New pastor arrives at Salvation Army

The Salvation Army in Yorkton has a new pastor.

Lieutenant Samuel Tim arrived in the city to assume his new position.

Tim is originally from Nigeria, moving to Vancouver with the Salvation Army. He spent nine years in the British Columbia-city, meeting his wife Mary there.

Tim said they were looking for a move to a community like Yorkton.

“We wanted to come back to a smaller city,” he said, adding it’s nice being in a place where people soon get to know each other by their first names.

The couple has spent the last seven years in Winnipeg and two in Toronto, before the move to Yorkton, a move Mary Tim was happy to make.

“It was a chance to get back home to the big sky … I’m actually a Prairie gal … For me it’s coming back to my roots,” said his wife Mary, who added her family roots go back to Ukraine, the family moving to Saskatchewan in 1886.

Samuel said Yorkton will be a new experience in terms of ministry from the big cities he has been in since moving to Canada.

“It’s different in a good way,” he said.

The biggest difference is the intimacy of a smaller community, one where his children meet their teachers in stores, and he meets members of his church far more often outside the church setting.

The couple have two children, a daughter Bethany, 10, and son Benjamin, eight.

Mary Tim said the broader interaction is a good thing. She noted a huge part of the job of a pastor “is building relationships with people.” In the case of her husband, she said he is naturally gregarious, so seeing people on the street in daily life opens a wider door to create those important relationships.

Beyond beginning to build relationships Samuel Tim said he isn’t planning any immediate moves in terms of how things are done in Yorkton.

“I’m waiting to see what the needs are,” he said, adding he wants to talk to local people who know the community best, before undertaking any changes.

“I’ll be talking to stakeholders about what is a void we can fill,” he said. “… Being we are new we want to find out what are the needs.”