(reading time 2 minutes)
Students who do the preaching master's in Apeldoorn usually become pastors in an existing Dutch congregation. There, the focus of the work is often in the congregation itself: giving catechisms to the youth of the church, visiting the sick and the elderly, in short: caring for and working within the congregation. Dominik de Bruijne had a different vocation.
Mission church
When Dominik had to do his internship, he asked the teachers if they had a place abroad. Professor Selderhuis has many foreign contacts and pointed to Germany. A placement was eventually found in Schwerin, where Dominik became involved with youth work. After completing his internship, he continued to work there.
Through the national church under which Schwerin falls, he was asked last year if he wanted to move further into Germany after his training. There is a small missionary congregation in Ribnitz-Damgarten, in former East Germany.
The Bridge
The congregation is called 'Die Brücke' and wants to build a bridge to those people with the Good News about Jesus through contacts with contemporaries and locals.
The population of north-east Germany first suffered badly from National Socialism from the 1930s onwards. The population also went through the misery of the war and had to deal with the totalitarian regime of East Germany after World War II. It was and is not easy to live out of the Gospel in that part of the world.
But from Die Brücke they are trying to bridge the gap, and in doing so they could use Dominik's services, the church leadership believed.
Broadcast from Ermelo
It was a bit of a puzzle to see how this could be done, but through good cooperation with deputies of foreign churches, we managed to get it done from the missionary side that the church of Ermelo could call him.
Saturday 1 June was a celebration in Ermelo, as they got a new pastor there, who they then immediately sent out to go to Ribnitz-Damgarten to work there. Dominik was confirmed by his father, Rev Henk de Bruijne, who had retired a short time before. And the people from Ribnitz-Damgarten, who were present at the service, expressed their great joy at having a young pastor who chooses to take the unusual path: not starting in a quiet, small congregation, but immediately in a mission situation.
