Army Snippets

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...shared by General John Larsson (Retired)

FLATTENING A FOOD MOUNTAIN

‘WHERE there’s a need, there is The Salvation Army.’ This accolade was put to an unusual test in 1987 when the UK government asked the Army to head up the distribution of Common Market food. The Common Market was struggling with a mountain of surplus food – mainly of cheese and butter – and wanted to reduce this mountain by distributing it free of charge through charities. The Army accepted the role.

Soon huge lorries began to arrive outside the Army’s buildings and seemingly endless pallets of packaged cheese and butter were unloaded into corps community halls. The quantities were enormous. In one case, the weight was so much that the floor gave way and the food had to be rescued from the basement.

Human nature in all its variety also came into full play. As long queues formed on the pavements, there was plenty of gratitude and good-natured banter, some of it directed towards those who came by taxi and were happy to let the meter run while they waited to pick up their free kilo of butter.

More than £9 million worth of cheese was distributed by the Army in 1987, plus butter to a similar value. The Salvation Army rose to the occasion, but corps officers were relieved when it was declared a ‘one-off’ ministry.

A STORY THAT ENDED TOO SOON A ST

THE gifted Arnolis Weerasooriya was born into a leading Buddhist family in Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – and was destined for the Buddhist priesthood. But, while he was a college master in 1882, he became a Christian. Persecution of Christians was widespread in Ceylon and Weerasooriya received death threats. With the audacity for which he became famous, he decided on a bold response.

‘If you want to find me,’ he said to his enemies, ‘I intend to witness for Christ at the edge of the jungle.’ He took just two friends with him to the lonely spot, but a large crowd of persecutors followed him there. To their surprise he offered them a rope and a knife. ‘The rope is so that I can be tied to a tree,’ he explained, ‘and the knife is so that you can kill me if you haven’t brought one of your own.’

He then asked his two friends to bind him to a tree, and told the crowd that he had chosen that lonely spot so that the police would not know if they killed him and they would therefore not be punished for his murder.

‘I love you too much,’ he said, ‘for you to be punished on

THE g account of me. My Saviour died for me, and I am willing to Weer die for you if that will help you to believe in God.’ into a When his enemies saw him bound to the tree and offering famil a knife with which to kill him, their enmity began to melt Sri L away. One by one they turned away and went back to town. dest When they had all gone, Weerasooriya’s friends untied him Bud and accompanied him home. No one ever threatened his But life again. col Arnolis Weerasooriya was introduced to the Army when it 18 reached Ceylon the next year. He became a cadet at the a Bombay training college and was commissioned as an officer early in 1884. Commissioner Frederick Booth-Tucker and C Weerasooriya led many revivals as a duo; the picture shows w him with his head shaved as a Tamil, when working among C the Tamils in southern India. Arnolis Weerasooriya was admired by European and Colonel Arnolis Weerasooriya national officers alike, and such was his brilliance and charisma that within two years he was promoted to colonel audacity for wh and made second in command of the work in India and Ceylon. Despite indigenous officers in those days always taking secondary roles, it was taken for granted that Weerasooriya would be Booth-Tucker’s successor as leader. However, in May 1888, only a couple of years later, when tending a European officer who had been stricken with cholera, Weerasooriya succumbed to the same disease and died within two days. He was but 30 years old and had been an officer for just over four years. The Salvationists and his parents were stunned. His marriage plans also died – there were to be no descendants. Amid the incomprehension and sorrow, everyone lamented that his life had been so short. Nonetheless, his story continued to inspire Salvationists for years to come. willing t to