stay-at-home mom to their son Matthew, Trish worked part time as a bookkeeper for a construction company.
Then she became the internal auditor for the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, then the controller for the Thunderbird Wild Wild West Casino outside Norman, Oklahoma.
“I’d never even played bingo,” she said, laughing. “They sent me to Vegas for training. I had to learn the games.”
Trish said she didn’t gamble while she was in Vegas. She just shopped and saw shows when she wasn’t in class.
Meanwhile, Michael was trying to find his passion. He majored in music performance and music education in college and worked at the desk of a funeral home for a couple of years while going to school. He said he enjoyed helping ease the families’ stress during a difficult time.
But he used his degree and taught band for a few years — a year in Kansas, then a year each in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and Canton, Oklahoma — before taking a harder look at what he really wanted to do.
Michael was raised Catholic, Trish was Methodist, and the couple attended a Methodist church in Shawnee. Trish was involved in Moms in Touch, which is now Moms in Prayer, and participated in a prison ministry.
“It was the most amazing experience, and I realized I had a lot in common with these women because we both loved our children. Growing up in the church, I didn’t really understand grace like these women did,” she said, because their problems were so much bigger.
Michael was involved in men’s fellowship groups and went on mission trips, including one to Rio Bravo, Mexico, where he helped build block houses.
“I had lots of odds-and-end jobs,” he said. “I didn’t really know my purpose and where I needed to be.”
He decided to pursue his passion for helping people who had experienced death, and he became a funeral director and embalmer at a funeral home in Lindsey, Oklahoma.
“It was an adrenaline [rush], and it was a good thing, and you were making a difference,” he said. “My favorite part of that was the restorative-art process.” He said someone would be disfigured, and he would make the person look “exactly like the picture the family brought in.”
Trish stayed in Shawnee with their two children, and he traveled back and forth on the weekends.
“We decided that wasn’t going to work for us, living together on weekends,” Trish said.
Some changes in leadership at the Methodist church caused the couple to look for another congregation, and they started attending The Salvation Army church.
The captains in that church led chapel at the private school the couple’s children attended and talked to Michael and Trish about serving in The Salvation Army.
Trish was already serving as a type of counselor at her office as controller of the casino. She picked up a small plastic container with sand and turned it over, letting the sand flow to the other side. Employees would pick up that piece off her desk at the casino and play with it.
“People knew they could sit down and talk or cry,” she said.
Michael already knew he was ministering to people who were grieving the death of their loved ones.
“I was still seeking out my purpose,” he said.
Trish said Maj. Roni Robbins, an employee of The Salvation Army, said to them: “You’re both doing ministry. Why don’t you do it together?”
On Feb. 28, 2005, Michael and Trish met in Shawnee with The Salvation Army recruiter. By the end of April, Trish said, they had done most of the paperwork, which includes psychological, theological and extensive physical exams, to apply for training.
Although it often takes up to two years to be accepted, the Knotts’ applications sailed through in five months.
“Everything just hit like that,” Trish said, making a chopping motion down the length of her desk.
They went to Atlanta for training in August 2005.
“I had just found out I was pregnant,” she said. “I was 40 and pregnant — it was crazy.”
Michael said he was initially reluctant to enter the training because it meant more school; they are both ordained ministers.
Trish said she never would have believed she could stand up in front of people and preach. She said public speaking was her least-favorite course in college, and she enrolled in the summer so there would be fewer people in class.
“I was just mortified. It was the worst course of my whole life; I just hated it. But when you stand up and speak about your passion, it’s easy. I can talk about three things: accounting, the Bridges Out of Poverty initiative and the Lord.”
Trish taught a class at The Salvation Army in Oklahoma based on the book Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities, by Ruby Payne.
Michael, who talks slowly and quietly, said one of his gifts is his ability to work with people during disasters.
“When a disaster hits, I’m in a different mode, and like at the funeral home, it’s just meeting the immediate needs, just being there to listen — that could be crying or reflecting on how blessed you are,” he said.
Still, the career the couple have chosen is not easy.
“In the days that are tough, and I wonder why I’m doing this, I have to remember God put me here for a reason,” Trish said. “We don’t have victories every day, but when we do, they’re incredible.”
She recalled a woman in the Bridges Out of Poverty class who had the epiphany that she was tired of living in poverty and was determined to better herself.
The woman went from working in the laundry room at a hotel to the kitchen, then dining and catering director, and Trish said when she saw the woman last, “I didn’t even recognize her” because of how well put-together she was.
Michael said his favorite memories include the transformation of David and Steve, two men the Knotts knew in Stillwater, both of whom had problems with alcoholism.
Michael, sitting on a love seat in his wife’s office, started crying as he talked about the men.
David would come to the church when he was intoxicated, Michael said. “I had to have some tough love,” he said.
Michael said “the light bulb just came on” for David, and he entered a rehabilitation program through The Salvation Army. When Michael saw the man later, he had changed.
“He’s one of those new believers, and he’s on fire for God,” Michael said. He added that the man is now involved in The Salvation Army as a lay leader.
Steve didn’t end up going to rehab, but Michael got him involved in the thrift store and volunteering at The Salvation Army.
“Things were hopping in Stillwater,” Michael said. That made it hard to move to Conway, but Michael said having officers move every few years to another corps ensures that they don’t get too complacent.
The Knotts served three years in Russellville, then Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
for two years, and five years in Stillwater.
Their children have adjusted well, Trish said, and have pitched in to help with the Angel Tree program at Christmas and other projects.
Ashley, 24, just graduated from Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville and moved to Conway with her family; she plans to apply to a veterinary school. Matthew, 20, is attending Southwestern Oklahoma State University, and Samantha is 11 and will attend school in Conway.
“This is a great place, and I just thank the Lord we’re here,” Michael said. “People are friendly.”
He said a collaboration exists among agencies, too, and he wants to build on those relationships. He mentioned meeting with the United Way of Central Arkansas to find out about getting volunteers during A Day of Caring.
Trish and Michael said they are excited about The Salvation Army Advisory Board, which has good people ready to improve the organization’s programs.
Trish said the board will work with them to form a strategic plan.
“Where do we go from here? What are the needs? We don’t want to duplicate services. Let’s look at that and get feedback on ‘What does the community need?’”
Michael said The Salvation Army Family Store, the thrift store on Harkrider Street in Conway, needs a face-lift.
“The biggest challenge will be to get the store where it needs to be,” he said.
The couple want to find out what programs are working and what needs to be improved. The Salvation Army is first of all a church, they said, but it also helps people with rent and utilities, has a food pantry, operates the Angel Tree program at Christmas, mostly funded with the trademark Red Kettle campaign during the holiday season, and more.
“We want to come alongside to make the community better,” Trish said.
Michael said he wants people to know that “the Army is available all the time, no matter what the situation is.”
Trish said they’ve learned a lot since their first assignment 10 years ago, and along with life experience and training, their former careers have benefited them.
“You are a fundraiser, accountant, janitor and pastor,” she said.
It’s part of who they are, with or without uniforms. tkeith@arkansas online.com.