History of Vrije Zendingshulp

The worldwide revival which took place after the war as a result of William Branham's ministry, also reached the Netherlands and many were touched and blessed by the Gospel, through which it was vindicated that the Lord Jesus is the Same yesterday, today and forever.

The Evangelist T.L. Osborn visited the Netherlands in 1958, where more than 100.000 people were gathered together during some of his services on the "Malieveld" in The Hague. Tommy Osborn was called by God as a young man at one of William Branham's meetings. A few weeks later he visited William Branham at his home, to discuss his calling, after which he preached the Gospel around the world.

Br. and sr. van der Stel.

Together with many others, Harry van der Stel, the pastor of the church "Vrije Zendingshulp", was confronted with the Gospel at a tent meeting at the age of 12 years. However, only 14 years later in 1969 was the Lord able to move his heart again and this time he received the Holy Spirit after hearing the sermon "As The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest" by a pentecostal preacher in Rotterdam. Afterwards it appeared that this preacher had been in William Branham's home, where he said "one felt as if one was in heaven there".

Once br. van der Stel received the Dutch translation of William Branham's book titled "The Seven Church Ages". Convinced of the truths in this book, he sought more information and wrote a letter, in Dutch, to America. In response to this he received six tapes of sermons sent from America by br. Fred Sothmann. It then became apparent that the tapes were in the English language. Deeply touched by the blessing issuing fom the voice on the tape, he asked the Lord to solve the language problem. Although not highly educated, the Lord instantly enlightened his understanding of English and from henceforth he could understand and translate the tapes. At that time there was as yet no church in the Netherlands which supported William Branham's Message, and the Lord said to br. van der Stel "Open your home and play the tapes". In this way the church "Vrije Zendingshulp", as she is called today, originated.

History of the printing activities:

Cutting of the booklets around 1980

Besides the "Seven Church Ages" book, there were at that time few Dutch translations available of William Branham's sermons. Although he had no experience whatsoever with this sort of work, the Lord told br. van der Stel to translate and print William Marrion Branham's sermons into the Dutch language. The work was started in br. van der Stel's home in 1972 with the sermons on the book of Revelation by means of a simple stencil machine, whereby page by page had to be fed into the duplicator manually.

Shortly after the commencement of the translations Harry van der Stel spoke to Roy Borders, who at that time was chairman of "Spoken Word Publications" in Jeffersonville, U.S.A. He was quite taken with the initiative of publishing William Branham's sermons in the Dutch language and it was arranged that ten copies of every translation should be sent to br. Borders in Jeffersonville. Many of these Dutch translations have at one time or another found their way via "Spoken Word Publications" to Dutch speaking believers in Suriname.

The printing office of Vrije Zendingshulp

A group of believers from the church sacrifice their free time to translate, correct, do pre-press work, print and distribute, whilst equipment and other means can be obtained with financial support from the congregation of "Vrije Zendingshulp". In this way, with the help of the Lord, the translations can be published independently and without requests for financial support.

In the meantime more than 300 sermons have been translated and published into Dutch. Many of these sermons are put on computer files and can be read from this site. Moreover many tracts have been distributed in Dutch, as well as a film of William Branham including his life story. Also in Rotterdam publishing has been done in other languages both for Europe and overseas and, with the help of the Lord, this work is supported in other countries.

The congregation of "Vrije Zendingshulp" is thankful to the Lord that she, by means of the preaching of the Word and the distribution of the translations, can share in the task of the spreading of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in Holland and across the borders.