Conversation with
Jan Best
Part 2
What you are reading is a special trilogy about Jan and Anneke Best. How can you summarize their life story in one sentence? Sailor, sailor, missionary. There is a world of adventure behind that. Together they share inspiring stories about their work in the ports on seagoing vessels. Special moments of faith and grace that they experienced as a couple.
Sea, love, and faith
Loneliness on board
What touches Jan most in his contact with sailors is their deep loneliness. “The loneliness, and also the realization that their families—almost all of them have families—are on the other side of the world and depend on their income. Even though they can be in contact every day by phone, that distance is a huge problem.”
The Ukrainians in particular are stuck. “Their wives and children are in bomb shelters, in the middle of the war. They have small children and cannot leave the ship, because then they would be in breach of contract and would have to pay a fine. If they do go to their country, they have to join the army. They are stuck on all fronts.”
And then Ukrainians and Russians are sitting together on a ship. “The enemies are in the same place. But they just work together.” They don’t expect people to come and pray for them. “They show you their two- and three-year-old children. And then they say: we’re just completely stuck. They can’t go anywhere. They are trapped in their jobs, in their own world, 24 hours a day.”
How many sailors have confessed their sins to him? The last captain he visited said: “I have led a very strange life. With drink, with women, and with gambling. I gambled away a fortune. Until God grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, turned me around 180 degrees, and said: and now, from now on, you will follow Me.” Now that captain holds meetings with the crew members on board when they have time on the ocean. “They already know it themselves,” says Jan. “They come to me themselves because they want to get rid of it.”
God’s guidance through life
When Jan looks back on his life, he sees God’s hand everywhere. “At the end of my life, I have come to the conclusion that my entire life course had already been determined by God. He already knew how it would unfold, and He didn’t just put me on earth for no reason, but with a real purpose.”
He refers to Galatians 1:15-16, where Paul writes that God had set him apart from his mother’s womb. “I don’t want to compare myself to Paul at all, but what is written here also applies to me. He had already determined in advance that I would go sailing in order to get to know the Gentiles, to gain experience, so that I could apply it at the end to bring His message.”
Those voyages, that experience as a captain, those years at Schiphol Airport—it was all preparation. To ultimately stand on the quay at IJmuiden with a Bible in his hand, as a servant, a slave of Christ. No longer the captain with absolute power, but the humble messenger of the gospel.
A family that follows
Jan and Anneke have been married for 56 years. They have five children, all married, most of whom also have children. Nine grandchildren so far. “We are very happy with that.”
And the best thing is: “I am very grateful that all our children have accepted the Lord Jesus. They are also raising their children with the Bible in hand. We are very grateful for that.”
Gratitude and wisdom
Has Jan become wiser in his 81 years? He doubts it. “I often ask myself if that is the case. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve become any wiser. Sometimes I think I can assess how something is or how relationships are. But in hindsight, it turned out to be very different.”
But what he has learned is gratitude. “I am very grateful that I can be sure that I am saved by the blood of Jesus. I am very grateful that I have Anneke as my wife, that she has been able to stay with me since she was eighteen. And I am very grateful for our children, that they are all following the same path as us.”
He still worries. About Anneke’s health, for example. They have had various promises, words from God spoken by people, that everything would be all right. “I still believe in that. I trust that He knows what He is doing and that everything will be all right in the end.”
The Bible remains central
If there is one message Jan wants to convey, it is this: stay in the Word. “Stay with it. I’ve had rows and rows of books full of reflections. I don’t do anything with them anymore. I really only focus on this.” He points to his Bible.
The Word continues to amaze him. Like that discovery about the “wind of the day” in Genesis, when God walked through the Garden of Eden—not the cool of the evening, but a time reference. Three o’clock in the afternoon, the moment when sin entered the world. The same time when Israel had to slaughter the Passover lamb, between two evenings. The same time when the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, died. “If you don’t know that, you just read over it,” says Jan. He beams as he tells this story. This is what preoccupies him, what moves him, what amazes him.
Jan is now 81 years old. His heart still beats faster when he smells the sea air. He is still a sailor at heart. But he has found his destiny on the quay, with a Bible in his hand, as a servant of Christ.
“God has His own ways,” he says. “God’s ways are incomprehensible and not always predictable in that respect.”
But one thing has become certain in his long life: that call he felt to the sea as a five-year-old boy, those wild years as a young sailor, that career at Schiphol Airport, that disappointment that became an opportunity—it was all preparation. Preparation to ultimately stand where he stands now.
Sailor, sailor, missionary. Three words that sum up a whole life. A life in which God grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, pulled him out of the world, and put him on the Rock. A life in which a woman became the means for a total turnaround. A life in which disappointment turned out to be preparation. A life in which the sea called him, but the harbor became his destination.
And every morning at seven o’clock, he gets out of bed, talks to the Lord, asks for a message. And every day he receives an answer. After 81 years, he knows: God did not put him on earth for no reason. He really did have a purpose.
He has found that purpose. On the ships in IJmuiden, with a Bible in his hand, telling about the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. To captains and sailors, to Russians and Ukrainians, to Hindus, Muslims, and atheists. To men who are stuck in their loneliness, who struggle with their sins, who long for home.
And then he tells them about Philippians 4:5-7. About the Lord who is near. Who is coming back. Who gives peace. Who grabs you by the scruff of your neck and turns your life around.
As He did with a young sailor, born 81 years ago in Koog aan de Zaan, who only knew that he wanted to go to sea. And who now knows that the sea has prepared him. For this moment. For this calling. For this destination.
@Wim van Putten