Major Jon-Erik and Captain Jessica Berkhoudt are corps officers in Newburyport, Mass., a coastal city with a population of less than 20,000, 35 miles northeast of Boston.

Major Jon-Erik Berkhoudt

My wife and I work very well together. She says that I’m great at building relationships in the community, but the truth is that I’m her wingman. I can go in to introduce myself and talk a bit about The Salvation Army, but then I say “Have you met my wife? She can tell you all about our programs and services!”

I’m not the handiest person when it comes to doing repairs in our home and at the corps. But we have a congregation that is happy to help us out. In that way, they show us year-round appreciation for our role as pastors.

When I was in officer training school, a prayer partner offered me a bottle of Coca-Cola, which I love drinking. He knew I was nervous and wanted to talk to me to help me go forward. Flash-forward 10 years later at a new appointment in Rhode Island. Coincidentally, that prayer partner was in Rhode Island, too, and left a present of four bottles of Coke at our doorstep. Occasionally, I’m still randomly offered a Coke bottle from someone at our corps. Simple gestures like those mean a lot to me.

Captain Jessica Berkhoudt

In Newburyport, you see affluence in the form of a busy boardwalk and yachts at the port, and sometimes it’s very hard for the people here who need help to ask for it. There is a component of struggle, sadness, and frustration in our neighbors right now, and they don’t know what to do with those emotions. Now add in health, marital, and financial difficulties on top of that, and whole families are affected.

Connecting with those families can be as simple as putting on our uniforms and bringing our children to a city youth event. That’s where we also meet all the other nonprofits in Newburyport. We refer people to one another, and we communicate well together, because no one agency can get it right all the time. Turning it into a competition doesn’t allow any of us to be good stewards of our talents and resources.

Our brains and emotions tend to overcomplicate God’s love. But His love is simple. It’s a simple love in a complicated world. That’s also the type of love we get from our ministry. We see it in the encounters and conversations that we have every day with them.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” —Ephesians 4:11–12

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and we’d like to thank our Salvation Army officers — pastors — for their faith, their dedication, and the hard work they do for their communities and the Lord.