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Making others the focus for one week

23 June 2014
Making others the focus for one week

Whether taking someone out for coffee or making cupcakes for your local fire brigade, random acts of kindness will be performed all over the Australia Eastern Territory to celebrate OTHERS Week from 29 June to 6 July.

Anyone associated with The Salvation Army is invited to participate, with people encouraged to complete acts of service for their friends, neighbours, work colleagues or anyone they are in contact with.

“The territory is holding OTHERS Week to intentionally focus on caring for others in practical ways, without it being prescriptive or a particular program. This is the foundational culture of The Salvation Army,” explained Lieutenant-Colonel Simone Robertson, Salvos Caring Coordinator.

The word “Others” has been taken from a telegram that was thought to have been sent by General William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, in 1908. In those days, communication was by telegraph and you paid for each word that was sent. Times were tough and the Army was short of money so William Booth sent a one-word telegram, “Others”, for his annual Christmas message to Salvationists around the world.

William Booth hoped the one-word message would encapsulate the mission of their movement and inspire individuals to even greater acts of service.

“In living out the spirit of this telegram, we are all invited to participate in OTHERS week,” said Lieut-Colonel Robertson.

“It is an opportunity for the territory to highlight what it is already doing for others. It is an opportunity to be inspired and to be creative in reaching out to others.”

Acts of service include and are not limited to, paying for a coffee for the person behind you in line at a cafe or similar, making lunch for a homeless person or even someone at work, and taking someone to a doctor’s appointment.

For those who are cash or time poor, Lieut-Colonel Robertson and Major Karan Ross, Associate Salvos Caring Coordinator, both said there were many acts of kindness that individuals could complete during OTHERS Week.

These include writing a letter of encouragement to someone, smiling at someone you walk past in the street, mowing someone’s lawn, praying for people as they come to mind or simply taking time out to listen to a friend.

“OTHERS Week reminds us that caring is part of who we are; it may not be anything extra that we do,” said Lieut-Colonel Robertson.

Special OTHERS badges are available for $2 for individuals to wear as a conversation starter.

“It gives an opportunity for people to share their story, their spiritual journey, their reaching out for others in whatever way is natural for people to share,” said Lieut-Colonel Robertson.

The Salvos Caring team hope that people will find freedom through the acts of service completed during OTHERS Week.

A workbook called Soul Companions, written by Jonathan Browning, Salvation Army Welcome Home team leader, will also be available for OTHERS Week. The book provides the opportunity to journey with others as a group or individually by studying the biblical foundation for caring for others.

Along with encouraging individuals to complete acts of service, the Salvos Caring team would like people to share their stories with them. At the start of June, Salvos Caring launched a Social Media photo competition.

The team is asking individuals to be creative and submit a photo and caption by 30 June of what acts of service look like to them. You can email your photo to salvos.caring@ aue.salvationarmy.org and it will be uploaded on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. The competition winners will be decided by how many likes each photo receives. The Salvos Caring Facebook page is also full of ideas of what acts of kindness looks like. Go to facebook.com/salvoscaring

Resources are also available for individuals to use to promote OTHERS week. 

This article first appeared in the June edition of Pipeline.

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The Salvation Army acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.

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