Danville’s Salvation Army is under new leadership with lieutenants Roger and Lindsey Galabeas. This is their first appointment with the corps; they replace Carrie and Patrick Richmond, who were transferred to a corps in West Virginia.

The Galabeas moved to Danville from Tyler, Texas, where they had served with the Salvation Army for two years, Lindsey said. But she is familiar with the church and this area.

While attending Asbury College from 2007 to 2009, Lindsey attended services at the Salvation Army in Danville, she said. “Now I get to come back and give back and get to know Danville more intimately.”

Lindsey said she comes from a long line of Salvationists and her parents were officers in the corps until she was 16.

Roger, on the other hand, didn’t grow up in the Salvation Army. His parents joined the Army when was 16, he said. They are currently officers as well. So their backgrounds were opposite, they said on Thursday, right before an open house welcoming them to the area.

As tradition, the Salvation Army officers enjoy playing music. Roger said he has a degree in music and plays tuba and baritone. “And guitar,” Lindsey said. “He plays beautifully and he loves to sing.”

Lindsey plays coronet, and has dabbled with piano, she said.

“We’re looking forward to praise and worship together,” Lindsey added.

While Roger’s background is in youth programming — he was the director of the Salvation Army Community Youth Center in Texas, Lindsey’s experience is in public relations, websites and social media.

The couple said they don’t have specific plans for Danville’s Salvation Army and are excited to get started. They will be spending “time in prayer” listening to what God wants them to do, Lindsey said. “We want to preach the gospel and meet the human needs here to accomplish the mission of the Army.”

Lindsey preached her first sermon last Sunday, and Roger will be at the pulpit this Sunday. Lindsey said she spoke about the many hats that Salvation Army officers have to wear — social services, human relations director, women and children’s programs, just to name a few.

“But we can’t do everything in the church by ourselves,” Lindsey said. To be successful, they’ll be depending on people in the church and throughout the community she said.

The couple will be married for five years in September, but haven’t started a family — yet, Lindsey said, “unless you count fur babies. We have two dogs.”

Roger added, “It already feels like home.”