Christmas angel in a bonnet
Christmas angel in a bonnet
A lady in a Salvation Army bonnet and a Christmas hamper left at the door of his childhood home was the catalyst to Dutchman Walter Vis leaving a sizeable donation to the Army later in life, which was able to fund a new training college for officers in Chile.
Walter Vis was a boy growing up in Amsterdam early last century. His family was so poor that one year it appeared that there might be no Christmas dinner. Walter’s mum was beside herself with despair.
A knock on the front door signalled a Christmas miracle for the little family – just as another miracle, on another Christmas, years into Walter’s future, would come to fruition.
Walter and his mother hurried to answer the door and, upon opening it, found a large hamper containing every kind of grocery needed for a Christmas feast. Walter’s eyes darted around as if by instinct to identify the deliverer. Vanishing behind the stairs of the block of flats, he spied a Salvation Army bonnet – a “Christmas angel, clad in navy blue”, as Walter later recalled. “‘That’s the lady from The Salvation Army,” Walter’s mum whispered.
Walter grew up to become a seaman, and his ship often sailed down the western coast of South America. Someone gave him an investment tip on one of his voyages to Chile – shares in the fledgling national oil company. No oil had yet been discovered, and the shares were very cheap. Walter made his initial investment into a bank in Valparaiso, adding more shares each time his ship returned to that port.
Fast forward to the early 1980s, and Walter is happily married and living in a retirement home in Maidenhead, south-east England.
Oil had indeed been discovered off the coast of Chile during his lifetime, and Walter’s dirt-cheap stock was now very valuable. Walter and his wife were living comfortably, but to get their affairs in order, they inquired about arranging for the oil shares to be transferred to England.
Facing a mountain of red tape, they decided it would be much easier to donate the shares to some worthy cause in Chile.
But which worthy cause? Walter never forgot about his bonneted Christmas angel and suggested to his wife that they consider The Salvation Army. “Was there even a Salvation Army in Chile?” they wondered aloud.
Oh, there most certainly is. For half a world away, at that very time, Lieutenant-Colonel (later General) John Larsson was Chief Secretary for the South America West Territory. One of the greatest prayer concerns for the Army in Chile, Peru and Bolivia was to secure an adequate training college.
In his autobiography, Saying Yes To Life, General Larsson later wrote: “The existing building was simply a terraced residential house that had been adapted as best possible, but was wholly inadequate. As a territory, we regularly prayed that the necessary resources might become available. We kept wondering when the answer would come.”
Sign of confirmation
Back in England, God was already at work. Walter and his wife awoke one Sunday morning to discover a 25-piece Salvation Army band from the nearby Maidenhead Corps holding an open-air meeting at the end of their street.
Walter ventured out to the street corner, chatted with the corps officer and asked the inevitable question. Within a day or two, the corps officer was in touch with Walter, giving him the Army’s address in Santiago.
For Walter and his wife, it was a sign of confirmation. The wheels for God’s strategic plan for a new South America West Training College were turning.
The Salvation Army in Chile would be the recipient of a ‘thank you’ that took Walter more than 50 years to send – a ‘thank you’ for a Christmas food hamper left on a Dutch family’s doorstep by an anonymous Salvationist.
Not long after, Lieut-Colonel Larsson came upon a crumpled, otherwise insignificant envelope in the morning mail at the territorial headquarters in the Chilean capital. He noticed the postage stamp was from England, and the address was written in long-hand.
“The letter was brief and matter-of-fact,” General Larsson later described. “He was writing to say that he had some oil shares in the national petroleum company of Chile and that these were deposited in a Valparaiso bank. He wished to donate the shares to The Salvation Army of Chile. And that was that.”
The transaction took some time to clear, but God’s perfect timing was apparent when Colonel Ruben Neusch, the territorial commander at the time, received a call from the bank to come and collect the shares. It was Christmas Eve.
One year later, the new training college opened. Mr and Mrs Walter Vis were invited to Chile for the opening ceremony but did not feel able to attend. However, their generous gift is now honoured by a plaque at the entrance hall of the Officer Training College.
Walter and his wife, however, accepted an invitation to meet for tea with General and Mrs Jarl Wahlström at The Salvation Army’s International Headquarters in London. General Wahlström expressed the Army’s gratitude for their donation.
But the real gratitude that Christmas was in the heart of Walter Vis, still thankful for an unknown Salvation Army woman who saved Christmas for him and his poor family in Amsterdam many years prior.
A Christmas box of food had blossomed into another yuletide miracle in South America, an answer to a territory’s fervent prayer, and yet another story unlocked from the Army’s archives.
* Frank Duracher is a former editor of the Warcry in Australia
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