Officers Serving Overseas – Major Peter and Captain Tara McGuigan (Sri Lanka)
The Australia Territory has more than 30 Aussie officers serving overseas. In an ongoing series, Global Focus is featuring many of these officers – who they are, where they’re serving, the joys and challenges they face and what life looks like for them in their unique corners of The Salvation Army world.
Major Peter and Captain Tara McGuigan, who previously served in Canberra in Government Relations and Public Relations respectively, have been stationed in the Sri Lanka Territory since November 2023. Tara, originally from Sri Lanka, speaks Sinhala and lived in the country until moving to Australia in 1988. The couple last served in the country from 2016 to 2018. It was recently announced that they will be relocating to International Headquarters in London in February 2025 for Peter to serve as Secretary for Communications and Tara as IHQ Chaplain and Liaison Officer for the City of London. Salvos Online journalist KIRRALEE NICOLLE caught up with them to find out how this most recent appointment in Sri Lanka has been and what their reflections are from their whirlwind year.
Since you’ve experienced living in Sri Lanka before, what has been different this time around? Have you noticed any significant changes?
Tara: For sure. The whole of Sri Lanka has embraced westernisation in many ways – the young people dress much more freely, listen to all kinds of music and in the digital space, the country has evolved greatly. When it comes to The Salvation Army, that kind of forward-thinking is also strong. Salvation Army officers here want progress, and they love to think outside the box.
Peter: In my role as Property Secretary this time around, I see the footprint of The Salvation Army everywhere. The Salvation Army was established here in 1883, and since then, it has spread right across the island. Some of the buildings are in the most remote places, where you need to travel through jungles and rice paddy fields to reach them. This appointment, I’ve seen how vital The Salvation Army is to the Sri Lankan community. Hundreds of thousands of people have been influenced by the community-based spiritual and physical nurture TSA has provided. Recently, we’ve seen the impact of clean water through new wells being dug and the installation of industrial filtration units in areas where previously, water quality was very low.
Tara: As a result of the well projects, we are seeing rates of chronic kidney disease dropping in those areas. Additionally, there have been other sustainable livelihood projects happening with government backing in areas that are normally anti-Christian and opposed to other NGOs.
Peter: Tara is also finding that in the digital space, people are very receptive to our good news stories. We are seeing tens of thousands, and up to 90,000 views on some boosted Facebook posts, featuring some excellent video content we managed to capture with a local team.
That’s great to hear how well things are tracking. What have been some of your more personal reflections from the time in Sri Lanka?
Peter: It’s been a reminder again that we feel called to international service. There’s something about our Anglo and Sri Lankan mix that seems to disarm and build relationships in a way that may not be so easy for others. We’ve worked very hard here, and our living conditions have been nothing like in Australia, but we feel a reward for ourselves in doing the work here. We feel it’s a huge privilege to serve, and we are people who believe in walking in the Spirit and relying on the strength God gives us, as Paul talks about in Galatians 5.
Tara: It’s easy to love the people here because they are so grateful for what we bring. They appreciate us and what we do, and often say we have made the sacrifice to come here because they recognise that we’ve given up many of the creature comforts Australian officers would normally have. That doesn’t mean things are always easy, and there are conflicts at times, but they know we care and want the best outcome for them.
We recently heard that you will be moving very soon to take up new roles at International Headquarters. What are some things you’ve learned in Sri Lanka that you will take with you into this new appointment?
Peter: I’ve learned to be very, very aware of cultures and backgrounds and not expect people to adapt quickly when they enter a new environment or cultural setting. We can’t apply our rules of communication in a rigid way to others. Rather, we must come with open hearts and hands to our relationships and with a posture of learning, respect, and adaptability ourselves.
Tara: Especially now that Peter and I are going into international roles with colleagues from across the globe, we have to be so cognizant of that and listen with culturally aware hearing.
Peter: The other thing we are learning is that to build good relationships with non-Salvationists, you have to be careful to use language that is inclusive and not TSA subculture speak. If we talk in language that only Salvationists understand, we alienate many who could be contributing to the cause. If we want to reach people, especially in a digital age, we need to go back to our roots of going into all the world and being accessible to all. I’ve practised that by using Sinhala words here when I communicate to demonstrate that I want to connect with the people here more deeply. The other thing I’m learning is to be more patient. As we all know, these are urgent days for sharing the Gospel. But amidst that urgency, I’m realising how important it is to be patient and sit with people.
Tara: Our deadlines can wait a few minutes! Particularly in a country like Sri Lanka, time and deadlines operate differently, so we’ve had to learn to be flexible with that too. Working here has really set us up well for the new roles we will take up, as Sri Lanka and Australia are so different from each other. It’s given us an ability to balance the complexity and beauty of both the Eastern and Western cultures, and I hope we can take that awareness with us to IHQ. We don’t take it for granted that our lives are now a very large tapestry that God is weaving in so many different colours.
