William burst into the house. "I have found my destiny!" he shouted. "I have found a place where there is so much human misery in such a small space that there is a lifetime's worth of work there for me!"

Horrified by the poverty and suffering most people took for granted in industrial England, William Booth dedicated his life to bringing the gospel to the outcasts of society who would never enter a church and weren't welcome there. At age fifteen William vowed, "God shall have all there is of William Booth," and not even resistance from the church and government, lack of financial support, or vicious attacks by angry mobs could stop him from spreading the light of the gospel through the streets of England.

Today, all around the world, general William Booth's Salvation Army operates thousands of evangelistic and social service centers, changing countless lives with the love of God and the courage of their convictions. (1829-1912)