This is my story - 45

45– Appointed the General Secretary

I was only about a month as the Training Principal, when much to our surprise we received a telegram from International Headquarters. It read “Lim, Salvation, Singapore – appointed General Secretary Singapore/Malaysia Command –signed General.” In those days urgent messages came by telegram and our telegraphic address was “salvation Singapore” To save costs ranks were omitted and only the surname was used! This was then followed by a letter sent by air mail. My appointment was to take effect 8th November 1973.

We followed a Dutch couple, Major and Mrs. Will Krommenhoek. They had served part of their five year term in Hong Kong as the General Secretary and Command Home League Secretary respectively before coming to Singapore to complete the rest of the time, each in the same capacity. Hence they were not long in their appointment here. They were quite talented and contributed much to the Command, but were rather forceful in their way of doing things. I always think of him as the Flying Dutchman! They were impatient to get things done so in their course of duty ruffled feathers! However they were good to us; soldiered at our Corps and helped out whenever requested to do so. He loved to play the piano, most of the time at double forte! He loved to lead the combined band. In later years we met them a couple of times during our visit to the Netherlands on holiday or official business. Their last appointment before retirement was the Zeist Corps, Netherlands where we had the privilege of conducting a weekend’s meetings.

When the announcement of our appointments was first made to the officers, reinforcement and national, most of them were delighted. At last the Army had appointed a national officer to serve as second in command. Our people were proud to have their own home grown folk as leaders. About the same time, two other neighbouring commands, Philippines and Hong Kong also had nationals appointed as General Secretaries. I received many congratulatory messages from all over the world. However, one lady reinforcement officer here, when she heard about my appointment cried, “Oh no!” Maybe she thought her husband should have got that appointment! No bad feelings, I respect her honesty and frankness in expressing her feelings.

Lieut. Colonel James Sloan suggested that we should make a quick tour of Malaysia. We drove straight to Penang. In those days there were no expressways, so we had to take the long slow route which took the whole day. From there we went to Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur before returning to Singapore for the public welcome conducted by the Officer Commanding on 16th December in the Thursday night United Holiness meeting held at Central Corps. There was no such thing as installation in those days. We used to have a weekly combined Holiness meeting on Thursday evening.

Running three appointments simultaneously – Central Corps, Training College and General Secretaryship was very demanding. However at the age of forty one and my wife thirty seven, we were in the prime of life and had plenty of energy! We had excellent co-operation from the officers. We had good officer neighbours living in the same compound and we knew they would keep an eye on our two older children – Gladys and Stephen when we went on tour. In the earlier part of our appointment we used to send Poh Chin to my mother at Toa Payoh for her to look after during the times when we were out of Singapore.

Major Frederika de Fretes offered to help us out with the Corps visitation every Wednesday evening. She travelled everywhere in Singapore by bus and the Corps refunded her bus fares. Other officers from the Homes were ever so willing to conduct meetings for us when requested.

My mornings were usually spent in the office at Headquarters, afternoons at the Training College and evenings at the Corps. There were Spiritual days and In Sundays when time was spent with the cadets.

Lieut. Colonel Sloan assured me he would press IHQ to send someone to take over the Central Corps. It took several months before Lieutenant and Mrs. Alan Hickman were appointed to succeed us as Corps officers of Central Corps. It must be quite a culture shock for these young Lieutenants who had been stationed in a tiny Corps in the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland to be appointed to Singapore Central Corps. They had much to learn about our Singapore way of doing things.

Their appointment freed us to give all our time to the Training College and Headquarters. We were able to visit more frequently other Corps and Homes in Singapore and Malaysia.

Lieut. Colonel and Mrs. James Sloan, Canadian officers were the Command Leaders. The Colonel was a real Christian gentleman. He and his wife always wanted to know about our Asian culture, customs and traditions. They were always very sensitive to local sentiments. We count it a privilege to work under these godly officers who taught us many things about Christian living and leadership.

My wife spent much of her time assisting Mrs. Lieut. Colonel Grace Sloan with the Women’s Ministries. She really worked hard to promote and improve the Home League programme. Mrs. Sloan was a very gentle gracious lady who did a lot for the Command.