Posted 605 days ago

Communities in Holland

from Frank Mulder, Time to Turn


Our new community house is almost finished! We have been painting and repairing for more than two weeks now, but this week we will finally move in. We decided our mission is simply to be there for each other and the neighborhood, like Jesus did. We don’t want to be a project organization; it will be challenging enough to live with each other and to learn to love each other.

The initial group is nine adults, aged 25-30, and a 1-year-old, Josha. The house has three apartments so we can live more or less on our own, but one apartment as a community room with a big kitchen. Our name is “Overhoop.” It’s a play on words—an abbreviation of “Overvecht” (the town we live in), and “hope.” (It also means something like “mixed-up” or “chaotic”, but we mean to show hope, of course).

Together we want to pray, be hospitable, make music, learn new cake recipes, and reach out to the needs of the neighborhood. We are thinking of having language lessons for children (almost all of them are immigrants), playing soccer with teenagers, and hosting a girls’ club together with Youth for Christ and tea mornings for women.

There are many communities in Holland. The biggest is Oudezijds 100, which consists of fifty people living in the red light district of Amsterdam. This is from their website:

People from every walk of life form the Oudezijds 100 community. In the inner city of Amsterdam, this community opens its doors to care for each other and others.

We offer help
Oudezijds 100 offers help to those on the fringe of society in the inner city of Amsterdam. Oudezijds 100 shelters people, shares its life with them, and helps them to live and function independently in society.

We believe
While a very diverse community, Oudezijds 100 sees and celebrates the unity of the Christian faith. The community is on an exciting journey to discover that which binds Christians together.

Spe Gaudentes: the Core Group
The heart of Oudezijds 100 is Spe Gaudentes (‘Rejoice in hope’). This is the core group of about ten people who carry the daily responsibilities for the life of the broader community in all its aspects. The members of the community make a life-long commitment to each other on the basis of their calling to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ in the inner city of Amsterdam.

Elim is another interesting community. They try to track all Christian communities in the Netherlands.

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