Tag: Vennekerk
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Home
Read More: HomeFeature: This week’s story is about our van der Laan reunion worship service, the summer of 2023, in the now abandoned Vennekerk, the church where my parents came of age.
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Vennekerk 2023
Read More: Vennekerk 2023This is the story of our van der Laan reunion worship service, the summer of 2023, in the now abandoned Vennekerk, the church where my parents came of age.
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Vennekerk 2023
Read More: Vennekerk 2023Dit is het verhaal van onze van der Laan reüniedienst, de zomer van 2023, in de Vennekerk, de kerk waar mijn ouders volwassen werden.
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A Good Friday
Read More: A Good FridayGood Friday morning. I climbed the spiraling, creaking stairs to the organ loft, young and inexperienced, I needed to practice for the evening service.
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Another Good Friday
Read More: Another Good FridayHerman de Jong’s prose story of “A Good Friday” has been with me for as long as he’s been gone — twenty-one years now. I wish I had known it before then, just as I wish I could have talked to him about it.
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Nog een Goede Vrijdag
Read More: Nog een Goede VrijdagHerman de Jong’s prozaverhaal “Een Goede Vrijdag” is me bijgebleven zolang hij er niet meer is – eenentwintig jaar nu. Ik wou dat ik het eerder had geweten, net zoals ik wou dat ik er met hem over had kunnen praten.
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Een Goede Vrijdag
Read More: Een Goede VrijdagGood Friday morning. I climbed the spiraling, creaking stairs to the organ loft, young and inexperienced, I needed to practice for the evening service.
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Church
Read More: ChurchMy parents went to churches where sermons lasted 1½ hours, but when I grew up they had been shortened to appr. 45 minutes. Sometimes men would suddenly stand up in the middle of a sermon. They began to feel sleepy, and this was the way to stay awake. Other men would enter the church with…
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Organ Playing
Read More: Organ PlayingI have no recollection that I played much with my siblings, Kees, Truus and Sense. I imagine they had their own friends as I had mine. Of course, they were 5 and 4 years older. All of us had organ lessons, but I was the only one who took lessons for over one year. My…
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The War Years
Read More: The War YearsChildren usually are not interested in world politics. When I was 8 years old I didn’t know Hitler was planning to conquer all of Europe. Of course, I had seen pictures of this beastly man, but only thought he was funny with his mustache and straight hair. On May 5, early in the morning our…