Only those who knew Patrick Bulloch prior to 1994 can truly appreciate the long road the Salvation Army Captain has travelled.

Homeless because of a drug addiction, Bulloch had reached rock bottom after years of alcohol and drug abuse. He admits he would now probably be dead had his life not changed eight years ago.

"I had been using drugs and alcohol since I was 13," explained Captain Bulloch who is back home in Bermuda on vacation with his wife Danielle and two young children, Kiersten and Patrick III, from the Peace River Community Church in Alberta, Canada.

The appointment took Capt. Bulloch and his family a long way from home, into a completely strange culture where the daylight hours are either very long or very short.

However, the journey for him began, in essence, years before when he decided to turn his life around. With God's intervention he has come through the ordeal.

"I had come to a point in my life where I had no place to stay, no money, no job... because of crack cocaine which was my drug of choice," said Bulloch.

"In 1994, after living with a so-called friend of mine, another user, and sleeping on a cot in the middle of the living room, I remember coming home one night and saying `man, this can't be all that life has for me'.

"I was literally crying that night, saying is there someone out there who can help me. The next morning there was a knock on the door and there was a Salvation Army Officer there, his name was Lt. Ivor Minors, and he said `pack your bags, you're coming with me'

"To this day I don't know how he showed up, not a clue, but someone must have called him. It could have been divine intervention."

Bulloch said he "picked up what few clothes I had" and went off to Harbour Light.

"I was there for two weeks and during that two weeks Ivor talked to me and introduced the Gospel of Jesus Christ," he recalled.

"It was two weeks after that that I was in Canada, at a (rehabilitation) programme called Hope Acres, and it was there that things really started to happen for me. It was about 100 miles northwest of Toronto, basically farm area. Serenity is the word for it."

Bulloch had been reading the Bible regularly, but had still not been converted. One weekend he was given a ticket to attend a camp with members of the congregation. He said it was during that weekend camp that his life changed again after Major Leight asked him questions about Jesus Christ and Col. Clyde Moore preached at a service.

"He read scripture from Romans 10:10 which said `with the heart one believes onto richeousness and with the mouth confession is made onto salvation'," explained Bulloch.

"Something within me just urged me out of my seat and I went forth. I kneeled at the altar and I was there confessing my sins... the wrongs I had done, people I had stolen from and lied to to support my habit. When I got up from that place people said they saw a glow in my face."

Bulloch continued on with his programme, but still there was something missing from his life.

"It was November, a month before I was finishing my rehabilitation, and there was a fear over me, of overcoming this bondage," he recalled.

"In the programme I was comfortable, there was routine, no temptation. I remember praying to God, asking him to fulfil my life more. I prayed for a wife, prayed for schooling and for finances to be able to do those things.

"I left the place two or three days before Christmas and I went down to Napanee where my grandmother lives. They didn't want me to come back to Bermuda during the festive season. I was there until January 5, when I returned to Bermuda."

His prayers were answered, with a job awaiting him at Harbour Lights which Lt. Minors arranged. Soon after he met his future wife, who worked at Salvation Army Headquarters.

Five weeks after they met, they began dating and within five weeks they were engaged. A promotion at Harbour Lights to Assistant Director under Lt. Minors answered the prayer for finances and he also became the Acting Director for Emergency Shelter where he was also living.

In September of that year Bulloch enrolled at William and Catherine Booth College in Winnipeg, the month he and Danielle also married.

"It had been a year since I got down on my knees and prayed to God for these three things and they all came through," he said with appreciation.

"Nobody can tell me it was not God."

Upon returning to Bermuda the couple worked in the educational system, Danielle as a Behavioural Therapist and Patrick a year later as a learning support teacher.

They were making good salaries but still there was something missing. They thought having their first child in 1999 was the solution, but eventually, coming to the conclusion that the Salvation Army was their calling, they packed up again and moved to Toronto where they trained for two years at a Salvation Army Training College to become Captains.

