Partner with Anglican Missions in North Holland
This article was originally given as a talk at the 2025 SAMS retreat. It is posted here with the author’s permission.
What causes people who have known the power and presence of the living God to stop following Him?
According to Moses, it begins with complacency…when God’s people forget to honour Him as the Father who lovingly formed and watched over them and instead relegate the Almighty Creator and Saviour to the sidelines of their lives.
That is not only ancient Israel’s story; it is Europe’s story. Once the cradle of the Reformation, Europe is now a mission field. The Netherlands, where Louise and I serve, is a vivid example of what happens when nations that once knew God slowly forget Him.
The Current Reality in the Netherlands
Let me paint the picture:
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the Netherlands, especially in urban centres like Amsterdam.
Evangelical Christians are only about 4% of the population, most of them far from the province where we work.
Religiosity in general is in decline: in 2010, 55% of the Dutch considered themselves religious; today it is closer to 42%.
Young people are drifting furthest. Among 18- to 25-year-olds, two-thirds say they are non-religious. For many, confessing Christ feels like committing social suicide.
Even among those who call themselves Christian, most rarely attend church.
In short: the Netherlands is religiously plural, spiritually restless, and largely post-Christian.
Why North Holland?
Now, let’s narrow the lens to where we live and serve.
North Holland is home to Haarlem, Alkmaar, Hoorn—cities once shaped by Christian faith. Today it is one of the least churched provinces in the country. Churches are few and far between. Many historic buildings are now museums, cultural centres, or cafés—symbols of a faith remembered but not lived.
On a Sunday, you may find only a handful of elderly worshippers. Meanwhile, our neighbours and our children’s friends are growing up without ever hearing the gospel in any meaningful way.
The Strategic Need
So why does this matter? Because if the gospel is good news for all, it is still good news for Europeans—who, though they once carried it to the ends of the earth, are now themselves in desperate need of hearing it again.
Loneliness is a growing problem, especially among the young, closely tied to anxiety and depression. Suicide is now the leading cause of death among teens and young adults. In 2024, the Netherlands recorded over 300 suicides under the age of 30—a rise of one-third in a decade.
Mission in Europe is not about nostalgia for a Christian past. It is about an urgent eternal need: millions living without Jesus, seeking meaning in secularism, materialism, or other faiths, and increasingly shaping global culture with those values.
Our Role and Your Partnership
We serve in North Holland because we believe God has placed us in this spiritually dry soil to plant seeds of hope and raise up disciple makers. We often meet people who are spiritually curious but biblically illiterate. Young people who have never opened a Bible. Families searching for belonging in everything but Christ. They believe everything, and nothing.
We cannot change this landscape alone. But we also cannot ignore it. And this is where your partnership matters. Your support is not just “keeping missionaries on the field.” It is investing in re-evangelizing a province, a nation, and ultimately a continent that has forgotten its first love.
So let me return to my opening question: What causes people who have known the power and presence of the living God to stop following Him?
It happens slowly—through compromise, complacency, and forgetting.
But what can bring them back? The faithful witness of God’s people, proclaiming again that Jesus Christ is Lord—not only of history, not only of other nations, but of the Netherlands, of North Holland, of every street, family, and heart where His name has been forgotten.
We believe God is not finished with Europe. We believe revival is possible. But revival begins when we take seriously the call to go, to give, to pray, and to serve.
That is why we are here: to ask you to join us, so that together we can ensure the gospel is not just Europe’s past but Europe’s future.
Johann and Louise Vanderbijl have been missionaries with SAMS since 2014. Johann's missionary roots trace back to his Great-Grandfather - an Anglican missionary in Southern Africa. The Lord revealed His love and purpose to Johann in 1980 through the witness of an unrelated missionary. Since then, his personal salvation impressed upon him the need to share with others the wonderful gift given to him, especially those lost in their own misfortunes. Johann and Louise met while they were both serving in Northwestern Namibia. Together, they try to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness in whatever God has called them to do. Since Spring 2022, Johann and Louise have been serving at Christ Church Heiloo in the Netherlands.
