Since February 2025, Rev. Bart Visser has been given one day a week off to work as a street pastor in Leeuwarden. He gives us an insight into his work.
Seeing the other person
So what exactly do you do? That’s the question most people ask me when they hear that I’m a street pastor. The shortest answer is the same as the one I give to people on the street when they ask what I’m here for: “Is it OK if I stay here for a bit?”
Street ministry is about being there. Being there for people who sometimes have no one else. Often, all sorts of support workers are involved, and they frequently devote themselves heart and soul to helping these people. But is there also someone who is simply there? Someone who sits down beside you with no other aim than to really see you for a moment. Someone who keeps coming back even if you don’t change. In other words: someone who is not only present, but also faithful – someone who keeps coming back.
Three remarkable encounters in the Bible
Being faithfully present is a commandment from the Bible. At the same time, your work as a street pastor sometimes helps you to understand the Bible better. I experienced this a while ago when I preached on Acts 16. I have long considered this passage to be one of the most fascinating in the book.
Paul has just taken a major step by sailing to Philippi. He sets foot on European soil, but he is not welcomed with open arms there. He was used to going to the synagogue first wherever he went, but there was none here. Here, everything really starts from scratch. You then read how Paul has three remarkable encounters, in which the power of the Gospel becomes evident – God’s power at work in people and through people.
The first encounter is with Lydia. A wealthy, successful woman who was not content with mere prosperity. Paul meets Lydia at a place of prayer by the river, and when she hears the Gospel from Paul, God opens her heart.
The second encounter is with a young slave girl. It is almost impossible to imagine a greater contrast to Lydia. This young woman is poor, and what she does have – a spirit of divination – is used by others to exploit her and enrich themselves. Paul frees her from the power of the unclean spirit by commanding it to leave her.
The third encounter is with the jailer of the prison where Paul and Silas end up. He experiences something of God’s awesomeness and love, on the one hand through an earthquake and, on the other, through the fact that the prisoners do not make their escape. The jailer asks what he must do to be saved. Paul proclaims the Gospel to him, and he and his household are baptised.
Let’s look after one another
We read that Lydia welcomed Paul into her home. Given her circumstances, she must have had a spacious house – large enough to hospitably accommodate Paul and his companions whilst they were carrying out their work in Philippi. The jailer also offers his services. He tends to Paul and Silas’s wounds and welcomes them into his home, where he serves them a sumptuous meal.
Here you can immediately see something that is essential to the church: coming together for the proclamation of the Word, but also to care for one another. Being hospitable. Sharing what you have. Eating and drinking together. All of this combined ensures that, as a church, you can celebrate your faith with great joy, as so beautifully expressed in verse 34. Celebrating together that God is good to us.
Freedom?
It suddenly struck me that we’re not told anything more about what happened to that little slave girl. For years she had been in the grip of an evil spirit and exploited. How was she supposed to carry on after her liberation?
Experience shows that it is very difficult to live freely once you have been freed from something. Because those are really two different things. People who have spent years in an unhealthy relationship of dependency very often fall back into that behaviour. Not because they want to, but simply because they don’t know how to do anything else.
Marriage when reconciliation fails
I suddenly read the fact that nothing is said about that girl as an open question to the church. A church where wealthy Lydias and practical people like that prison guard share their homes, food and care with others. That is wonderful and good. But as a church, are we also there for someone like that girl?
That requires more than just getting together, because she’s unlikely to come to church any time soon. She needs people to come to her. Someone who wants to be with her and who keeps coming back, even if the road to recovery is a very long one. Even if recovery never comes, because her life is too shattered. Will we still be there for her then? Will we still be faithful then?
God never lets go
That’s street ministry. That’s what a street minister does: being there, seeing people, being a constant presence.
I am seconded to this work by a local council, but I do not do this alone. I am employed by the Leeuwarden Street Ministry Foundation, which is supported by several churches. Through this organisation, we offer empathy, prayer and, where possible, practical help.
We do this to help people realise that God continues to see us, no matter how broken life may be. He is there. He is faithful. He does not let go. That is who God is. He can show this to people without our help, in extraordinary ways. But usually He does so through ordinary people, like us.
Do people on the street experience it that way too? Surely not always, but sometimes they do. That leads to a conversation about pain, hope, grief and faith. Sometimes I also pray with someone – for guidance and trust, strength and courage.
It’s not as though I’m always the one giving. Just as often, I receive something from the other person, because they say or do something that blesses me. But it’s not about the measurable extent of the impact. It’s all about being faithfully present. Because God is faithfully present. For me, for everyone else.