"It was the two hardest years of our lives," said Captain Bulloch who also had to deal with a sick child during that period.

Their Summer Appointment from the church took them to Hamilton, Ontario where Capt. Bulloch preached.

"It was on the first Sunday that I preached and, not knowing this, Col. Clyde Moore was in the congregation and I preached about my saving experience," Capt. Bulloch revealed.

"He was actually second in command of the Canada-Bermuda territory, but was retired by now and had suffered a massive stroke. Afterwards he came up to me and said it really warmed his heart to know that his work wasn't in vain all those years."

Capt. Bulloch was commissioned to Peace River, Alberta, as different from Bermuda as a place can be.

"I did not care for it at the time," he isn't ashamed to say.

"Maybe after a month we knew that it was God's calling for us to be there in Peace River at this time. We're hoping to be back in Bermuda after three years. Being at Peace River is giving us the experience in the ministry in order to come back, I guess."

He added: "In Peace River we have four different entities to take care under Peace River Community Church... two thrift stores, our family services, a nursery and of course the church. It takes in two towns, Peace River and Slave Lake, which is two and a half hours a way and I drive there every two weeks.

"Our region expands from Peace River to the North West Territories border which is an eight-hour drive. We have one of the largest regions to take care of."

The Bullochs' first impression of Peace River will be a lasting one.

"We arrived on July 7 at midnight and the sun was still up," Capt. Bulloch remembers.

"The sun went down at 1 a.m. and sunrise was about 4.30. Now, at this time of the year it goes down at 4.30 and rises at 9.30-10 a.m."

And the temperature will make Bermuda's 50 degrees seem like a summer day, for when they left to return to Bermuda on vacation, the temperature was a bone-chilling minus-30 degrees Celcius!

The worst of conditions in Canada certainly beats what Patrick Bulloch was going through in his personal life more than a decade ago, though.

"If I look back on my life, God has been preparing me for this, even going through the hell I went through," he believes.

"Out on the streets I should be dead today, there were many times I should have died from an overdose and been beaten up for the things that I had done.

"My routine was to get up in the morning and see what I could do to get something today. If it wasn't for the grace and mercy of God and his calling on my life I would be dead today. No doubt about that!"

Mrs. Bulloch also has no doubts God had a plan for her and her husband together. They worked together at Salvation Army, then at CedarBridge and now in their ministry many thousands of miles from home.

"I didn't know him previously, when he was on drugs, but when I did meet him he was a Christian and on the right path," she explained.

"I knew he was the man for me because I had prayed about it. Previous to meeting him I had asked the Lord to send the right person for me, because I wasn't one to be in the dating scene. Our marriage is centred with Christ in the middle."

Coming from a Christian background, having grown up in the Salvation Army Church, Mrs. Bulloch is amazed at what her husband has been through. Certainly their lives were completely different before they met.

"Everyday he is a walking miracle," she says.

"I see how he interacts with people on a daily basis and I can see how, even though it was unfortunate that he had to go through it, he can relate to that man on the street or the drug addict. I am amazed how, through Christ, he can touch people because of his past."

Like her husband, she, too, had reservations after their assignment which is a six hour drive from the Alberta capital of Edmonton. Certainly family aren't likely to drop in for the weekend!

"In the beginning I guess I felt it was quite unfair to send Bermudians there, but once being there we feel quite strongly that this is where the Lord wants us for this time in our lives," said Mrs. Bulloch.

"It had been difficult adjusting, there was less sunlight and we feel great being home in the sun. Our little girl goes to school in the dark and then about 3.30 the sun starts to go down.

"Our little boy had to take Vitaimin D drops because there is less sunlight. We miss the sun and the warmth but overall it has been a great experience, meeting new people and being immersed in a different culture.

"We are learning about then native Indians and working with them. We have definitely grown and seen a different side of people, but basically that people are the same everywhere.

"Our experiences with the ministry will be used, hopefully, when the Army sees fit to send us back here. We definitely want to come back and give to our own people the experiences that we get."