Ambassadors in Louisiana
Every once in a while you meet a couple who really stand out in your mind....
I met such a couple while working for The Salvation Army in New Orleans after the terrible disasters of Katrina and Rita.... I got to see them in action. I watched them when they had no idea that they were being observed. I heard them when they thought no one was listening.
Day by day I noticed their extra effort. They were not there for a vacation. They were not there to enjoy the fellowship. They were there to do a job. And they didn't just complete the task. They spent extra hours doing that task well, making sure it was finished with excellence and compassion.
Morning after morning, they were up and gone before breakfast. Evening after evening, they were the last to turn off their lights and computers. For them, meals were just another time to work on a project, talk to someone with a problem, or offer their aid and support to another. Like the old Sunday School chorus "J-O-Y," they put Jesus first, themselves last, and others in between.
They were Salvation Army officers (pastors). They had spent a lifetime of helping rich and poor alike. Maybe this lifestyle was ingrained in them, or perhaps they were simply striving to follow the example of Jesus.
I remember one day when many people had gathered together in the lunch area. In this part of Louisiana the lunchroom was a large white tent FEMA had erected. I watched this couple come in and greet some old friends they hadn't seen in some time. But instead of joining their friends for lunch, as I would have done, they looked around the room and found a volunteer sitting at a table by himself. Perhaps he was lonely or homesick or just new enough to have not made any friends. Without fan-fare, this loving couple took their trays to the young volunteer's table. I was facing them, but their eyes never caught mine. They were continually focused on the young man who needed a friend, a word of encouragement, to see Jesus in a human face.
They did not see this as self-sacrificing, but I did. There was nothing self-centered about them. They did not complain; they were focused on the needs of others and not their own wants and desires. They were unselfish.
Some might say that a week or ten days is not enough time to really get to know someone.... Perhaps I did not have time to learn where they did not measure up to my own personal standards or the standards set by others. But I believe that for that special time and that ruined city, for me and for the hundreds whose lives they touched, standards were more than exceeded. Indeed, they measured up to the standards Jesus had set for his disciples when he said, "...Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40b, NIV)
For a few days in November 2005, in the hurricane-ravaged state of Louisiana, I saw Jesus in the lives of two special people, two Salvation Army officers, two ambassadors for their Savior.
So let me say "thank you" to Majors Larry and Margo Thorson. Thank you for your witness, thank you for your unselfish at-titude, thank you for your dedication. When we next meet, be it in this world or in Glory, let me take your hands and call you my friends. Let me speak for the millions who have been aided by unnamed thousands of Salvation Army officers around the world: I never told you, but God has used you to touch my life.
Steve Garrington
Davenport, IA
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