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Blessèd Lord, in thee is refuge, Safety for my trembling soul, Power to lift my head when drooping ’Midst the angry billows’ roll
All kinds of people attend, join, volunteer with or work for The Salvation Army. We’ve asked some to tell us about themselves. This week… MAJOR RUDI BRUINEWOUD Louth How did you first come into contact with the Army? In 1970, as a young teenager, I followed the Army band after a Sunday open-air service back for an evening meeting in Enschede, the Netherlands. What made you want to become an officer? After being enrolled as a soldier on Easter Sunday in 1974, I knew what God wanted of me, yet there was so much learning and growing up to do. Everything moved fast after I visited Montreal in 1976 for a Salvation Army campaign around the Olympic Games. I moved to Scotland in 1977 and entered the International Training College two years later as part of the God’s Soldiers session. I have since served as an officer in Scotland, England and Wales.
(SASB B 244)
What are the most interesting things about your role – and the most frustrating? As a corps officer in a number of busy and challenging appointments, it is people who can be most interesting and most frustrating at the same time. As a people person, it is always interesting to listen to their stories and be humbled by them. If you were to create a slogan for your life, what would it be? ‘Live and let live’ or ‘Actively and patiently wait and it will sooner or later happen’.
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If you could rid the world of one thing, what would it be? Insidious racism and everything associated with it that keeps people from reaching fuller potential. If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing, what would that be? Good Dutch liquorice and infinite patience. (I know, I have doubled up!)
Did you have a nickname growing up? Kleine Utti (Little Rudi).
What is your favourite hymn or worship song? I never fail to be moved by singing Herbert Booth’s ‘Blessèd Lord’ (SASB 244) and also ‘What a Faithful God Have I’ (SASB 378) by Robert and Dawn Critchley.
If you could invent a gadget, what would it be? A robot gardener!
What is your favourite meal? An authentic Indonesian-style nasi or bami goreng, with all the trimmings.
If you could bring back any fashion trend, what would it be? Electric blue bell-bottom trousers and platform shoes from the early 1970s.
What do you do in your spare time? I try to relax with a good warts-and-all autobiography, I listen to music, go on holidays and drive. Often, I end up in front of a PC discovering something that I did not know or had forgotten.
What is your favourite Bible verse? ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:38 and 39). Which Bible figure would you like to meet and what would you ask them? Noah. I’d want to know how he crammed in so many stubborn species of the Earth, two by two, into one little space. What is your favourite kind of holiday? A quality seaside holiday or a city break in one of the major cities of Europe, or hopefully the fjords of Norway in the not too distant future.
Apart from the Bible, which book would you want on a desert island? I would re-read some of the transforming speeches in Great Speeches of Our Time. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? Guard your integrity. Once that has gone, there is precious little left. What is the most valuable thing you possess? A close family unit, even though we are many miles apart and don’t see each other enough. Something else people might want to know about you is… I do have a serious side, honest!
