Salvation Army Major Henry Hunter’s business card should read “Have Faith, Will Travel.”

Hunter has been in charge of the Columbus post now for six months. Since he became a soldier in the Salvation Army 32 years ago, he has been stationed in Greenville, S.C., Winston Salem, N.C., and Georgia cities Brunswick, Waycross, Marietta, Rome, Albany, Warner Robins, Savannah and Dalton.

“The moves are all based on need,” Hunter said.

And while he’s not always thrilled about having to pack his bags again, it is all part of the business in this “Army on the move.”

“It is God’s plan,” he said.

Hunter, 61, has been joined on these stops by his wife and business partner of 32 years, Cheryl Hunter, also a Salvation Army Major.

She has been in the Salvation Army for 41 years and met her husband at the organization’s training college in Atlanta where she was one of his teachers. “Christian education,” she said.

Hunter remarked about the friendliness of the people he has met here, “This is the first place I’ve been to where I was welcomed to my home by neighbors.”

Cheryl Hunter, 63, was stationed here 40 years ago and said not only has the city grown in population but it seems its heart has grown, as well. She said it is a much more giving community.

The Hunters said they saw a lot of that giving during the holiday season.

“I was just blown out of the water by the generosity of the community here,” Hunter said. “It was overwhelming. We helped so many people.”

This past Christmas, Hunter said, the Salvation Army was able to aid 676 families, 1,389 children.

“One family just wanted a box spring and a mattress for their children. A bed. They got it,” he said.

What really thrilled him was a donation of bicycles that made it possible for the Salvation Army to brighten the lives of a lot of children.

“I remember what it was like when I was a young boy to get a new bicycle, it was always so much fun. I used to put playing cards on the spokes,” he said.

The Salvation Army operates a soup kitchen and lodge on Second Avenue where meals are served and there are 39 beds for the homeless. Its main headquarters is a large brick building, the Lovick P. Corn Worship and Community Center, on Warm Springs Road.

Chapel services are held there, to which, Hunter said, “everyone is welcome.” There is also a library.

A kitchen supplies food for meetings in the friendship hall.

There is a lot more to the center including a game room, computer lab and large gymnasium. Before those can be put to proper use, though, Hunter said competent people must be found to direct activities. Right now, the financial resources are not available for that. He said he would love the center to be a leader in after school activities including tutoring.

The local Salvation Army, which has fewer than 20 employees, is supported by private donations, money received at its family store on Manchester Expressway and funding from the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley.

“We really need the United Way,” Hunter said. “It has been generous.”

Joining the Salvation Army was a natural for Cheryl Hunter. Her childhood was spent in Washington where she attended a Salvation Army and dreamed of one day devoting herself to the cause.

It was a little different story for Henry Hunter who said he was saved as an adult by the Salvation Army.

“I was a heathen,” the Rockingham, N.C, native said. “I was not bad, just lost.”

He had attended church as a child but chose not to as an adult.

He was working at Sears in Raleigh, N.C., where his boss and two co-workers were involved with the Salvation Army. He witnessed the way they lived their lives. They never preached to Hunter but one gave him a religious tract to read.

“I got home, threw it in a desk drawer and went and got myself a beer,” he said.

One night while looking for something else, he came upon the tract and decided to give it a look. He said he felt a change coming upon reading the material. He went to church with his friend where he said he felt love. At home, he poured the rest of his beer down the drain. “I realized that without Jesus Christ you are lost. I felt that all guilt had been lifted off of me.”

He said he knows that some people’s association with the Salvation Army is the bell ringers and their kettles at Christmas, a group which had a good year with $132,450 raised this year, but that the organization is much more. “We’re working 365 days a year,” he said.

He said many people need the Salvation Army because of the weak economy. “The need is great. People are hurting all over. It’s going to take awhile to get out of the hole the country is in,” he said.

Cheryl Hunter said that “doing the most good” is what the Salvation Army is all about.

Her husband said there have been times when he has questioned whether he made the right career choice, certainly there is no great wealth to be gained.

“There is the satisfaction of knowing I have made an impact whether it is keeping someone from being homeless, helping a family stay together or changing life by introducing someone to Jesus Christ,” he said. “That satisfaction you can’t get that in a paycheck.”