Pictures show Afghan refugees at the meeting in Lahore, Pakistan. The man with the moustache, in the blue suit (left), led the delegation and gave a public word of thanks for all that The Salvation Army had done
Pictures show scenes from the feeding programme for Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan
General John Larsson is the international leader of The Salvation Army
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From the Top: A Word of Encouragement
by General John Larsson
IN the name of Allah,’ began the speaker. Everyone sat up. It was not that the hearers were unfamiliar with the Muslim greeting. It was just that the setting and occasion were unusual.
The setting was a large marquee erected in The Salvation Army’s compound in Lahore, Pakistan. The occasion was the Sunday morning holiness meeting where my wife, Freda, and I had gathered for worship together with 3,000 other Salvationists.
Looking down from the platform we could see on the front row a group of people who stood out from the rest of the congregation. We were told that they were disabled Afghan refugees who had travelled by bus from Peshawar, in the north of Pakistan. It is a long journey – at least eight hours – and the group had arrived at territorial headquarters in Lahore at around three o’clock on Sunday morning.
The group had made the arduous journey for one purpose – to say thank you. And, at the appropriate time in the meeting, one of their number – the young man dressed in a blue suit in the photo – was called to the platform. In a clear voice and in excellent English he told the congregation that, in the name of Allah and on behalf of the many disabled people, widows and young people who had benefited from the Army’s feeding programme for Afghan refugees, he wanted to say thank you in person to the General of The Salvation Army.
It was a very moving moment which culminated in other members of the group coming to the platform and presenting me with a traditional embroidered Afghan winter coat and cap, and Freda with a shawl.
It was moving because here was a group of people who, at their own initiative, had taken the trouble to travel hundreds of miles just to say thank you. And, as is their custom, they did not only want to say thank you in words – they wanted to show their gratitude in a tangible way.
In my words of response I spoke of the Salvationists and helpers who had actually been on the front line of service there in Peshawar, and of those in other countries who had helped to fund the relief programme. I thanked the Afghan group for making the long journey, and said that it was on behalf of those who had actually ministered to their needs that I gratefully accepted their kind words of thanks.
It is one of the many pluses of being General that people often take the opportunity to say thank you for all that the Army does. And I want to pass on those words to the Salvationists who are actually there – where there are people who are hurting. They serve without expecting to be thanked. Even in the time of Jesus, only one out of the 10 disabled that he healed returned to say thank you, ‘Praising God in a loud voice’ (Luke 17:15, New International Version). When the word of thanks comes the Salvationists are pleased. But, like Jesus, they too want the praise to be directed to God.
The Afghan refugees would never have put it in these words, but in that Sunday morning meeting, they, in the name of Allah, were engaging in a ministry of encouragement.
The words of the New Testament would probably not be familiar to them, but when the writer to the Hebrews says, ‘Let us encourage one another’ (Hebrews 10:25), he has a word for every believer without exception. Among us are some who have been specially endowed with the gift of encouragement – and if so it is a gift that needs to be put to use. The apostle Paul, as always, puts it succinctly: ‘If a man’s gift ... is encouraging, let him encourage’ (Romans 12:6-8).
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