A lifetime of service
In January 2024, Defence Force serviceman Major David Ackroyd, DSD, completed 50 years of continuous service with the New Zealand Army. A year later, he received the United Fire Brigade’s 50-Year Service Medal for five decades as a volunteer firefighter. David also serves on the Upper Hutt Salvation Army’s leadership team, having been part of the corps for more than 25 years. Service to others is the foundation of his life’s work.
I was born and raised on farms around rural Canterbury, with my family eventually settling in Rolleston. I’m the oldest of four, and as children we all went to Sunday school at the local Anglican church with Mum.
When I started high school, I had to catch the New Zealand Army bus from Rolleston. One day the bus driver asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I told him I wanted to be a chef. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘I’ll take you to the recruiting office and you can have a look at some pamphlets.’ Next thing I knew, I was applying for the military! I was just shy of 16 years old. I went straight from a Hagley High School uniform into a New Zealand Army uniform. I remember Dad saying, ‘Son, if you join the Army you’ll have a job for life’. I don’t think either of us imagined that would actually happen—but here I am. I’ve served in catering and logistics and even served the Queen. I’ve been deployed to Antarctica, East Timor and Singapore. Service has been my life
and it’s been good.
While there was certainly peer pressure and stigma, I remember being among a group of about 20 or 30 cadets—out of roughly 170—who stepped forward for church. When I went into the regular forces, I was on shift work and church became pretty hit and miss for the next 10 years. But then I deployed to East Timor.
Faith rekindled
Timor was a very Catholic country, and as we travelled around there was extensive damage to government buildings and homes, but the churches were generally left untouched. The Indonesians were Muslim, but they rarely damaged the churches, and the Timorese maintained their religious practice. On Sundays you’d see people walking to church dressed in their finest clothes. Their faith gave them a different perspective on what was happening—it got them through. That really impacted me. Since then, whenever I’ve been in a tough predicament, I find myself praying and thinking back to the Timorese. If they could get through what they faced, then so can I. Faith makes a real difference.
When I returned to New Zealand, I discovered that my wife, Margaret, had started attending Upper Hutt Salvation Army. She’d been invited to home league and then to church. That’s when I met Majors Darrell and Lorraine LePine—22 years ago!
I’m now on the leadership team and I cook for the monthly men’s breakfast. Serving is simply part of who I am and that’s why I’m in the Army, the volunteer fire brigade and now The Salvation Army. I enjoy helping others and I don’t like seeing people suffer.
The cost of service
I love the saying, ‘We’re at our best when you’re at your worst’. When I went to Timor, the people were
at their worst and we did our very best to support them. As a firefighter, when you arrive at someone’s home and it’s on fire, they’re at their worst—and again, we work hard to do our best. It’s the same with The Salvation Army: serving people in practical ways as best we can. But helping people can become a challenge, because when I know I can help, I just put my hand up. And the truth is, there are a lot of people who don’t. There’s a cost when you choose to serve. Families suffer when someone chooses to do wrong—but they also sacrifice when someone chooses to do good.
When my youngest son Michael turned 18, he said, ‘Dad, do you realise you’ve been away for half my life?’ I sat there quietly, thinking that couldn’t be right. But as I reflected, it dawned on me that he was right. There really is a cost to doing the work no one else puts their hand up to do. I don’t think the wider public fully appreciates that. Across the helping and caring professions, sacrifice is constant and it’s not easy finding the balance.
Prayer when under pressure
When I was in Timor, there were some really challenging moments, including one situation where I prayed, God, I really need Your help here. As a logistics specialist, I was working with a group of Timorese contractors. It fell to me to communicate that they were no longer needed. They hadn’t been paid yet, so they took some of the trucks we needed to transport people. I had to try to resolve the situation with men who were armed with machetes. I was quietly praying and trusting God that nothing would escalate. I sat with them for 20 minutes until they calmed down and agreed to return the trucks. Afterwards, they sought me out to help resolve their pay issues—and I was able to help.
Looking back, while something good was achieved that day, I certainly didn’t achieve it alone. God was with me—He had my back.
