Once I was attending an ecumenical gathering in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and one of the preachers exclaimed, ‘It takes the whole village to train a child.’

When I evaluate the modern Dutch society this could be applied to many aspects of that society, especially in the line of faith and religion. If the seed of faith is not planted in the hearts of the children then faith will not sprout in the minds of modern generation.

The words of change swept Netherlands in 1960’s. The separation of Religion and State (politics) opened a new chapter in their history. The seminaries dried up within a few years, the attendance in churches dwindled day by day. It affected our Society of the Divine Word (Latin: Societas Verbi Divini, abbreviated SVD), popularly called Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries) congregation soon.

The seminaries and properties were sold out. The SVD Province in the Netherlands decided to close down. But late in the 1990s the province decided to invite foreign missionaries at the request of the SVD Generalate (head quarters), Rome, to venture into new avenues of evangelization, especially working with the migrants. Now the time has dawned to revive the Church with new methods of evangelization.

It has been two and half years since I landed in the Netherlands. The land is very rich in butter, cheese and tulips. It is a beautiful country with canals and systematic organization at all levels. It took me sometime to understand the cultural differences and let it sink in. Language is the mainstream which connects the people and it took me almost one and half year to learn the language.

It has been a journey of challenge and successes for the last two and half years. I have been working with the Filipino-migrants community along with the Dutch community. The SVD province NEB (Netherland-Belgium) is in the process of revamp. The province has around 75 members out of which 60 are retired and the rest are from other countries. The province gives more importance to work with migrants, attending to their pastoral needs. We also try to help out in the dioceses of Netherlands. Of course we are also working with the Dutch church.

It is a great task for us to attract the youth towards the church and to give Jesus to them. Most of the youth are found, especially in the weekends in the pubs. Can the church move towards the pubs? This is the million dollar question running through my mind for some time now.

There are around 65 to 70 percent of the population in search of God or meaning in life. It will be an uphill task for us to give meaning to their lives through Jesus. We are aware of the fact that after winter there comes the spring with new fragrance to the surroundings.

We hope and pray that one day there will be spring in acceptance Christ’s love.

(The author is Indian Divine Word Missionary currently working in the Netherlands, Europe mostly with migrants)