In conversation with
Bob Hofmans
A life of grace
Part 1
Faith is not a theory, but living in the power of the Spirit.
If you ask me to describe my life, there is really only one word that sums it all up: grace. That thread runs through my entire existence, from my childhood in Rotterdam to where I am now, at the age of 86, in Alphen aan den Rijn.
Youth and roots
I was born in Maastricht in 1939. My parents lived there because of my father’s work at ENCI, the Dutch cement industry. In the 1930s, Rotterdam was in a state of utter poverty. My father’s brother, who already worked at ENCI, said, “There’s plenty of work here, come this way.” And so my parents moved to Limburg, to a house on Mergelweg, right at the foot of Sint-Pietersberg. In front of our house was a large valley with a winding stream—I later saw in photos how beautiful it was.
I was only one year old when we left, so I don’t have any real memories of it. I grew up in Rotterdam-IJsselmonde, in what used to be called the Smeetslandse polder. And what a wonderful childhood that was! I could really enjoy myself in nature. Sometimes I played with friends, but often I went into the polder on my own, to the ‘grinden’ – my personal playground. I was an adventurous little boy; climbing trees and roofs was just part of life.
Once, I climbed a tree and broke a branch. I fell about ten meters like a brick. Fortunately, my foot got stuck between two branches, causing me to dangle a few meters above the ground. I didn’t realize it at the time, but now, in hindsight, I clearly see the hand of the Lord in this. A fall on my head would have been the result.
Family and home
After more than fifty years together, Nellie and I turned our backs on Barendrecht and settled in Alphen aan den Rijn. We lived there for forty years, but lately in an apartment where I simply no longer felt at home.
We found our current single-story house on Chinastraat via the internet. The purchase was quite a hassle at first—there were some bumps in the road—but in the end, everything worked out. After a major renovation, we have been living here for five years now. We are thoroughly enjoying the convenience and have not had a second of regret or homesickness. What a relief!
A conversation that changed everything
After my military service in 1960, I started working at Verolme Machinefabriek IJsselmonde. That was Cornelis Verolme’s company, at the time the largest shipbuilder in Europe. Before my military service, I had already worked there as a fifteen-year-old, after finishing technical school. When I returned, I was assigned to the work preparation department, an administrative position where I had to organize the work for my colleagues.
That’s where I met Piet. He started talking to me about faith. He knew I had been raised as a Christian, but he himself was not and was a member of a Pentecostal church. Those conversations lasted for a while, I think a few years, but his attitude and his opinion about faith triggered me enormously. I started reading the Bible myself. Those conversations made me genuinely interested in what the Bible really says.
At a certain point, I was convinced that what he said was true—as far as you can say that, of course. That convinced me to make the switch from the Reformed church in which I had grown up. My parents remained members there until their deaths. But I joined that same Pentecostal church, then called the Filadelfia Church.
This was a real game changer in my life, a radical conversion, you could say. It was only then that I really began to realize what the gospel truly means. I knew it intellectually before that—it was explained to us—but now it sank much deeper and entered my heart. There, in that church, I grew in my faith. And that’s where I met Nellie.
Break and restoration
The first transition, from the Reformed Church to the Pentecostal church, was the biggest. We are talking about the 1960s, and at that time, there was not much love lost between the Reformed churches and the Pentecostal church. The Pentecostal church was quite outspoken, and the churches were not really happy about that.
It took some effort on my part, especially in the beginning when I still defended the teachings and vision of the church. But the Spirit of God convinced me, and in the end, I made my choice. My parents didn’t like it. When I was baptized—as was customary in the Pentecostal church—my father even got angry. “I already had you baptized,” he said. That was painful for him, but also for me. Our visions were so opposed.
I had to get through that. But later, things worked out. In the beginning, I said to Nellie, “We probably can’t make it clear with words, but let them see it in our lives.” In the way we live. And that’s what happened.
Much later, when my mother died at the age of 94, we searched her house. That’s when I found her family Bible. At the very back was a school magazine, written in my childish handwriting, probably in response to a Christmas story in December 1948: “Jesus is born, Jesus is the boss.” And underneath: “How wonderful the song of the angels sounded.” I was nine years old at the time.
She had cherished it, she had kept it. And I think that means that my parents had a love for the gospel and for me – in their own way. When you’re young, you rebel a little against your parents. But later, not so long ago, I thought: actually, they did shape me. I inherited values and standards from our family, and they are deeply rooted in my soul.
Crossroads and choices
Over the years, I have made more changes. These often arose at times when I had little choice – I was left with no choice, so to speak. The first time was when I was a member of the Pentecostal church. Together with a few others, I led the youth group; that was really my passion and my life. We had a great time and were able to share the message of the gospel there. We taught young people about faith, and they accepted it. A fun youth group had been formed.
One Sunday morning, out of the blue, the pastor said, “From now on, there will be no more youth group on Tuesdays.” I suspect—I can’t prove it—that the pastor didn’t agree with what we were teaching there. At that moment, our work in the church was essentially over. It wasn’t a pleasant moment, especially because of the way it happened.
The vision I developed at that time had to do with the Kingdom of God. By reading books and writings by other teachers, I developed a vision that did not quite match the teachings of the Pentecostal church. In itself, that was not entirely incomprehensible. But through those experiences, I did become stronger in my faith.
The Kingdom of God: reality, not theory
I started exploring what the Kingdom of God actually is at a very early age. When Jesus says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all else will be added unto you,” you can accept that and say with your mind, “Okay, I believe that too.” But I really started to dig into it.
I came to the conclusion that people don’t really realize—at least, most of them don’t—that the Kingdom of God, the spiritual world, is real. That it is reality, and that “spiritual” is not something vague.
When you delve into your faith and are connected to Jesus, the Son of God, you come closer to Him as soon as you receive the Holy Spirit. For me, this happened through baptism with the Holy Spirit, which was accompanied by speaking in tongues.
This had a profound impact on my personal life. It is not just about the Bible, it is also about the way: how do I deal with the Kingdom of God in this life? That has become increasingly important to me over the years.
One of the differences I discovered was that in the church, faith was more theoretical, legalistic knowledge, accompanied by a sense of guilt. This was fed by the theology of the church. But the freedom in which you can live when you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior and Redeemer, the relationship that this creates—that was at odds with the church, where faith was professed with the mind, under the law.
Paul says that if you do that, you are under the law. Then you are not in freedom. And I discovered that freedom: the freedom that is in Christ, as a child of God who lives by the Spirit and no longer by the law.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit
When I became a member of the Pentecostal church, I learned about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of it, speaking in tongues, and healing. When I talked to my father about it, he said, “That’s no longer for this time, that was for the past.” He didn’t believe in it and didn’t make any effort to do so.
I still notice that today: people believe it in the sense of “It’s in the Bible,” but it has not yet sunk into the hearts of every Christian. You can live by faith, and you can live in and through your relationship with the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. They had been warned—the Lord Jesus said, “Stay in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.” They spoke in languages they themselves did not understand, but others heard and understood. That is a special experience that is still experienced in the Pentecostal church.
Only in traditional churches does this not really occur. It is history. It was read about in the Bible, but in the sense of: that was in the past.
Fortunately, today, there are still groups that spread the gospel through evangelism activities. There is a new movement of young people who attend church with enthusiasm. Church services look different than they used to—they cannot be compared to the traditional church. They are more cheerful, with more happy faces.
@Wim van Putten