International Women's Day: Cpt. Michelle Lee and team on intergenerational responses to COVID.

Captain Michelle Lee of Palmerston North Salvation Army Corps gathers an intergenerational group of women to talk about what COVID meant for them. Themes like disconnected, boring, sad and depression are woven through with gratefulness, thankfulness and trust. We make space for all experiences and we thank God for the spaces to share these stories of challenge and hope.

We invite you to download and share this and our other International Women's Day testimonies with your community (link below). The following is a transcript from the video:

COVID-19. Who would have ever thought this would happen? 

We are all different and have different ideas on how COVID has affected us. We are here today, girls of all generations to share our experience of COVID-19.

Maddie Fletcher: ‘Influential’

Lockdown was a time to be productive, achieve goals and avoid procrastination.

Betty Thompson: ‘Trust’

For me, trust was a really important thing during COVID and the inspiration behind these words were really important to me, ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.’

Ashley Eden: ‘Sad’

The happiest smiles hide the saddest thoughts.

Lieutenant Miriam Choi: ‘Depression’

Crying is how your heart speaks when your lips can't explain the pain you feel.

Molly Sheridan: ‘Testing’

Life is full of testing times, we must have the courage to withstand them.

Grace Satherly: ‘Boring’

When we have nothing left but God, we discover that God is enough.

Colleen Grant: ‘Separated’

I missed visiting my family and friends and them visiting me.

Kat Eden: ‘Disconnected’

Sometimes we need to disconnect in order to reconnect with what really matters: family, friends and work.

Captain Michelle Lee: ‘Thankful’

‘Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.’

We are so grateful for God's protection over us.
We mourn for those who have lost loved ones during COVID-19.

We are thankful for family, friends and our Salvation Army family.

We are grateful.

We're celebrating International Women's Day by sharing women's testimonies of leadership during COVID in New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa Territory. We will be releasing new videos daily, and joining a worldwide video montage on The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission's Facebook Page on March 8th. We invite you to share and view these stories with your community, to amplify their voices!

• CHECK OUT the other Salvationist Stories here (updated daily)
• VIEW the videos on Youtube (captions available)
• VIEW and SHARE from our Facebook Page
• DOWNLOAD the video files from OneDrive