wfn.org | [APD] Life and work of Salvationist 'Major Bosshardt' recognised in Dutch commemorative stamp set

[Christian B. Schäffler <APD@stanet.ch>]

[APD] Life and work of Salvationist 'Major Bosshardt' recognised in  Dutch
commemorative stamp set

>June 20, 2008

>Adventist Press Service [APD]

>Christian B. Schaeffler,

>Editor-in-chief

>Fax +41-61-261 61 18

><mailto:APD@stanet.ch> APD@stanet.ch

<http://www.stanet.ch/APD> http://www.stanet.ch/APD

>CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

Life and work of Salvationist 'Major Bosshardt' recognised in Dutch
commemorative stamp set

Utrecht/The Netherlands. [APD]   A set of nine postage stamps has been
produced in The Netherlands to celebrate the life of the country's most
famous Salvationist ? and one of its best-loved citizens ?  Lieut-Colonel
Alida M. Bosshardt OF.

Ms. Bosshardt joined the Salvation Army in 1934 and was instructed to  work
with women in the city's Red Light District shortly after the end of  World
War II.  The colonel died in June 2007 - 94 years old - after a lifetime
serving the poor and needy. She spent more than 50 years working for the
Salvation Army and established a centre in Amsterdam's Red Light  District
for prostitutes and drug addicts.

The nine stamps, each worth 44 eurocents, feature a variety of  photographs
or illustrations of 'De Majoor' ['The Major'] ? as she was known even  after
promotion to lieut-colonel ? in her famous Salvation Army bonnet.

Royal TNT Post, the main mail delivery service in The Netherlands, has  also
produced a special booklet which includes the new stamps and many more
photographs of Lieut-Colonel Bosshardt through the years. A biography of  the
colonel is included in Dutch and English and makes it very clear that  her
inspiration to work with the poor and dispossessed came from her love of
God. The front cover includes ? again in two languages ? the motto  by which
De Majoor led her life: 'To serve God is to serve people and to serve  people
is to serve God.'

Among Ms. Bosshardt's many life time awards were a knighthood in the
Netherlands' Order of Oranje Naussau in 2004. The Israeli Holocaust  museum
gave her a "Righteous Among the Nations" award for helping Jewish  children
during the war, often taking them on her bicycle to homes where they  would
go into hiding.

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>http://www.stanet.ch/apd/news/1831.html

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