Chapter 4: Other appointments and a wedding

From Pelantungan I was moved to a beautiful place, Bandung, to be in charge of the European corps and help with the field training of cadets. Here I had to use both Malay and Dutch languages, so there was much study involved. On Sundays, I arranged for an Officer to do the address in the morning meeting. The Sunday school and weeknight meetings I had to do myself, which helped me with the languages. The Sergeant Major’s wife helped me with the War Cry selling, and once a month we took the bus to the mountain village of Garut to sell papers and hold cottage meetings. This was much appreciated, especially by the elderly people who could not get to their church. Here we only spoke Dutch together.

One of the duties I especially liked was taking the cadets (30) out on the march. They looked very smart in their white uniforms, marching along behind the Army and Dutch flags, and singing their bright choruses. We usually visited a little village on the outskirts of the city and were welcomed by a great crowd of children. Many years later, I was living in Bandung and had a fine little Sunday school in one of those villages.

After this, came a very interesting appointment in a Chinese corps in the capital city, Jakarta. The Hall had previously been a shop, and we lived above it. I had two lieutenants helping me, a Eurasian and a Javanese. One of our tasks was to sell 1,000 papers a month between us, and although it was a heavy assignment, it brought us in contact with all classes. I used to visit the offices of English firms every month and enjoyed chatting to the men. They were always very respectful and generous in their gifts to support our work. But one day I had a rather frightening experience. In the middle of the night there came a banging at the front door of our quarters. When I opened it I saw a tall, very heavy fellow, the worse for drink. He tried to put his foot in the door, but I immediately pushed him with all my might and with such force that he landed on his back on the pavement and I banged the door to. That was the only time we had night prowlers – quite remarkable, when we were living right in the quarter where all sorts of crime and unrest were rampant. However, we were not afraid. All three of us had utter confidence in our Mission and the protection of our Heavenly Father.

We had a splendid group of young people at this Corps. Some of them became officers, and the majority were still staunch soldiers at the later large corps in the city when my husband and I visited them when we were Divisional Officers.

Next, I moved to a Dutch Corps in Semarang. This consisted of a real “mixed bag” – retired Dutch Military soldiers with Indonesian wives, Eurasians, European and native children and Javanese soldiers. The language difficulty was a real one. The great compensation from my point of view was the existence of the splendid eye hospital, staffed by many European officers - The Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and English. The Hospital Doctor was the famous Dr. Wille and I became very friendly with his wife. She gave me my first lessons in Danish, for by this time I had become engaged to a Danish Officer, Adjt. Niels Hansen. We met when he came to visit us in his capacity as Headquarters’ Collector. He was a great help in the Corps with his cornet at the open-air meetings, and on Sundays, as he had been stationed at the Corps two years previously.

I enjoyed most of all at this corps the work among the children and I thank God for the many opportunities I had to help them. There were also the great “open airs” on the Alun-Alun (market square) on a Sunday afternoon when we were joined by the Officers from the large beggars’ colony. I really felt this was the Lord’s work to stand in the ring and talk to the crowd who were listening so attentively.

After this, I was on the move helping to sell a special issue of the Salvation Army stamps in aid of our work, when finances were at a low ebb. This was not really ‘my’ kind of work but needless to say, I had some very funny experiences………..I would enter a small town and resolve to call at every door in the main road. One morning, quite unaware, I entered a monastery and in the front hall were several monks talking. I was surprised, but their greeting was friendly enough, and I smiled at them. They were most interested in what I had to say and soon bought several sheets of stamps. They were a real encouragement to me and, although I was often footsore and weary, I found the Indonesian population friendly and interested in what I was trying to sell. This selling of “Charity Stamps” for the benefit of the Army was the first venture of its kind and was a great success in raising funds for our work, which had been hard hit by the depression of the thirties.