EVERYDAY SALVO: Jayne sets course for the next generation
EVERYDAY SALVO: Jayne sets course for the next generation
24 October 2021
Whether she is in Switzerland or Australia, Jayne Combremont is passionate about worship, ministry and Jesus. As the youth pastor at Parramatta Salvos, she regularly practises all three.
Trying to define Jayne Combremont is a challenge. Hailing from Switzerland, French is her first language. But there’s more to this youth pastor from Paramatta Salvos than her accent – there’s a fire that defines her as a ‘way-maker’ for the next generation.
As a third-generation Salvationist, Jayne wasn’t planning on attending the Army when she moved to Australia three years ago. Her passion for Jesus motivated her to study at Hillsong College, and she soon found friends. But she needed a job – and quickly.
“I was just getting a little bit desperate. And I was sitting at a cafe and overheard some other Hillsong students talking about a job offer they had seen [with The Salvation Army Paramatta]. It was so random and obviously clicked with me because they said ‘Salvos’!” she recalls.
“It was the last day to apply to become their youth pastor. But I just thought I’d give it a try. And within a week, I had an interview, and now I’ve just been working there for two and a half years!”
Today, Jayne is a familiar fixture at Parramatta Salvos. In addition to her work with young people, she sings and occasionally will even preach. It’s as if Jayne has always been a culture-shifter at the corps. But dig a little deeper, and you realise this anointing blossomed because she has taken the long, literal path of obedience herself. And it was this same journey to Australia, taken by family friends, that sparked Jayne’s faith in the first place.
Jayne had dreamed of living abroad since she was a child but had no intention of returning to The Salvation Army when she moved to Sydney three years ago!
“[Growing up], I would say my parents were Sunday Christians. They were faithful to our local corps, but we wouldn’t really talk about God at home or pray together,” she says. “I always wanted to live overseas, and then some of my friends from my church actually came to Hillsong. I thought that if they’re doing it with their entire family, I really [did] not have any excuse. And that prompted me to make this decision [for Christ] myself.”
After watching the Christian film War Room – about a family transformed by fervent prayer, Jayne was determined that her family would also become hungry for God. She made them watch it and was adamant they would pray afterwards. It changed everything, and they started their own family ‘war room’ of prayer.
Soon, Jayne and her brother were leading worship services, and she was a part of a vibrant community at her local corps. But her path to Australia only became clear at a youth conference when she felt called to full-time church ministry. And the best place to achieve that, in her mind, was by studying ministry in Australia.
“To be honest, I had no intention of going back to the Salvos [when I moved to Australia], but I guess God had decided otherwise!” she laughs.
Today, Jayne learns about ministry at Hillsong College and trains for ministry with The Salvation Army. It’s the perfect mix for a young woman passionate about Jesus and loving people beyond church borders. And, in many ways, it echoes her sentiments about Salvation Army co-founders William and Catherine Booth that she shared on local radio during this year’s Red Shield Appeal.
“I think William and Catherine were pioneers of their time. They have inspired me [with] their passion for the lost, for alcoholics and for social justice. [Their passion to] help in the community is something that stirs me, and it’s something that I want to be able to apply in my everyday.”
Just as the Booths pioneered the way for us to live, love and fight for others, now Jayne pioneers the next generation of international Salvationists to walk in obedience. That sounds like an Everyday Salvo to us!
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