Mike Duffy
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Christar
1500 International Pkwy Ste 300
Richardson, TX 75081-2339
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His Story
Mike became a Christian in 1976, the second day of College at Truman State University. After college he went on to Dallas Seminary and earned a Masters in Theology in 1988. He became a Fireman/Paramedic in Dallas from 1989-1993.
In 1994 Mike went to Holland with Christar as a missionary to reach Hindustani immigrants.
The people we work with were originally from India. However when slavery was abolished, Holland got people from India, Indonesia and China to work in the sugar cane fields located in Dutch Guiana. In 1975 Dutch Guiana became independent and became Surinam. At that time people could choose to stay in Surinam or come to Holland as citizens. About half of the population came to Holland and they have continued to come since that time.
We started having meetings on Sundays in 1996 with some people who came to Christ. We have grown through the years slowly, but spiritually we have several people that are mature well grounded believers. We did not have men for the longest time but we now have a men’s group of 5 including two missionaries. One of the men is very mature and another one has been growing and leads the music in our services on Sundays. 80% of the people we work with are Hindu and 20% of the population is Muslim.
We used to meet in our homes but in the last few years we have rented a room in a Baptist church. Our main strategy is making contacts and friendships with Hindustanies and telling them about Christ. A major factor in this is the people in our church reaching out to their families and friends. They have started doing that which has greatly increased our witness as a church.
Latest News
Independence Day in Holland
In May of 1940 Holland was taken over by Germany after 5 days of fighting. Holland had been neutral for a hundred years. They had one tank and their guns were old. Germany took them over and then had Holland’s considerable re-sources available for their use. Corrie ten Boom and her family were arrested for hiding Jewish people in their home in Haarlem. Corrie’s father died within 10 days of being arrested and her sister, Betsie, died in Ravensbrück concentration camp in December 16, 1944. Corrie ten Boom was released in late December 1944 from Ravensbrück through a clerical error. She went on to write many books among which is, “The Hiding Place.” God used Corrie in a great way in the concentration camp. She said God showed Himself true in the deepest pit of hell. After the war she shared her story with many churches. Eindhoven was freed on Sept 20th 1944 and the rest of Holland was freed on May 5th 1945. May 5th is independence day in Holland. I have grown in my appreciation of WWII as a result of living here. I wish that we celebrated the end of WWII or even D-day June 6th in the US. I often think of the result of that war and what was at stake. Life would have been much different if Germany had won. During the month of May, Holland has many documentaries on WWII as well as WWII films. It used to last all month, but it seems that it has been shortened in recent years. My co-workers and I celebrate it and watch Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Patton as well as other WWII films during that month. We were able to go to the 75th reunion of D-day on June 6th 2019 before Covid hit. It was really incredible. We met a lot of nice people. It was so strange looking at Omaha beach now and realizing what happened there during the war. My admiration for the soldiers who fought in WWII has only grown over the years
De Ontmoeting
We have been going through 1 Thessalonians on Sunday mornings. I just finished it last Sunday. We will be starting 2 Thessalonians this week. Chapters 4 and 5 have a lot of practical passages on general sanctification. I was encouraged going through 1 Thes 4:1-8 one morning. It is an extended passage on sexual immorality. One of the issues we deal with in Holland is that many people who visit our church are living with someone. In Suriname, Indian people used to have arranged marriages. Even as recent as 30 years ago people in small towns did not live with someone before marriage. However, this has changed even there. People in Holland tend to live together as opposed to getting married. We have people who visit our church and come regularly that live with someone. I asked our Elder Sherwin once why they do not just marry. He said it is their culture. God used the passage in 1 Thessalonians to convict a lady who visits our church that she is living in sin. It gives many reasons not to commit sexual immorality. Most of the time fornication is condemned in one passage by the use of the word porneia. But this is an extended discussion of sexual immorality. The word “porneia” refers to all sex outside of marriage, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, beastiality etc. In verse 3 Paul says that our sanctification is God’s will for us, that is they we abstain from sexual immorality, (porneia). Verse 4 encourages us to have self discipline and maintain control of our own body. We are not to live in the passion of lusts like the Gentiles who do not know God, v. 5. The Greeks and Romans were very immoral in that their religion encouraged temple prostitution and orgies at their religious feasts. It is not clear if anyone was engaging in this behavior in the church but his extended treatment indicates that it was a major issue in their culture. It struck me how much our cultures have in common. In v. 6 to commit adultery is to defraud the innocent party. Fornicating defrauds the other person as well. The word means to exploit. We do this by bringing someone else in on our sin. Verse 7 says that God has called us to holiness and not uncleaness. God owns our body. Verse 8 ends by pointing out that if we reject what he says, we do not reject what man says but what God says. God has given us His Holy Spirit who lives inside us. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We ought not use the body that God owns to perform sin.
In Christ,
Mike Duffy
PRAYER REQUESTS
- 1. That I would love the Lord and obey Him.
- 2. That our believers would grow in Christ.
- 3. That we would meet people who are open to want to know more about Christ.
- 4. That Soenita-D, Toby, Soenita-S, Ravi, Santosh, Vikash, Manisha, Rikash, Waldo, Michael, Stanley, Kasper, Marketa, Arjan, Siefra, Menodj, Haisnan, and Saïd would come to know Christ.
- 5. For wisdom in preaching and teaching God’s Word.
- 6. That God would use His Word to convict us all of our sin.
PRAISES
- For the sacrifice of those who fought in WWII so that we have been able to live in freedom.
- That 1 Thessalonians went well.
- That the lady saw that living with someone is sin.