On October 3rd, 2007, MetroYouthNetwork.com featured a story on Salvo on De Majoor, AKA Lieut-Colonel Alida M. Bosshardt OF (OF stands for Order of the Founder). This Salvo was known for her ministry which included working at an orphanage in Amsterdam during WWII (most of the children were Jewish), ministering to the lost and hurting in Amsterdam’s Red-Light District, and finally taking control of the Army’s social work in the whole of Holland.
Just recently, this famous and well known Salvo was immortalized, so to speak. The Salvation Army’s International website reports:
“A SET of nine postage stamps has been produced in The Netherlands to celebrate the life of the country’s most famous Salvationist – and one of its best-loved citizens – Lieut-Colonel Alida M. Bosshardt OF. The colonel was promoted to Glory in June 2007 after a lifetime serving the poor and needy. She is particularly remembered for her work in Amsterdam’s red light district.
The nine stamps, each worth 44 eurocents, feature a variety of photographs or illustrations of ‘De Majoor‘ [‘The Major’] – as she was known even after promotion to lieut-colonel – in her famous Salvation Army bonnet.
Royal TNT Post, the main mail delivery service in The Netherlands, has also produced a special booklet which includes the new stamps and many more photographs of Lieut-Colonel Bosshardt through the years. A biography of the colonel is included in Dutch and English and makes it very clear that her inspiration to work with the poor and dispossessed came from her love of God. The front cover includes – again in two languages – the motto by which De Majoor led her life: ‘To serve God is to serve people and to serve people is to serve God.'”
The cool thing about this is that her work and ministry were so great that it her country has decided to commemorate her. This speaks volumes of how we are to work and live out the Gospel.
I heard recently about a guy who’d been invited to a corps for a few years but never got saved. He moved and connected with a church and quickly got saved- totally sold out. He called the old CO who asked how he got saved. The convert confided that no one at the corps ever talked to him about Jesus or how to get saved, but nearly everyone at the church did. Let’s be intentional in our evangelising independents who are hanging around our community but haven’t slipped in to the Kingdom yet – today.
Are there people that are coming back to your Corps/church week after week that you haven’t shared Jesus with yet? Be ready, in all times, to share the gospel with those you meet. Ask the Lord to give you sensitivity to his Spirit’s leading. Let’s do it!