This morning, while asleep, my dad went Home. He was 73 years old. He died of complications after being involved in a car accident last Monday.

Some health professionals considered my dad to be a medical miracle as - during the past two decades - he survived a wide variety of serious illnesses. True to his calling as an evangelist, during his frequent hospital stays he led many people to the Lord.

My father is well-known throughout Holland's Christian community. The horrors my dad had seen during World War II had caused him to be very angry at God. Often, he could be found standing on a downtown street corner, tearing up Bibles and yelling at God. At times he was jailed for "disturbing the peace." On one of those occasions, an angel appeared to him during the night. The next day, he let everyone know he had made peace with God, and had accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. Shortly after, he co-founded "Amsterdam for Christ," an organization that became widely known for its street evangelism work in Amsterdam (yes, some meetings took place on the same corners where he used to tear up Bibles.)

My dad was a servant, and as such was involved with many Christian organizations. He has done anything from organizing evangelistic campaigns to helping build a Christian coffee house in Amsterdam's Red Light district, and from encouraging people in private to speaking via one of Amsterdam's local Christian radio stations. A few years ago, Holland's Christian TV Network broadcast his life story.

Despite his many illnesses, my dad never complained. His was not a religion shaped by emotions or circumstances, but rather a rock-steady belief in the written Word of God. This is what he preached, whether on the street when healthy, from his specially built car once handicapped, or whispered from his hospital bed.

Whenever he found himself back in the hospital, he always said

"Either I'm going home, or I'm going Home."

This morning, he went Home - joining my younger sister who died two years ago. My mother, brother and myself expect to meet them there once we go Home as well.

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Love in Jesus,

Anton

(Hebrews 10:19-23 NIV) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, {20} by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, {21} and since we have a great priest over the house of God, {22} let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. {23} Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.