Workshop speakers

Stefan Vermeulen (Open Doors)
I am Stefan Vermeulen, 61 years old, married for 41 years, and residing in Temse. We have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. I grew up in a positive Christian family in Antwerp. And Heidi, my wife, grew up in Sint-Niklaas, in a pastor’s family. I have been familiar with the BEZ, now Vianova, from childhood, which gave rise to the Bible school in Brussels and has grown into what is now the ETF.

I would like to address your question “what role the Bible plays in our work at Open Doors” in the workshop. I will discuss the role the Bible plays in my personal life during the workshop. Then, I will move on to what OpenDoors is, what OpenDoors does, and the role the Bible plays in OpenDoors’ work and mission. I will mention a few ministries of OpenDoors and the place, the role of the Bible in them. OpenDoors has offices in 25 countries and operates in more than 60 countries worldwide. I believe OpenDoors would not exist without the Bible.

Albert Groothedde (Stichting Messiasbelijdende Joden)
Sometimes it seems as if Christians have forgotten that the New Testament is, first and foremost, a Jewish book. Almost all authors were Jews, lived as Jews, and theologized as Jews. This also applies to the Main Character of the New Testament: Jesus Christ.

In this workshop, I argue and illustrate why it is important for Christians to be aware of first-century Jewish culture. I also introduce some valuable sources that can help theologians better understand the Jewish character of the Bible. In doing so, I will explicitly also draw attention to publications by Messianic Jews that can serve as a bridge between ‘pagan’ Christians and the Jewish language and culture.

The workshop leader is Albert Groothedde. Albert studied Policy and Governance in International Organizations at the University of Groningen and Theology in Apeldoorn, Utrecht, Kampen, and Jerusalem.

After working as a journalist for thirteen years, he worked as a theologian in Jerusalem on behalf of the Center for Israel Studies from 2018-2023. Since December 1st of last year, he has been active as a theological assistant for the Support Messianic Jews Foundation (Stichting Steun Messiasbelijdende Joden). In addition, he is pursuing a master’s degree in theology at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam.

Robert Westerveld (missionary at Ethnos360)
In 1994, my wife Nicole and I traveled to Papua New Guinea to reach an unreached people group with the Word of God. After a short orientation period in the country, the Lord made it clear to us that He wanted to use us among the Yagwoia tribe in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In 1995, we moved to the Yagwoia tribe and began learning the language and culture of the Yagwoia people. After completing our language and culture studies, we began translating the Word of God into the Yagwoia language and creating Bible lessons to teach the people. People came to faith in the first village where we taught, and with them, we began to gather and also teach people in other villages. Thus, churches were formed in those other villages. In 2007, we completed the translation of the New Testament and have been working on translating books from the Old Testament since then. We are now living in the Netherlands and continue to work on translating the books of the Old Testament for the Yagwoia people, spending about six weeks each year in the tribe to check the translation with the believers and spend time with the believers from the various churches in the tribe.

The workshop will focus on Bible translation and Bible education within a population group that has not yet been reached with God’s Word in their language.