Our History (submitted by Martin Jurrius)
The ministry's first chaplain, Jeff Dresselhuis was my pastor in
Edmonton (Ottewell) in the mid-60's, and we always remained in close
contact. He and Mien went to Brandon, Man. and then accepted the call
to the Ministry to Seamen (M to S) in 1970.
When my employer moved me to BC in early '73 we bought and settled in
Coquitlam. One of my first calls, once here, was to Jeff and Mien.
Hearing where we were settling Jeff said "do I have a ministry job for
you in nearby Port Moody !" A new house to furnish, retaining walls to
build, and a huge pile of dirt to level and landscape, etc, kept me from
serious involvement until mid-year. My first experience aboard ship
was accompanying ship visitor Bert VanderHeide to a freighter in
Victoria harbor and that visit sold me. Since then I've probably been
on some 400 "floating mission fields", bringing and receiving the
message of God's grace and salvation.
A career change in 1978 curtailed my ship visiting activities
substantially, but by that time Classis BC had struck the M to S
Committee, a standing committee of classis, to supervise the work of
this harbor ministry and its chaplain. Johan Loeve, now of Surrey
Fleetwood CRC, was its first secretary, yours truly its first chair.
Over the years more and more women were aboard the ships, as crew
members and/or officers' wives. Because of that, and perhaps also
because phonetically 'seamen' has another meaning, the ministry was
renamed "Ministry to Seafarers" (still M to S).
Jeff had a real heart for missions, but he also had his own way of
doing ministry, especially wanting to involve as many volunteers as
possible. His vision was to cover every harbor along the BC coast with
volunteer ship visitors, and that pretty well happened. Furthermore, he
recruited volunteers for parcel pick up and/or deliveries, knitters
for warm woolies (toques and socks), gatherers of used magazines from
the airport, annual Cristmas parcel action, and much much more.
I stayed on as committee chair throughout Jeff's remaining chaplaincy
years, until his retirement in 1992. The M to S committee was to look
for his successor, and recommend someone for that position to the (by
then) two BC classes. After an extensive searching process our
recommendation to the churches was that we call pastor Simon (&
Jean) Wolfert of Scarborough, Ont. The classes endorsed that choice,
and the Wolferts arrived here in May '93.
A new broom needs to sweep clean, and I had worked alongside Jeff too
long to not be unbiased towards Simon's new methods and approach. Both
chaplains wanted mission outreach, had similar goals; but they differed
on the "how to get there". Wanting Simon to have a free hand at
ministry, and not wanting to be a hindrance to his vision for developing
the ministry differently, I stayed on for the transitional first 6
months, then bowed out in fall '93.
The Ministry’s current chaplain is Ernst de Vries who was born and raised in The Netherlands immigrating to Canada in 1978.
In 1985, after graduating from Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids,
Michigan (now Kuyper College) he worked as assistant chaplain for a
Summer assignment among crew members aboard the cruise ships in he Port
of Vancouver. Since that time he has always been involved with the
Ministry to Seafarers as a volunteer ship visitor and as Committee
member. In December 2003, Ernst became the Ministry’s third Chaplain to
Seafarers dividing his time between Delta Port and the downtown Port of
Vancouver.
Ernst and his wife Winnie live in Ladner with their 5 children and attend the Ladner Christian Reformed Church.