If you’re looking for an example of Christianity with its sleeves rolled up, you need look no further than the Salvation Army.

For more than a century now, the Salvation Army has provided soldiers with a taste of home when out in the field. Afghanistan is the only theatre of war the “Sallies” haven’t been able to stand alongside Australian soldiers for a cuppa, a bickie and a chat. And that was only because of bureaucratic red tape, not their unwillingness.

Salvation Army representatives have followed our soldiers to Iraq, Timor, Vietnam, the Korean War, Malaysia and of course both World Wars, as well as numerous other conflicts.

Interestingly, it was a woman who was the first Salvation Army representative ever to be sent to a theatre of war. British woman, Mary Murray was selected and dispatched from International Headquarters in London and arrived at Cape Town on 15th November 1899 to tend to troops fighting the Boer War.

But it wasn’t until the World Wars that the Salvation Army became a household name. In our family, it was always associated with my Grandfather, Jim Stewart, who served with the 2/2 Machine Gun Battalion in WWII. My mum said he would never walk past a Salvation Army officer after the war without giving them a donation, such was his love of the organisation.

Whether it was in the jungles of Borneo, the deserts of Egypt or the shores of Gallipoli, there was nowhere they wouldn’t go.

Major Colin Kingston who serves in Townsville with the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Defence Services has been to East Timor and was in line to go to Afghanistan with the Salvation Army before the plans were scrapped. While in Queensland, however, he goes on training exercises with the troops, giving them the opportunity to have a chat.

“Our main role is morale and physical support. We have green Landcruisers with pods on the back and we carry around hot and cold drinks, lollies and bickies and go out field, wherever units are operating, out in the bush, doing general training. We’ll camp with them and support them out there.”

Colin, who worked for 20 years as a fire brigade chaplain prior to joining the Red Shield Defence Services says there’s a unique level of trust between the Australian Army and the Salvation Army.

“We’ve been around for 114 years and the Sallies have always put themselves at risk to serve their fellow Australian. It’s unique to Australia, providing this service. It doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.”

“I know someone tried to get it off the ground in NZ and they said they didn’t want any Christian interference in the military. But because we’ve been here from day one, people trust us.”

In the World Wars, the Salvation Army would set up make shift huts a few kilometres behind the frontline, and erect their famous signs which read: “Hop in, You’re welcome here”, illustrated with a picture of a kangaroo.

Colin says they’re still around today.

“The banner we’ve got here in Townsville dates back to the Vietnam War. So we take good care of it.”

“For us, remembering the legacy that we represent, those who’ve gone before us, it’s a reminder to set the standard that we’ve got to continue.”

Unlike Padres who are part of military hierarchy, Salvation Army representatives are able to come along side soldiers as a confidante and chaplain when needed, giving troops the chance to offload without fearing what they might disclose will be “referred up”.

Some have even been killed in war, although Colin doesn’t know the exact number. Famously, the Sallies set up close behind the shifting front line in the difficult terrain of the Kokoda Track. The Anzac Day website notes that “eight were wounded at Wau, Papua New Guinea when the Japanese forced a retreat after 12 days of some of the hardest fighting of the entire Pacific War.”

Colin says Salvation Army representatives are trusted by soldiers because they live and breathe army life.

“You earn a lot of respect because you’re there because you want to be there. You’re getting onto the plane with them and they’re saying, ‘What are you doing this for?’”

“We don’t get a lot of the benefits that they get and yet you’re going through the same thing, because you’re in that environment with them. It makes them more open.”

As for what drives him to do the work when there’s little reward, it comes down to his faith in Jesus.

“I guess our motivation is love for our fellow man,” says Colin. “One of our slogans is that Christ compels us; Christ compels us to work alongside our fellow man.”

And he says, with many of the soldiers he’s seen come up through the ranks now back from Afghanistan, much of the current work is helping soldiers readjust to life in Australia.

“A lot of them have come back from Afghanistan, and brought back issues. Their families are back here, and it impacts them. So we just get alongside them now too.”

It’s extraordinary, the power of a cuppa and a bickie.

 

Photographs courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.