Personally, I come from a large family and when I was eleven years old my parents emigrated to Brazil. Two years later we returned to Holland penniless. Until I was ²¹, I was part breadwinner as a milkman in Gorinchem.

Then I started traveling around the world and ended up in Israel. After the many experiences during the war in Israel (1973), I traveled alone into the desert to think about the meaning of life. It was exactly at that time that I found my little Bible in my backpack. My mother had put it in there. By reading the Word of God I came to Galatians five verse one which touched me: So that you may be truly free, Christ has made you free, so stand firm and do not be enslaved again. Jesus and freedom jumped off the page. It was a struggle to give Jesus the wheel of my life. It did eventually happen and the best decision I ever made. From day one I began to talk to many who came my way about the new life with the Lord Jesus. I was in the desert then and for most of the next eight years I stayed in a cabin in Sinai. The Lord always took care of me and provided me with Bibles and everything I needed to reach people. After Sinai was given back (1982) to Egypt, I went to a Bible school in England as a student. Three years later I became a student counselor there and set apart to preach His Word.

It was during this full life, that Linda suddenly came into my life.

She had become a widow after a 31-year marriage. Her first husband Sjaak miraculously came to personal faith just before he died I heard from her parents that Linda had become a widow and so I called her to offer my condolences. We did not stop there and five years later we also got married. Linda was born in Indonesia and at the age of six she came to the Netherlands. Linda was eighteen when she married Sjaak. Two beautiful daughters came out of their marriage. It was a day after our marriage that I became a grandfather and two years later even about grandfather. Our life is a series of new starts. We are already retired and therefore we are able to go on mission trips together. We visit prisons in Africa and provide them with Bibles. Furthermore, we serve mothers with their children and send youth from the slums to a youth camp. Here the Lord has also opened wonderful doors: at Family 7, Trans World Radio and Groot Nieuws radio. We are so thankful that with the help of others we may serve you or yours with this website. In the Lord Jesus we are united.

Blessing from Johan & Linda.